The Truth is Scary

I'm starting to avoid watching the news. It's just too depressing. We all know how messed up everything is out there. Job losses, home losses, folks with no health care and no place to live...people willing to work but there are no jobs.

My family and I are doing okay for now but it's hard to relax and it's hard not to worry when you see what's happening to other folks. At least once a week I hear of a murder/suicide where money troubles is mentioned as a possible motive. To lose your life or take another is senseless yet I understand the immense pressure one can feel when you are about to lose everything. The worry, the fear, the sleepless nights and the desperation. And what happens when you have done everything right and you still can't find your way out of the situation?

I reached a point one time. My husband had been unemployed for over 10 months and we were almost through our savings. I was working but my client had not paid me and her company shut down owing me over $20,000. I was wrecked with worry and trying to find other work and find a way to keep what we had. After a while I was just too exhausted to fight. I came to a point where I was okay if we had to sell our home and move to an apartment and completely downsize our life. At least I had that option.

What if you don't have that option? You can't sell your home in this market and if you do it will sit on the market for a long time and you might even get less than you owe. I was watching on TV on how many Americans are becoming homeless. Big families with no home, no savings, no jobs and no place to go. Some are on the streets and sleeping in shelters. Others have set up tent cities. It's so scary and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

It's a big mess that our new president inherited. I wish there was some way for those in charge who got us here to pay for their mistakes. The corrupt are to blame...the big banks, the politicians...the greedy. And a big serving of karma is coming. I'm not saying that we Americans have done the best job with saving and living within our means but many people got rich on the now suffering of others.

I do have faith and I do believe that our country can recover. So many things must change but in the mean time we have to do better for those who need it the most. They need a bailout not some rich corporate thug.

These pictures are stunning

These pictures sum this week's inaugural the best:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html

On this Historic Day

I was so looking forward to today. It was truly a historic moment...not just because we have our first African-American/Black President...he's half white too, ya know? But because what we have is a people's president. We have not had a president like that in a long time...or as far as I have lived...ever. I call him a touchable President because even when taking the oath, you did not see some staunch person armed with his golden spoon up his butt ready to relay the affects of the previous domination. No, you did not see that. You saw a real person...a man who has walked the shoes not only of the "have-not's" and as a man of color who has endured and overcome all of the obstacles that those before him have witnessed.

I also saw "the doubters"and "the haters" today and I felt sorry for them. Not because they don't like Obama or don't get Obama because they could NOT, for one moment, witness the glory of this moment. A moment of hope...could you not see that hope in the faces of the people in that crowd? What is wrong with that? Why are we not allowed to have hope? In these past years with for all that we have endured under the Bush administration, today we are hopeful...er, at least I am. We are not naive. We are not stupid. We believe that this man, our new President, can lead our nation in a new direction. We need a new direction. Our country is ready for a new direction. And I believe that President Obama (and I get chills when I say this out loud) can deliver what he promised.

We needed something different, people! The old school politics do not work anymore, not that they ever have...at least not now! Look at us! Look at what we can be! He did not proclaim to do it alone. He commissioned all of us to help and we should. Why would we think one man could fix the evils of the past?

We have elected the right man for the right time. I am happy and all of you sulkers will NOT take that away for me.

TODAY I watched all of the new coverage from this morning until the President took his oath. TODAY I cried with pride. TODAY I picked up my son from school watching all of the students in a buzz of excitement as they were allowed to watch the inauguration at school. TODAY I made a special inauguration dinner for my family....fillet, garlic scallops, mushroom risotto, champagne and blueberry lemon pound cake. I served it in style and even gave the kiddies lemonade mixed with club soda in a champagne flute so they could feel the significance of the moment. And I really didn't need to push the agenda. My five-year-old son came to dinner in a tie. Yes, he gets it.