A Nurse's Journey » Government

My look Back at 2009

Lillie — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:11:47 +0000

I am going to take a last look at some of the events of 2009 that have affected me. As an African American, I have to first and foremost mention the election of a Black man, Barack Obama, to the world’s most prestiges position, as president of these United States of America. I, like most people in my age group, would have thought it would not have happened in our lifetime.

I don’t think that ten years ago I would have thought that we would see our country during my lifetime go into such a state of economic depression. I had read that there were hard times in the 80’s. But having a husband in the military and me being employed in nursing, where the work was steady plus overtime was easy to come by, I never felt it. I had self insulated myself by throwing myself into caring for my kids and work. I knew little of what was going on that did not involve my family. Now that I am retired an on a fixed income, and with other hits in our money belts, my family has for the first time had to look at what money buys for survival. Nursing never made me rich but it did provide nicely for my family.

Then there were loss of people who I had looked at from the world of entertainment. It makes me sad to think I will not see anything new and fresh from them again!

Michael Jackson, who danced and sang his way into our lives, left us too soon and sadly needlessly. Then there Patrick Swayze who I adored. His grace when dancing was beyond belief. And he fought such a brave fight against cancer while in front of the public. Then there was the sudden death of Naomi Sims. What little Black girl didn’t remember seeing her in magazines? We had never seen such grace and felt such pride. Even when she retired she proved she was not just a pretty face she was a savvy businesswoman as well.

Ted Kennedy death made me feel sad. Because besides his many achievements in politics, he was on of the last vanguards of the Kennedy core.

The year 2009 has made great changes in my core families health. My son has had to deal with kidney failure. As a nurse I had some idea what was involved in the care of the patient. But living with it brought home the full force of the changes it would make in the family. The positive side has been learning what a brave man my son is.

My daughter has been such a blessing to both my son and myself. She is showing what a caring person she is. She is so observant. Without her we would both be in world of trouble.

A pleasant surprise has been going to my orthopedic doctor. I gave him my list of complaints and having him take me serious. He gave me medication that has really helped. YIPPEE, I really feel good better than I have felt in twenty years. Right now I have my life back!!!

These are just a few things that as I look back on 2009, I can ponder about and hope that 2010 will be bigger and better for us all.

Happy New Years everyone!

Player haters at it again

Lillie — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:47:21 +0000

With all the e-mail I get, I have figured out that you can tell a lot by what people send you. An acquaintance that I once had high regards for has made it her job to send me negative things about President Obama. The latest being the cost of his date night with his wife.

This e-mail outlined the cost of his security force, before during and after the date. It also detailed the cost of everything else. Yes it was high priced but I have this question. Don’t we have to pay for protecting the President and the first lady whether their name is Ford, Regan, Bush, or yes Obama? If its date night or a speech with leaders of other countries, they still need to be protected. Think something can’t happen. President Lincoln just wanted a night out at the theater with his wife and was assassinated!

These people who have so much time to count the money needed to keep the president safe should take time to join some groups that work toward making the country safe from people who make the need for all this security necessary.

Player haters take a break. Your noise is getting sickening!

The ACLU Sucks

Lillie — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:28:08 +0000

I received an email that showed a large group of Marines heads bowed in prayer. Boy did that bring out that group of religion hating people at the ACLU. Federal employees are going to war, leaving their families, jobs, and losing their lives, so this scourge of the earth can say what they want have the nerve to say when and where they can pray.

This country was built by people who have a strong belief in God and now we have to bow down to those that think it is all right to take God out of our country. No prayer in school. And God help us if you have a Christmas pageant on school grounds! There is no end to the way the ACLU will go to protect less acceptable things. But when it come to religion they come out like a pack of starved pit bulls.

Here in San Diego they have been fighting the community to have a cross taken down because it is a religious symbol even though the voter’s have voted to keep it more than once.

We need to take back our country. When does the minority rule? We need to put the ACLU on notice we can not allow them to cause this country to go down into the depths of hell.

