The New Year

The New Year

Yesterday was Very busy, sorry I failed to get this posted.

I am now aware that politicians who do not represent me and especially the rule makers whom they refuse to oversee can destroy my life as I have known it at any moment, without prior warning.  It is time for me to refuse fear to the best of my ability and Think.

Personally, I have never found New Year's resolutions to be worth all that much because they don't usually amount to decisions.  They are more like aspirations for the kind of person I would Like to be, whether those aspirations actually Fit me or not.

But I have made a decision.  Over the next year I'm down sizing, giving away what I wouldn't want to have to move, investigating options for cheaper housing, and doing what little I can to lower basic bills, which are the only bills I have.  I own no vehicle, no home, and have no credit cards or cable TV.  I am culturally behind, having no cable, but simply cannot afford it.  Also, I don't really care what vampires and zambies do.  But I'm looking at options to lower my internet and phone bill.  This may mean a slower internet speed.

As a deaf-blind person I need the internet to help with basic communication.  It may be easier to email someone than to try to understand them on the phone.  Making copies of documents using my printer saves money.  If I need to take notes, the sound of my Braille writer and the need to use both hands to operate it prevent me from hearing what is said on the phone clearly.

I have been told I am legally allowed to save $999.99, just a penny Under a thousand dollars.  This isn't even enough to pay someone to move me.  Why do "welfare" programs Keep people Poor?  At least Social Security has a program where they subtract funds from a person's check Depending on their earnings, instead of an "all or nothing" policy.

When I listen to our local NPR station I hear about a charity whose goal is "to end homelessness".  Is it Really that hard always?  Of course there are some people who would find it very hard to live in an apartment, especially without help.

But Some of the answers aren't too complex.  How about expanding mental health services including drug and alcohol abuse treatment for veterans and support groups and counseling for their families?  How about allowing felons to receive food stamps and allowing non-violent offenders to live in public housing?

Woops, that costs money, How could I forget? It is costing the veteran I've mentioned previously time and may cost money to just Get the check which went missing during the Government shut down.  No one this person deals with is too concerned, it seems.

 How to raise money?  If marijuana were legalized and Taxed like cigarettes the Government would have more money.  If politicians had the courage to tax sodas sold in schools, (no chance) kids might be healthier and there would be more money for schools. 

I was Not surprised to learn that in 2013 the stock market had a better year than any in the last fifteen years or so.  But the budgets  of so Many social programs  are still being cut! 

This means to me that some of the same institutions responsible for our worst economic crash since the Great Depression are once again sitting pretty, and that those who have caused and are causing some of the worst environmental disasters of recent years (the Deep Water Horizon Gulf oil spill, the destruction of bees, and the mess of Mayflower, Ark.) are doing fine.  But the budget is still being cut from the Bottom up.

I am Immensely Thankful to say that the Mo. Family Support? Division seems to have restored my benefits!  But this doesn't mean (at least to me) that they cannot or will not reverse themselves Again, at some later time.

I need to make intelligent decisions, so will use what time I have to investigate options.  But I have already begun comparing plans for lowering my phone and internet bill and with the help of a very kind friend who googled a property management company for me, I've begun checking out cheaper places to live with cheaper utility bills.

This may mean no more garden for me and the friends with whom I share food, if the place I must move to won't let me grow one.  It may mean trying to find a community or neighboring garden I can share.

On the other hand, this could be a gentle, smooth year.  I prayed this morning for all in hard physical circumstances, from people like me who had seen over the edge, to those who are homeless in all of our cities, to abducted men and  unaccompanied women and children in war zones.  There are so Many of us humans in that Huge gap!

And, unknown to most of us, there are so many Other living beings upon whom we depend whose lives are threatened.

A hopeful thing is that I do not know the future and some people are beginning to say Enough!  I feel, without logic, that 2014 will be a better year and I certainly Hope it is for Everyone, not just me.

May all who read this and all whom they love enjoy safety, warmth, health, and enough to live on as well as peace and personal contentment  in 2014!