So after about a month of in and out conversations with two different facilities, I have assumed placement at two different companies. One is a nurse agency, which outfits their employees with contracted jobs at facilities that are short staffed. They also provide home health care options for people who are not quite ready to enter facilities for long-term care, or do not quite yet meet criteria to be in assisted living arrangements. The other is at a Hospital. It’s probably one of the oldest hospitals in Arizona, and was once the Level 1 Trauma hospital in Tucson before giving up the status due to profitability.
I am quite relieved to be back in the world of employment, as I can honestly say that being a house rat isn’t working out well for me… I’ve caught myself oversleeping, immobile, and generally doing a large array of wasted tasks. However, as I settle to work at the two places (to ultimately decide which I want to stay with), I can’t help but feel disappointed in the situation at the same time.
I’ve come across employment easily and fast in a time where, sadly, the majority of my fellow check-to-checkers out there simply cannot. I am grateful for this and very much pleased to be working, even if I have taken a very (very) marginal pay cut. That seems to be the story of most working Americans right now too… I recently read an article on CNN.com about how there is a growing trend of “Same job, less money” going on in the global economy right now, as demand for the current jobs becomes greater than the supply.
It’s made me sit down and really examine where we stand in our social ladder in the United States.  When my previous job (unlawfully) terminated my employment over my hearing disability, Unemployment was so backed up that they simply… never mailed me even a first check, now three weeks past due. I’ve come to the terms of living on my fiancees less-than-par income and saving aside what I can to try and balance the books long enough to hold us off into February, when I will thankfully be collecting my normal sum of wages again.
However, what does that really mean? I’ll live check to check again fearing what situation next could come and sweep my job off my feet? I was grown up and brainwashed into believing that I was among the luckiest people in the world, where luxury and reassurance came standard as part of our lives. America seems to trademark itself on a delusional style of living. People can see the problems, but they feel patriotism and blind belief in corporate-owned politicians is the answer… After all… that is what patriotism is based on, right?
Well, I guess I am a black sheep in the herd (as I’ve always been) on yet another subject. What job seeking in an economically flawed society has taught me is that no matter how hard you deny it, things are just beyond bad here. We’ve sat on our nostalgic asses generation from generation telling ourselves that we are living the “American Dream”, even though its clear that a dream is mostly all it will ever be. We convince ourselves that pride of nation takes precedence over right to comfort and happiness. There is such a pitiful disease in America I’ve dubbed the “It Could Be Worse” syndrome; where an entire nation sits and convinces itself that no matter how bad it truly is… Hey, at least we don’t live in some middle eastern shackhole, right?!
Well, sure… If you compare America to the worst thing you can find, it looks pretty good… However, that’s not far off from finding the hottest chick at an ugly convention. The truth to it is that for being the “leading world power”, we are one of the furthest failing and most behind nations in the world. Things ranging from education, employment benefit, state benefits, and health care are some of the worst in the world… Which strikes me as funny, especially when you consider we are one of the highest taxed countries in the world as well.
Mix this all with how we award people who do negative things in our nation, and you set a topic that can be a boiling point for a hard working (and logical) person. Take for instance, that I am a health care professional… On a regular basis, I’ve treated people with excellent care in prestigious hospitals that I myself cannot afford to go to, even though I myself am employed by them. The kicker?The largest part of our patient population is often people who are unemployed (but capable of working) and are receiving state benefits that enable their entire bills to be covered at the tax payers dollar… So here I am, working for a marginal paycheck to provide care to someone who does nothing for American society, in a hospital that (as a working American) I cannot afford to go to.
There is something beyond flawed with our society, where auto industries can fly PRIVATE JETS to Washington and receive $5 billion dollar bail-out bills, but the average Joe works hard and gets nothing in return. I am appalled to find that my taxes are budgeting a stimulus packet to help people FORECLOSING save their homes… My deepest sympathies to you, sir or madam, but I really don’t care if you lose that home you couldn’t afford to begin with. You should have thought of that before you bought a $300,000 dollar home on a $35,000 a year income. Fuck you, you deserve it. All of it.
I get leveled when I hear that banks who signed their own death warrants receive tens of BILLIONS of dollars to be bailed out for their own negative choice making. I hate to say it, but those banks being bailed out doesn’t benefit anyone on the consumer level… The people that caused them to collapse are still going down hill one way or the other. In a free and unregulated capitalist market, you run the gamble of letting greed and corruption forefront the entire demographic of major industry. In America’s case, those greed mongers eventually ended up falling into the holes they dug to stash away hard earned money from other people.
So, maybe its time that we as Americans finally wake up from this dream (and that’s all it ever will be, people. A dream…) and realize that its time to take control of the situation in our nation. People seem to pride themselves on poor education and blind following in what Politicians say is patriotism. I hate to say it folks, but these people pray on the fact that you ARE and WILL BE ignorant your entire lives. They hope to god you don’t wake up and realize what the constitution really protects: your right to control government.
And that’s where the problem resides… Most Americans seem unaware of what the constitution really entitles them to, what benefits our forefathers laid out to assure that corruption always had a way to be managed. We’ve lost touch and insight with what America is based on: The people who build up its foundation… The working men and woman who have the right to say “That’s it, Big Oil and Industries, we’re taking back our government.” Instead, we’ve allowed politicians to drive wedges between people and create continental gaps over petty issues, such as gays and whether or not Jesus belongs in school.
Do you know why they do these things? Because a nation divided is a nation that cannot and will not push itself forward. They rely on the fact that America is and will remain divided. These are the things that really frustrate me. I want to see people band together and stand up, not as Christians or Muslims, and neither republicans or Democrats, but as Americans who demand better standards from the system the fund and truthfully RUN. As a nation built on the concept of civil control and freedom, the most patriotic thing we can do in these times is completely outcast our government and give things a clean, fresh start.
And I guess that leads to my conclusion… Being out of work and having to struggle my way through has really given me time to sit down and cross-examine the nation I was brainwashed to love. I’ve become disappointed, but not just in politicians. I’ve become disappointed in every single one of the people I live around and amongst… Including myself. I feel we’ve abandoned the duty that we assumed from our forefathers in this nation, which is to keep the torch of freedom and liberty truly ignited, for every man, woman, or child… Not just those of pure wealth and greed. I feel that we owe it to ourselves as a nation to really look in the mirror and ask ourselves… “Just where did we fuck up?”
And thats all I can really say on it…
