Negotiating America's Future

I am a sixty-three year old woman, a partially-disabled registered nurse.  In my life I have cared and provided for my husband, my grandmother, my mother and my father.  They are all dead now.

Less than three years ago I had a career and work that allowed me to pay for my home and living expenses, invest in a 401K, have life and health insurance coverage and a decent car.  It also allowed me to support my family comfortably and plan for the future.  Then the bottom fell out.  I had an accident that caused partial disability which meant I could not keep my great job; my mother developed lung cancer which took two years to kill her; AND the economy completely tanked.

I am only partially employed; my house has been foreclosed and although I am on my fourth attempt to get Wells Fargo to put me in their loan modification program, a sale date has been set for my home; and my younger sister who has severe kidney disease and a back injury, has been forced to come and live with me.  The job I have now pays me less than five hundred dollars a week, but it does give me health insurance.  Come October, I will be covered by Medicare and my company will pay for a supplement.  My sister is on Medicaid Share of Cost and her daughter, my wonderful twenty-five year old niece, has no health coverage of any kind.

All of my adult life I have worked a full-time job and anywhere from one to three part-time jobs.  I have paid taxes and into the social security system.  I have donated  both time and money to charitable works.  I have never complained about having to pay my taxes……..not ever.  Even though money is very tight for us now, I will never abnegate my responsibility.

My political point of view when I was young was very liberal.  As I have aged, I have become more conservative.  Nowadays, I would put myself in the middle of the road and claim a “moderate” position.  Although I have been a registered Democrat for forty-two years, I have always voted my conscience rather than a “party position”.  When the Democrats pulled the stunts they did at the last presidential convention, they lost me.  So, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican.  Rather, I am an American.  I want America to survive and prosper.  I want the land of opportunity back.  I want all of our citizens to have access to decent employment, effective and efficient health care, and the opportunity to make their dreams come true.

What I cannot understand……..what appalls and disturbs me…..even frightens me….. is this bizarre “reverse Robin Hood” concept where people think it is okay to take from the elderly, poor and disabled, to relieve the tax burden of the ultra-rich and big business.  What planet did that come from?  Because no rational human being would think it is morally okay to do that.

The economic problems we have are not the simple issues of a housewife over-spending her budget.  There are occasions when the math is not obvious.  These are complex equations with global impact and only appropriately educated specialists should deal with them.  With all due respect, unless any of you have a doctorate in economics,  a whole lot of experience and NO political party affiliation, you need to leave this problem-solving to others.

We have serious problems in America, but those problems need to be addressed by rational, intelligent, sensible people.  This cannot be about political parties and it so obviously is.  We have all listened with incredulity to the lies from both sides.  It becomes increasingly apparent that you  think the American public is incredibly naïeve and stupid.  There is an old Madison Avenue principle:   It you say it long enough, often enough, and to enough people, it will be accepted as the truth.  That concept may have worked once, but  the internet  exists and through it anyone can access  an incredible and nearly infinite data base.
The public has the ability to self-educate in a way and to a degree it never had before..  Those of you who think you have hit political pay-dirt and expect to leverage your respective parties into permanent positions of power, need to re-think this.

Please…..listen to me carefully………..Do your jobs.  Use good judgment.  Stop trying to win elections with policy.  Seek out and speak the truth.  Exercise reason and temper your decisions with compassion and understanding.  Stop this madness before you destroy America  with your hubris.

Sharma S. Eldridge RN, Writer, and Senior Citizen

The Wisdom of the Sun

It seems somehow appropriate, living in south Florida as I do, to talk about the sun's wisdom.  "What wisdom could there be in a large ball of intensely hot gas?"  You may well ask.  Certainly if that was all it was, probably nothing, but the sun passively renders great services to humankind.  It is integral to photosynthesis which is necessary to most plant life, ergo, food.  It evaporates water from the oceans and returns it to us as fresh rain.  It converts the cholesterol produced by human bodies to vitamin D, an essential nutrient.  Its movements set time......day and night, the seasons.....winter, spring, summer, fall.  All of this benevolence is ignored, of course,  when the sun goes on a rampage and causes drought and human destruction.  The sun is like every other thing that affects us.  It must be taken in moderation.  Therein lies the wisdom.

The Wisdom of Time

Time heals all wounds.  It's just a matter of time.  Time is of the essence.  You have time on your hands.  Time, O good, good time, where did you go?  I think that relative to the cosmos, since our stay is comparatively short, we have a fascination with time......a need to understand it, but mostly to control it.  When we are in pain, we want to speed it up and move on.  When life pleases us, we want to slow time down all the more to savor those wonderful moments.  Alas, we have no ability to manipulate time to our advantage.  It is what it is and as the tent-maker pointed out, it moves on.  The ONLY thing that we can do is learn to pay attention to each, individual moment.....to ignore no single minute in an effort to give greater concentration to another.  Gluttony will not do here.....no great, gulping swallows.   Each bite (or byte...lol) must be savored on the tongue....all flavors identified and appreciated.  Know every nanosecond intimately and well.  Count every moment as a friend to be loved.  Life should be your vocation, your calling, your profession and time is your vehicle.....that which carries you from birth to death.  Know it, care for it, appreciate it.   Death should come as a well-earned nap at the end of an exhausting life.  Time does not leave us behind.  We exist forever, somewhere within the context of Time, whose memory is eternal.

Death and Taxes

Once upon a time it could be said that there were two things we all had to face......death and taxes.  Now we know that if your accountant is clever enough, he will find a way to winkle you out of paying and if you are rich enough, your attorney will be able to keep you out of jail for it.

Death is the only thing we cannot winkle our way out of.  Oh, we may be able to delay the moment for a short time, but now or later we must all face our mortality.  Personally, I am on the short side of middle-age, the point where my goals should be close to achievement, my legacy established and everything readied to allow me to play my way out of my life.....hopefully to the point of exhaustion.  The idea is to meet death during an afternoon nap when I am fatigued from a full day of living on the edge.  Actually, I am not there yet, but I know I need to prepare for it.  Tomorrow......I will do that tomorrow.