Recently I posted my story pertaining to the Occupy Wall Street/ We are the 99%. Through a spirited and hopefully friendly debate I have been reminded of somethings and also have been able to evaluate my feelings.
First of all I have been reminded that no matter how hard the struggles have been for me and those close to me there is always the positive. I have noticed that in most of the 99% stories the posters are forgetting to acknowledge the positive that they have going on. For example my dear cousin Amy pointed out that those posting might seem better to connect to if they would post something such as "Lost my job, have medical debt but at least I am able to live healthy because of the treatment I received" or "Lost my job and am struggling but because I am unemployed I am able to spend time with my family more" these are just examples of how she would have liked to see the stories. I have to say that I agree with her. I am not going to repost my stories (you can read them in the last blog post if you like). I am going to state that I do have much to be thankful for even through the struggles. Because of my husbands employer I was able to receive health insurance, although not covering mental health I was lucky enough to have a medical pay card to help with those expenses. Also I have a doctor who is very kind and allows me a break in cost. Also even though the position was not something I was happy with I was able to find employment to help with bills. Michael and I never really had to give up any luxuries but we always knew that if we did it would only make us stronger in the end. We faced struggles as newlyweds but those have made us a stronger couple and have laid the ground work of how we will manage if bigger hardships come our way. I want to thank my cousin for reminding me that it is not always bad that there is still good in the bad.
On a second note another cousin of mine (who happens to be Amy's husband) reminded me and through debate encourged me to evaluate the attitude of majority of the 99%. After thinking about this and removing myself from the initial emotion I can see the entitlement attitude of many of the protesters/ 99%ers. Many of them want to "whine" about their hardships and want the government to change it for them without taking responsibility. I know that there are others stories of those that are struggling, and taking responsibility for their circumstances. I only wish that more of those stories would be shared because I think those are the examples that we need to see. There are many government programs that need to be evaluated to help stop the cycle of dependence on others for your well being. There are also other programs that probably need more funding, or at least the funding they should be getting. I think that veterans funding, and that for our elderly and disabled need to be looked at so that those who really need it are helped. It seems that there are more and more people who could and are able to do for themselves are depending on aide, and those that can't are to proud or unable to get aide. Again I would like to thank my cousin for pointing this out and having that discussion with me.
On one final note, and this one is a bit political and very opinionated. I believe that there needs to be a change in the political voting system that we have. It seems that the parties have become so polarized that there is not middle ground and in the end the American people are suffering. I wish that there were at least 3 more parties. One of those being people that are moderately economically conservative and socially liberal and those that are moderately socially liberal and economically conservative, and finally those that are moderate on social and economic issues. I feel that I am moderate on some social issues and moderate on some economic issues. Due to the 2 party system I tend to choose the liberal party because there tend to be more ideals that I agree with, I won't go into that here because I do not want to stir further debate or offend anyone. I am also moderate on economic policy because I feel that there are parts of the government that are way to overly funded but other parts that could stand to have more funding, or at least not have their funding taken away.
Again I am thankful to have family members that are open to opinions and respect those opinions of others. I wish that there were more people like that. I hope that those young and old will stand in 2012 to vote for change, I would hope that both parties would make an attempt to be more moderate so that someone can vote on a wider range of issues.
On that note I am signing off feeling more educated and well informed. Also I feeling very thankful for what I have.
No comments:
Post a Comment