Made in America revisited

Lillie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:30:35 +0000

If you have a computer then you have email. Some are inspirational, some are funny, and then there are the ones that make you think.

If you have been reading my blog then you will remember that I wrote on this subject a long time ago. It was titled Made in America .

We, the American public, are a group of retarded sheep. We are lead by the nose with the promise of cheap prices and a high profit margin. We have allowed China, a country with no respect for life, to harm our pets, children, and insidiously help kill our economy, with not even a raise of an eyebrow or a whimper.

I received an email that asked for each of us during the time period of June 4 to July 4 to read the doggone labels and if a product comes from China to put it back on the shelf. Take a little time to help take back and put jobs back in our country. If we don’t do something soon we are going to wake up and find that America as we know it is no more.

Get a grip people! Our forefathers fought for our rights and I am sure that they are turning over in their graves seeing what weak kneed, lily livered people we have become! Take a stand! Our money STILL talks and speaks with a big stick.

What will it take

Lillie — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:43:05 +0000

I think I am a fairly intelligent person. But I would hope the people we have in office would be smarter. I must be wrong. We have all watched products coming out of China causing harm to humans and pets. The latest product to be of questionable safety is drywall. Supposedly the reason we are getting drywall from China is because of the shortage due to the construction work needed to rebuild Louisiana after Hurricaine Katrina. The drywall material is said to give off a bad smell and people complain of feeling so ill they no longer want to live in their homes.

We all remember the pet food debacle. Pets in the United States are not just animals. They are a part of our family and we want quality foods for them. Not food that will kill them. Where was the tainted food shipped to us from? Where else? China!

Next is the shipping of the drug Heparin. Heparin is a blood thinner and is used for people after surgery, dialysis, and when patients are bedridden to prevent blood clots. The Heparin from China has caused allergic reactions as well as death. The FDA can be blamed for this. They did not inspect the production plants where the Heparin was made due to a bureaucratic mix up. The drug is made in bits and pieces at what was described as small shops and did not seem to be monitored as it would be in the USA.

By no means should we forget all the toys that have been recalled because of the lead paint built into them. Lead in high levels can cause brain swelling, convulsions, and even death. In lower levels, it can cause intellectual problems, deficit problems, and hyperactivity problems.

Why don’t we see these are not just chance happenings? Why must we buy things from a country that has so little respect for life that things they produce kills or maims the user? Is the bottom line money? Is it so important that we forget the safety factor?

Not to be paranoid but didn’t Khrushchev say he would bury us from the inside? What better way would there be to take us over than to cripple us with things we buy from China?

Surprise Surprise: A litter of babies revisited

Lillie — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:52:38 +0000

The recent birth of eight babies to an unemployed, unmarried mother receiving public assistance, brought out anger in me to a level I try to avoid.

How can it be justified that a mother with six other children, from seven to two years old, needed anymore kids? Why should we, the taxpayers, be saddled with her bills? This woman is unstable. She has admitted to years of neurosis because she was an only child and thought she needed babies to fill the void. Good reason, Huh!

This woman was artifially inseminated by some unethical doctor alleged to have been Dr. Michael Kamrava. I want to know who paid for the cost of the fertility medications? The medical procedures? The doctor’s visits? Was the doctor offered a cut of the windfall she hoped to get? She is now asking for donations to support her kids. No! Don’t reward bad, IRRESPONSIBLE, behavior!

Am I advocating letting harm come to these kid? Of course not! Remember folks, one day these 14 children will become adults UNLEASHED on the world. So we ALL have a vested interest in how this turns out! But I don’t think she should fall into a gold mine for having this litter of babies.The grandmother is even at odds with her daughter about having these babies.

Am I saying we should regulate how many babies you should have? NO! If you are able to support them and not look for a handout later, have as many children as YOU CAN CARE FOR. It’s time we put our foot down. If you want to have fourteen kids then YOU support them. Not the taxpayers!

