Victimhood

In 1995, I was struck by an illness that kills 90% of those diagnosed with it within 5 years.

I’m happy to say that, 13 + years later, I’m still here.

I had two choices: claim my victimhood and let the illness have its way with me or fight. I chose to fight.

It would have been much easier to claim victimhood status, file for disability and give in. After all, it’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong. This isn’t a “life-style” disease, like so much cancer is. (You can quite smoking, if you want to.) My heart just got damaged, no one knows exactly how. So, I had the option of giving up and letting life pass me by, ending all too quickly, not with a bang, but a whimper.

I have watched my mother use her (mostly imagined) various illnesses to escape having to live her life. She passed her responsibilities as a mother and housewife on to me when I was only 9 years old. I had adult responsibilities when my greatest worries should have been pop music, school and getting to the mall to be with my friends. She has never recognized what she stole from me nor apologized. I haven’t forgiven her and don’t intend to. Stealing someone’s childhood is an unforgivable crime.

I was diagnosed then my girls were 12 and 8. I could have done the same thing she did and dump my responsibilities onto my eldest daughter. After all, I was far sicker than my mother ever hoped to be. I had the ‘right’ to some rest, right?

Wrong! My kids had a right to a parent who cared about and for them. Not some whiney victim of no use to anybody.

I’m still plugging along. My kids are both grown women now and, hopefully, don’t think too badly of me. I know there were lots of things I didn’t do due to poor health but I tried to keep that to a minimum. No, we never played with that Easy-Bake oven but in later years we baked real cookies together.

I have my regrets, to be sure. I regret ever complaining about having to tuck my younger daughter in for the night upstairs when I was tired. I regret we never got around to making applesauce again before she moved away.

I should have listened to my older daughter sing more before she left home. I gave her lots of space as a teenager. Now, maybe, I think I got too far away.

But, you can’t live your life looking backward, especially when you’re fighting a life-threatening illness. You need to keep that focus forward, to getting better day-by-day, getting stronger.

On that note, I carried in 4 bags of groceries last night, including 5 lbs of potatoes and 3 lbs of onions! Progress!! :-D

Now, if I could only get some of my stamina back, I’d really have something!

And you have to keep remembering that you have no alternative. Victimhood, while it may seem easier in the short term, only causes more problems in the long term. If I don’t get up every morning and go to work, who’s going to make my house and car payments? The government? Hah! Not likely. There’s me and only me to look after me. There’s no giving up and giving in. Hard but true.

Blacks and Muslims

Well, for once, the young, black guys in a scene in TV aren’t the villains; they’re helping the victim of a stabbing, chasing off the bad guys and calling the cops. All too often, young, black men on television in cop shows are portrayed as the bad guys: murder, drugs, beating people up.

I get so tired of that. Not all black men are criminals. All too many of them are but maybe if they could be represented against type more often, other young men might see they have more of a choice about their lives.

I also get tired of the “big, bad Christian” meme in the whodunit shows. These villains are always particularly creepy. Why is that? How many Christians do you know that have committed murder? Most of them are fairly nice people, although some can be insufferable if you get trapped talking about religion, but that can be avoided.

When TV accurately portrays the adherents of Islam in all their barbarity, them they might have something!

But they’re too chicken for that!

Nah, peaceful Christians are the ones who get their symbols dipped in urine and smeared with dung. They won’t riot or issue death threats.

Cowards!

If these “arteests” really wanted to push the envelope, they’d do the same to Islamic symbols. That would be brave.

The Fair Tax.

23% national sales tax instead of a 14.8% federal tax rate. I already pay 7.75% county/state sales tax. By eliminating the IRS, Social Security and Medicare taxes, I get to keep 37% more of my income.

So, for a 15.25% increase in my sales taxes, I get to keep 37% more of my own money. And I get a pre-bate of a certain amount every month!

Sounds good to me!

Where do I sign up?

(Ok. Even if the 23% is in addition to the 7.75%, I’m still ahead!)

Of course, for this to happen, Congress will have to get off its collective ass and repeal the 16th Amendment. They can’t even pass a budget!

So, it’s a good idea but I’m not holding my breath.

Change?

First it was Obama, then it was Hillary, now it’s Mitt.

Everyone wants to be the Candidate of Change.

But they never expressly say what they want to change! Their minds, their tires, their underwear? What?

Yeah, I’m for “change”, too. Dimes, nickels, quarters, I like it all! Heck, I even bend over and pick up pennies I see on the sidewalk! It all adds up.

It’s amazing to me that your average idiot voter is falling for this BS.

Most people are horrible when dealing with change. Move their cheese (haven’t we all read that horrid, little book?) and they become totally discombobulated! Can’t function. Can’t think.

I want some specifics about who’s going to change what. As far as I’ve been able to figure out, both Hillary and Obama want to change us to a more socialist economy with central planning. Didn’t the Soviets prove rather decidedly that that concept doesn’t work all that well?

I don’t know enough about Mitt’s positions, yet, to know what he thinks needs changed. Hopefully, he’ll read The Fair Tax, fall in love with the idea, and we’ll get someone I could actually vote for promoting the idea. Yeah, change the IRS right out of existence!

Wonderful idea!!

I really despise advertising!

For some reason, car commercials seem to be the most annoying. The recent Toyota campaign, where drivers do horrible things to their cars so that they have an excuse to buy a new Toyota, really bugs me.

Apparently, Toyota driver wanna-bees are so stupid that they destroy their trade-ins instead of just trading them in.

I got news for you, Toyota, this is America. We don’t need an excuse or a reason to buy a new car. “I want one.” is sufficient here. We don’t need to wreck our current car to buy a new one!

Quit treating us like we’re all a bunch of dummies! Just tell about your products in a respectful way.