There Will Be No Christmas Presents This Year..

This holiday season do yourself a favor-don't buy into it.
Who says Christmas a'la Santa has to be celebrated on December 25th?
I am going to start a tradition at my house-Christmas is in March.
I am going to buy my presents in January when sales are slow.
We will put up our tree in March.
In the meantime, we are going to celebrate the religious holiday by honoring only those religions which practice non exclusivity, teach  and practice kindness, love and concern for humanity . We will seek out religious practices which do not make up their own rules of condemnation-choosing who in this world, according to religion, is "bad" and who is :"good".
I wonder if Jesus wants our world to continue honoring him in the way in which we have transformed him?
According to christians in the US, all should worship him on the dollar bill, in schools, and in public. No other religion should be allowed the same freedom. No other form of deity should be recognized. In fact, it is Satan who planned these diversions from the "true" religion.
Now isn't that just like America?
To consider themselves so special that only they have the right to dictate others religious beliefs as right or wrong?
March. Tree. Santa.

Workforce Investment Act Wastes Billions of Dollars-Still No Jobs

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) provides increased flexibility for state and local officials to establish broad-based labor market systems using federal job training funds for adults, dislocated workers and youth-


Recently 500 million dollars was added for unemployed adults to obtain training and education. Another 50 million was added for unemployed youth ages 17-22. Is it working? 


Millions of dollars are being provided to states to help the unemployed find jobs, pay for education or training and or relocation fees for those who find employment in another region of the US.


But what really happens to that money? Some people are actually assisted . So many unemployed US citizens and so few jobs.
The Tampa Tribune recently did a little digging and you can read the article here-http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/23/tampa-bay-workforce-alliance-spends-20000-food


We need to start asking where this money is going?
This article is a drop in the bucket compared to the waste going on in our country of these WIA dollars. 


Questions to be asked?


Who are on the Workforce boards?
How many of these businesses are benefitting from these relationships?
How many people are actually employed vs the dollars allocated to states?
What are the qualifications and competencies of those hired to assist the unemployed and how successful are they at placing individuals?
Who are the individuals recruiting jobs for the regions and how successful are they at placing individuals in positions?
How are employees at Workforce treated? What is the turnover rate? 


Workforce should be the shining star in employment!
Unfortunately, the turnover, the low wages and poor benefits for the employees actually doing the work result in high turnover and low employee morale.
Many Workforce locations hire temporary workers through Kelly, pay no  sick time, holidays, or insurance benefits
.One catastrophe, such as a sick family member, a need for time off for funeral or a business matter creates a financial problem.
Many of these temporary workers qualify for food stamps.


Is this the best we can do for our country??
Those dollars could create jobs .
They are wasted -
and as usual, end up in the pockets of those who already have rather than those who are in need.

Lobbyists vs United States Citizens-Buy USED!!

 "President Obama's special counsel for ethics and government reform Norm Eisen announced that the administration no longer wanted federally-registered lobbyists appointed to agency advisory boards and commissions."
And it is about damn time.
Faster, quicker, how about NOW?
This "too big too fail" mantra gave Big Business the green light to keep screwing the American people.
Citizens are convinced if we don't bail out big business we lose jobs.
Wel, we bailed them out-
and the unemployment rate is 13%.
I want to know who out there believes Big Business Corporations are staying up nights fretting and handwringing over the millions of unemployed?
I say buy used!
We have enough product out there we can all sell to one another for the next ten years and then some.
Buy used. A small thing-but one we can control.
Quit buying big business products, let them suffer. Wall Street let us down. Let them down.

Why I Need Public Health Care

When did health care become a privilege for the upper class in the United States?
Did I miss some critical societal change in the past 56 years of my life working full time for someone else?
Last week a friend of mine took her husband to outpatient surgery to have a tumor removed from his back. The Doctor's office would not do it unless she paid fifteen hundred dollars up front.
She borrowed some from her daughter and he had the tumor removed.
Two days later he complained of chest pain and numbness in his arm. The debated whether to take him to the emergency room.
Can you imagine that?
They had all these other bills from his surgery and didn't have any money for additional care.
SHe took him to the emergency room. He was admitted.
She came to work after the night in the hospital. She had to leave him there to come to work because we work for a temp agency.
You see it saves corporations a lot of money f they use a temp agency rather than hire and pay full time
benefits. She could not afford to miss another day.
The hospital called her at the office and told her they would not do a stress test on him unless she came to the hospital and paid four hundred dollars.
He has insurance but the agency he works for chose a 2,000. deductible.
I have no insurance. I keep getting tachycardia  and irregular heartbeats. I can't go to the Doctor at all. I have no money. I make just enough to keep me off Medicaid. I could just quit my job, apply for medicaid, cash assistance and food stamps. I would have good health coverage, then.
Oh! I have an MSW and a teaching license. The first year I can't find a job.