This woman is in a world that is not based in reality. She is saying that she will go back to school to get her degree. Get real! You won’t have a minute to brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, or read the newspaper, much less going to school AND studying! That FANTASY is out of the question. Or are you going to ask us taxpayers to give you babysitting money too?

Naydia Suleman, you are not my favorite person because you are a child abuser, a thief, and an unstable con woman. I hope others will see you for what you are and all the money you thought would come pouring in will dry up like dew in the Sahara dessert!

Why Work?

Lillie — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:26:21 +0000

If you have read some of my earlier posts, you know that I have worked long and hard for many years as an RN. Most of the time I would pull overtime and worked parttime selling Amway, Herbalife, and stockings to fellow nurses. I even collected aluminum cans and had a small paper route. What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? I say all of this to let you know that I have put a lot of money into the system. In fact my daughter once said while looking at my check stub if she could just keep the taxes I paid she would not have to work.

Now that I am retired and living on social security, I can’t get the help I need due to all the restraints placed on me. I need a motorized scooter. Because of the bone cancer that required metal parts in my right arm to save it from being amputated, I am unable to use a regular wheelchair. My doctors say I need one, but my Medicare carrier, Kaiser, has made it cost prohibitive on my now limited budget.

The chair would cost me anywhere from $600.00 to $1800.00 dollars. This I could pay. But I would need a lift for my car and they demand I build ramps for the one step down to the kitchen and to my bedroom. Where did I go wrong? I have met others like the young lady in the market the other day. She needed a chair this I will admit, but she could not use hers which was $10,000.00 And she got it for free! Why was she not using it? She moved to an upstairs apartment.

Where is the fairness in this? Am I going to continue being a prisoner in my own house? Will stimulus money help me get what I need? Only time and God knows. But until then I will keep asking why work? Why pay all of the taxes I paid into the system for some 46 years? Because I have found that you can’t get help when you need it.

Profit over Safety

Lillie — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 02:53:34 +0000

How many times in a country where the knowledge of food safety is readily available to companies, does the recall of tainted foods have to go on? These unsafe foods cause sickness, and yes death. This is unacceptable!

Right now we are in the throes of having one of societies best loved foods, Peanut Butter, recalled due to 508 cases of illness and eight deaths. And one family pet was also a victim.
The company that is responsible is Blakely Georgia Company. I watched the television interview of a young man fired for whistle blowing about the filth found in the plant. He stated that there were often rat droppings around and that the roach problem was huge. He also stated that he saw a rat roasted with the peanuts. For reporting this, he lost his job. The company had been cited for past infractions of cleanliness problems but failed to clean up their act.

Why was nothing done? Was it a case of having to spend too much money to solve the problem or was it just a case of indifference? Whatever the reason, the penalties should be stiff and swift. No small monetary fine is appropriate. Maybe a charge of attempted murder would make it more real to do the right thing!

Peanut butter is the stable of young children everywhere as well as older fok who don’t want to cook. This same group of people are the ones whose systems can’t take the onslaught of an attack of Salmonella.

There has got to be a better way to make sure companies are not killing those we love. Hire more inspectors and shut down plants that don’t make the grade.

The Second Time Around

Lillie — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:36:36 +0000

We have all heard this refrain but when it comes to talking about raising your grandchildren, its not so great. Many baby boomers are finding themselves in the position of having to take up the slack and raise their grandkids, left by their children, for a laundry list of reasons. Some of the reasons include, but not limited to, divorce, legal matters, and substance abuse. The 2000 census stated that 5.5 million grandparents are raising them with 2.5 million having sole custody of their grandchildren. I am aware of many cases but below is one case that I have intimate knowledge of. These kids are one of the lucky ones.

I have a friend that had two hours to decide whether to take in his grandkids or leave them to the system. Being the kind person that he is, and there being no other option, he brought them in. My friend had just retired from two careers and is set financially. He had planned on traveling and doing all the things you dream of doing while working. Then came three little ones. A three month old, a two year old, and a three year old. A handful for a young person, but a daunting task for a 63 year old man.

