Yesterday, it took $70 to fill my gas tank in one of my 80 series, two years ago it took $27. Seems that gas prices are all that people can talk about these days. Turn on social and you are instantly viewing memes, complaints, and a few ignorant posts supporting the administration whose entire campaign was based on “change”. I read their “plan” before voting, all 500 pages so none of the inflated prices, taxes, bills, and direct assaults on middle income earners are a surprise. What surprises me is the number of people who ended friendships and alienated family members that continue today to scream that Biden is wonderful and all the choices made by this administration are not his fault. In a way they are correct, Biden is barely cognitive so as all democratic cities are, the country is being run on a decline by a democratic panel of wealthy, entitled elitists. Biden just mimics what he is told. And that is my opinion, agree or not, I don’t care.
The comprehensive plan published during campaigning outlined taxes on income, savings, inheritance, capital gains, personal equipment, and everything except air which I assume will come next. It talked about taking from one to give to another in the name of equity, and it outlined the need to take, take, take, and give, give, give to those they were polling for votes in the name of justice and equality. The Robinhood syndrome is never fair to anyone. When you work, work, work and never seem to get ahead watching someone else get and not work doesn’t feel very good. I don’t judge because I don’t know but I do know that when I am in a grocery store ready to check out and pay for my carefully chosen groceries taking price into consideration and skipping luxuries and I see someone else with carts full of things I can’t afford paying with government funds, I feel sick. I worked hard so someone else could buy steaks, chips, and processed crap, without worry while I put back a pack of meat for another to save thirty cents.
Yes, today I am ranting. Triggered because someone on social demanded I spend money at a local small business to keep them open without consideration that no one will throw me money to stay afloat when times get hard. I went to this local eatery and was going to buy my favorite sandwich but found the price jumped from $13 to $17 with the explanation that “gas prices caused higher supply prices”, so I walked out and skipped the sandwich and will until prices recede. I enjoy the sandwich and the eatery, but I also distrust the direction the economy is going, and I paid double to fill my gas tank. I’ve always supported small business but in the same token, I’ve always been self-sufficient, and no one has thrown money my way when my wallet emptied, and I am 100% certain these small businesses won’t be handing me money when I am struggling to fill my tank. I do hope they survive; we need them, we need options, and we need those jobs.
When I see people praising the current administration because they are not the former administration, I want to slap them. Are they so brainwashed that they can’t see the older veteran in the store choosing between his medications and eating? I did. Not only did I see him trying to figure out which one of 10 items to put back to pay for his food, I stepped up and handed the clerk $2 to cover the deficit and quietly walked back into line because I did not want him to say thank you and I did not want him to feel embarrassed. I also did not step up for the change, I ignored that so he wouldn’t have to face me.
Do people not see the homeless woman sleeping in a ditch behind Walgreens covered with newspaper? I did. So, I stopped and gave her a brand-new comforter to keep her warm. I did not stay and talk, I just wanted her to be warm.
Do people not see the single parent driving a car that looks like it is about to fall apart with bald tires and rattling exhaust? If this single parent can’t afford a car with a windshield, how do you expect them to pay three times as much for fuel as they did 2 years ago, does money magically appear?
This administration says they will ban Russian oil, great, that oil must be replaced and banning it raises prices from other resources. Gas may reach $6 per gallon our President says, but we will have to deal with it. What he really means is suck it up, we are going to hit you harder.
How much can the struggling family working multiple jobs, barely scraping by take? Seniors who have worked their entire lives are tired. They have paid into a system to help care for others that isn’t reciprocating when they need it. An elderly woman in the area near my workplace had her pup of 13 years up for adoption because “I can’t afford dog food anymore and I want her to be loved and well kept, she is my best friend and my baby, please help find my baby a good home”. Why should a woman of 80 struggle to feed a 10 lb dog? Is this the person that our President wants to “deal” with extreme costs? I doubt that he would be interested in providing dog food, but I did, and I do.
That military veteran who was removed from his rental because they raised the rent so high, he could not stay needed a few hundred dollars for a security deposit on another tiny apartment, was our government there to assist him? No, but I did. I gave him a little so that he could remain warm, safe, and housed.
I watched a woman in front of a grocery store complain about “these people” as she passed a homeless man, who was just standing near the carts to be under cover and out of the rain. He didn’t ask her for anything, he just nodded as she walked by. When I stopped and asked him if he needed anything, she said “you are the reason these people stay here, stop enabling them, he is dangerous.” I’ve seen this man near this location for 5 years and not once has he ever asked for anything nor threatened me. The worst he has done is say hello. He has plastic bags tied overtop his dilapidated sandals, tears in his clothes, and uses plastic bags to carry his belongings. I occasionally buy him a treat when I shop or offer to buy food, but he usually declines. She would be very unhappy to know that I see her as the dangerous party and not him. Do people not understand that he is human? He is a military veteran, a former business owner who grew up very poor and learned to live with little.
I am not nor will I ever be an elitist nor a democrat. I will never be the person who tunes out others so that I will not feel bad about their circumstances, and I will always be a person to help if I have the means. I’ve seen what life can do to a person, and I’ve seen what a little help can do.
I do not hate democrats, nor do I hate our president, in fact, I pity both. To feel that “acceptable losses in the middle- and lower-income brackets” (verbatim from the “plan”) are just a shrug on the way to a fancy luncheon is to be someone who has not experienced all the good in those brackets. It is also a sign that deep down, these elitists have a swiss cheese soul. I will never live in a mansion, drive a million- dollar car, have millions in the bank and will never feel I am better then most but I am ok with that. My soul is whole, and I have faith that a higher power is watching as I see things that many miss. Life can slap you from the top to the bottom in a matter of minutes. At any point you may become that homeless man or woman, that elderly veteran who can’t afford a $2 carton of milk, or that sweet senior who can’t afford a 3 lb bag of dog food but wouldn’t you like to know that when that time comes that someone like me is willing to help you even if just a little?
Our government can do better. If they can give and care for every country in conflict, they can give and care for our own people. War is tragic but it has always existed.
Our society can do better. Individually we can see things and improve them. I’d much rather buy a bag of dog food for someone who lives alone then eat a fancy meal out. Rant over, but I will ask you today as you go out into public spaces to pay attention and see what is really happening.
I will also ask you to stop stepping over people and help them up. I am asking you to SEE THEM and if you have the means, to help even a little, often it doesn't take much. Just knowing that someone sees them and that they are not alone in this big ole world can make all the difference.
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