Pig Out Day In America

250 million turkeys were raised in the US in 2009-weighing in at about 4.5 billion dollars.
An average of 13.8 pounds of turkey are eaten by Americans each year.
709 millions pounds of cranberries have been raised in the US in 2008. 1.8 billion pounds of sweet potatoes.
1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins have been grown in the US
65% of American people are overweight in America. Obesity in children has tripled since the 1980's.

The map above displays the states with the fattest people.

We Americans love overindulgence. We love the big, the better, the first, the best, the largest, the lowest, the dumbest, the first..
Our TV is full of realities dumbest, fattest, ugliest, 
Our favorite book is the Guinness Book of World Records.


We roll in our own.
If we go down blazing, it will the biggest, fattest, ugliest, meanest, sorriest, most awesome trailblazin' mess the world has ever seen.
We Americans love that stuff!
Enjoy your stuff-fest
By God, enjoy it...

Applying For Teaching Jobs With PATS-Just A Suggestion

Paperless Applicant Tracking System (PATS)


PATS seems to be a universal software preferred by school districts in the state of Florida and many other states.
It takes at least an hour to complete. It also requires many downloads of documents.
Connecting PATS software into a state wide software site would sure make it easier to apply for jobs.
A teacher could enter all the data into one place and when applying online at a school district, the application could be pulled, updated if necessary and submitted.
It would save hundreds of hours and probably streamline the application process for the districts.

Of course, PATS would lose a lot of money on the software-but they wouldn't need to-they could charge the districts for it and a small fee for connecting to the common application site.

Veteran's-We are not a Reality Show

The Vietnam War kept my cousin. It also kept a few friends of mine from high school and a boyfriend who just disappeared after he returned from his draft stint.
I spent two years in Germany working huge mainframe computers, eventually a short stint in Military Intelligence.
The Vietnam War is famous -our country turned on many of the men who returned from that hellhole war. Men who did not want to be there in the first place. People called them baby killers, spit on them. Men returned to the states and many have spent the rest of their lives fighting with those demons that came back with them-the ones in their minds. Vietnam Vets have never really been honored for the sacrifices they made. This was a not a war anyone but politicians wanted. It took years of shouting for the government to listen to the American people.

Starting with Bush, no pretending was necessary-Donald Rumsfeld understaffed the Iraqi invasion and George Bush pretended it was over months after the intial invasion.
Now we have men fighting in two countries oversears, dying in two countries, overseas, and I ask why??

Don't give me the history garbage of military strategy, how important it is to "fight" for democracy. Stand up for others..
Our imposition of our own ideals is every bit as repressive and invasive as any dictatorial regime.
The call for Manifest Destiny is the biggest farce of all-who chose us? We did!

While we yell about other countries violating humans rights we have become a nation that locks teen agers up for life, uses the death penalty and have violated human rights with arrest and imprisonment without charges, a right to an attorney or the ability to face accusers. George Bush started prisons in other countries in which CIA operatives would abduct "suspects" from a country and take them to the prisons.

If we aren't Stalinesque in our approach to law enforcement, we sure are a story right out of Twilight Zone.

The countries in blue are those that do not use the death penalty. Those in green have laws on the books but do not use it. Those in the dark red not only use it but will kill individuals under the age of 21.
If you notice most civilized countries do not use the death penalty.

Our boys are fighting this war. Our boys, mostly poor,of color. They go to war because it is all they know to do, and they hope to be recognized with honor.
It is very much like having a parent who never shows love. Young men, disenfranchised, unemployed, mainly men of color, looking for the approval of a nation which will never recognize the sacrifices.
Sadly, the approval doesn't seem to come. Many die.
I have been around long enough to watch one to many wars. There is no justifiable reason to kill in this civilized world. Not one.
Our young men, mostly boys when recruited, deserve better.. They desrve a promise and a hope from us, that we, as Americans will do right by our boys

But we don't. do we? Our country is so full of itself and our  ability to top another's "suffering" we don't get out of our "National narcissism" to recognize the sacrifices made by our men and women in the Armed Forces.
President Obama,
keep showing the body bags. Those dead soldiers are mama's little boys, all grown up, they  are husbands and daddies, brother, sister, cousin, niece, nephew and boyfriend, loved dearly.
Don't allow our country to keep the consequences of these deadly wars hidden.
War isn't part reality show.
It is reality. Real suffering, loss and pain. It is "real reality"
.