Bottles, diapers, and manners training is left to this sweet, darling man. He has rose to the occasion and should be awarded a medal for his efforts. He also has to deal with all the red tape that’s thrown at you when are in this position. Everything you do is studied under the system’s magnifying glass. He is having to jump through the system’s hoops, just to keep his grandchildren from going into the system and becoming another statistic. The only thing that makes it bearable is seeing the youngsters thrive under loving care sprinkled with kind discipline. These grandkids are the lucky one. Others don’t fare so well.

Grandparents are often trying to stretch an already limited budget and their waning physical strength, takes a toll on them. There is no present answer for this problem but hopefully this administration can help with needed financial help and other resources.

To all the grandparents finding themselves in this catch twenty two. Keep the faith and be strong. You will be rewarded in the long run and your grandchildren will be better people because of it!

What Can Happen In America

Lillie — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:46:10 +0000

On January 20, 2009, the cold and the wind failed to damper the spirits of BILLIONS of people all over the world, as our forty-fourth President was sworn into office.

The city of Washington D.C., and the world, had a feeling of hope and promises to be met, as this man of vision came into power. A position that could not have been imagined just a few short decades ago.

President Barack Hussein Obama stood before us and asked for our help in bringing our country back to its former glory. American citizens have seen their homes vanish and their paychecks go up in a puff of smoke as their jobs were outsourced, or lost altogether as companies failed. President Obama has promised that if we work together we will come out of this dilemma. It will not be easy and we will all have to make sacrifices and pull together but it will be done.

The American people have been spoiled in our land of plenty. But deep in our fiber is strength forged from the struggles of many cultures that came to this great country and this is what President Obama called on to help him raise us up to the Super Power we once were.

He also let it be known that he is a man of peace and would not take the road of the last president. But nevertheless, he stated he would protect this country. Anyone looking into that kind man’s face only had to look a little deeper to know that these were not threats or beating of the chest. They were but a promise as stated years ago, “Don’t tread on us.”

The old, the young, Black, White, Asian, and Native American, Gay and Straight, all came and saw the leader who for the first time in many years, brings us a promise of hope for the future.

Only time will tell what the outcome will be. But give the American people hope and we will turn it into a reality! We always have.

He Had A Dream

Lillie — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:09:59 +0000

January 15, 2009 will be the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. This was a man of vision and fighter for the civil rights for a race of people who had long been denied the basic freedom because of the color of their skin. His struggle was won through civil disobedience and other non violent methods, including boycotts. He led the march in Selma, Alabama, and throughout the south. Every Black Person and most Whites, remember, read, or have heard of his great “I Have a Dream” speech. (You can see the video of the speech here). These words have become a mantra for people in many nations, who have long been denied the right to become first class citizens in a land that promises with open arms freedom to all.

As we celebrate his birthday, could he have envisioned what will happen on January 19, 2009? A Black man in the White house? Barrack Obama will be sworn into office and will lead this great country. People all over the world will watch with great interest as this country will at last fulfill its promise of equal rights to all.

Martin as you look down on us your dream has been realized a millions of times over!

A Year To Remember … or Forget!

Lillie — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:06:16 +0000

Father Time

Each person will reflect on the passing year with their own intellect and emotions.

Being a person who sometimes feel too much, I will first remember the great pride I feel when I think of our new president, Barack Obama. I also feel fear for the same reason. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, along with Malcom X, can look down and tell us what evil walks this world when good people come into power and have the possibility to make a great difference.

We have lost some people who have been around so long that they were not only famous but icons in our society. Eartha Kitt, Van Johnson, Isaac Hayes, Bernie Mack, Suzanne Pleshette, Cyd Charisse, Roy Scheider, Charlton Heston, Richard Widmark, George Carlin, Sydney Pollack, Ivan Dixon, Harvey Korman, Estelle Gettys, Bo Diddly, Ike Turner and many others who will never be seen again except on reruns. And will salads ever taste the same without Paul Newman? Then there was also a modern day sleeping beauty that no Prince Charming found the time to kiss and wake up, Sunny Von Bulow.The world is in a financial crisis that no one saw coming. People who thought they had worked and built up a nest egg in Real Estate has seen it sink faster than the Titanic.

