tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913866978063926009.post5730490922501316432..comments2023-10-05T01:14:24.922-06:00Comments on Happy Occidents: My name is Heidi: I am Destroying YOUR CountryHeidi Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06330380296772961715noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913866978063926009.post-21514911107084385032013-11-15T11:15:14.751-07:002013-11-15T11:15:14.751-07:00Oh, mom, don't worry - we always have enough f...Oh, mom, don't worry - we always have enough food... it isn't a fear that is actually real. I have hundreds of pounds of food lining my walls. It is a more existential fear of a lack of community and understanding I suppose. I worry about the unknown, but the thing I can most directly influence are the things growing in the garden and so I just keep putting in more beds. <br />I worry about not being able to pay for piano lessons, or gymnastics or provide any sort of extracurricular activities for Ivory. I worry about no retirement, about having passed my highest earning years as a stay at home mom. I worry about future cuts to benefit programs because people are motivated by ignorance and stereotypes and misinformation. I worry because our family is one that falls into the Obama care hole. I have never felt so disappointed and let down. Because Montana did not expand medicaid there is nothing for us in the Obamacare set up since we are below the poverty level and don't actually qualify for the market place with out over estimating our income. <br /><br />Other than that life is 95 percent awesome. I just don't understand the other 5 percent. :)Heidi Westhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06330380296772961715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2913866978063926009.post-67454725096602980682013-11-15T10:56:47.196-07:002013-11-15T10:56:47.196-07:00Heidi,
Do I know EXACTLY where you are coming fro...Heidi,<br /><br />Do I know EXACTLY where you are coming from!!!! Your post brings tears to my eyes as I think back and consider my life, now. And now all I can say is that I share your pain, your frustration, the cock-eyed schedules, the EBT woes, the fear of something not being there, on and on and on. So, I can cry with you, if that is any solace what so ever.<br /><br />I remember vowing NEVER EVER to shop at Albertson's again. The State of Oklahoma had just come out with the EBT card, and mine wasn't working. Remember the story? The cashier hollering all they way down the row of registers with the disparaging comments about food stamp people, all because my card wouldn't work. I know that had it been a credit card, reactions would have been MUCH DIFFERENT. The stares, the people even backing away, like I was some kind of disease and I might be catching. And my immediate feeling of shame....I held my head high, but the inner shame!!!! And then being mad at myself for being ashamed.... <br /><br />I was afraid, too. I guess with you it's the food. With me, it was (and is) winter clothes and blankets. That's probably a difference in culture, since I did so much raising children outside of the US....but I was always terrified that I would not have warm enough clothing for you kids. So I hung on to EVERYTHING, took all the clothing I could that was given to me, remade, refashioned, passed down....etc., etc. Shoes were terrible for me, because I couldn't make them....I remember finding the little leather boots having been chewed through by mice (or rats) there in the train-station house. I was DEVASTATED....what to do for a set of child's boots now? I cried and cried!!!!<br /><br />So I do relate. That's why I, myself, tend to stay away from blogs, posts, etc.....and even the news at times. I am so tired of hearing the stereotypes and the railing on everyday people who are struggling to get by. It disgusts me. And it disgusts me even more when the 'everyman' and 'everywoman' have internalized the hogwash and spread it further. I just think, sometimes, do you know how close you could be, everyperson, to becoming that which you are teaching yourself to despise? A market crash at the "wrong" time, a car accident, a health issue, a company decision to cut a job, a 'you're not educated enough", a 'you're too educated', oh, and 'would we have to make arrangement for child care?....OH, well, we actually hired someone else already, on and on and on. <br /><br />Okay, I'm done at the moment, I guess. I love you, and I'm thinking of you. I'll try to call you later.<br />Mom Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com