WallStreet has had so many ups and mostly downs that it looks like a basket ball in the hands of Dwaynne Wade. People who were put in charge of keeping our financial instutions in order acted like they were one the opposing team and sent them to the discard pile. People with stocks and bonds have seen them disappear faster than anyone could ever imagine.

Prices soared to the point that new words have to be made up to explain the situation. Staycation is a word for those of us stuck at home during the summer. My daughter HILARIOUSLY reminded me that we, Black people, have been experiencing Staycation for a long, LONG, time.

This may all sound black and gloomy but remember it is darkest before the dawn. We have our new president, Barack Obama, who has promised that he will get us out of this mess even if it isn’t overnight. I believe the American people will stand behind him and bring this great country back to a place of pride.

New Year everyone! We will survive and conquer rising to greater rewards!!

Wake me because I must be dreaming!

Lillie — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 18:22:01 +0000

Today I wake up in a country that has chosen to elect a Black man to the highest position in the country if not the world, president of the United States of America.

I have in years before not taken to worrying about politics. But this year I listened and wondered if this country that I love with its many faults, could or would put a Black man in office. As I sat glued to the television and watched as the returns came in, I kept waiting for something to go wrong.

I lived in the day of segregation and riding in the back of the bus. Of not being able to sit down and have lunch at a lunch counter after shopping in that same store. I had to drink out of water fountains labeled “colored.” And yes in high school, our band had to be last in the Xmas parades.

Today we have a man of color in the Whitehouse!!! Our first lady is obviously Black and she did not come in the back door but on the arm of a regal, smart, and honest man. This family is now the face of America and people all over the world will now know that the American dream can come true. You can become anything you strive to be if you work hard in America.

Barrack congratulations! May your next four years be a success and may history not only speak of you as the first Black man to become president, but as a great president that brought a county back from the brink of disaster.

Act now or regret it later

Lillie — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:38:38 +0000

Each election is important but it has been a long time since one will mean the life or death of our way of life as we know it.

Look around us what do we see? In California those of us who bought houses and thought we had built up nice healthy equalities to be tapped into in time of crisis are left with nothing but bitter thoughts. Renters are not faring any better because rents have increased due to higher demand from those displaced by the mortgage fiasco.

Change you can believe in. A leader you can believe in. Get to know the essence of the man who will lead us out of this mess.

Can we really have a say in what happens? You bet your life we can. We had better get out and vote. We need someone to get our country back to the Superpower we once were. Not the warmongering people that are pouring money down the drain and leaving our schools and healthcare systems in disaray.

Don’t know the issues. Start listening to the news and watch the debates to become better informed. This time make them know that we as a people have a sayso in this country’s future.

Stand up and be counted or you will live to regret it.

Death by Emergency Room care or lack there of

Lillie — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:14:53 +0000

More and more stories are coming to light of the deaths of people being brought to emergency rooms where they die. Two of the latest cases have been patients in the ER who were there for long periods of time and nobody went to see about their needs. Both patients were psychiatric patients and both seemed to be dishelved and unkempt, but is this a reason to loose your life?

Emergency rooms are often the only way some patients can be seen by medical staff since more and more doctors are no longer taking Medical or its equalancy The wait is often long but where is the triage? Patients needing swift care should get it regardless of their less than stellar hygiene.

I have made mentioned of our hospitals here in San Diego where the wait can be up to six or more hours. This is inhumane and dangerous.

What can be done about this backlog of patient care and cut down the time spent in ERs? A good start would be for the government to pay doctors a reasonable amount of money so the indigent patient can get good health care.

How can we do this? Well a good start would be to stop spending money on war where there is no return for the money. Two, stop sending money to other countries and use it for Americans on American soil. Care for our poor and sick NOW!