November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 16: Break Free of Tyranny

Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

it seems to me

that for a nation of people

who love to talk about freedom

there were all too damn many of us

willing to trade our freedom

to be under the orange thumb

of a tangerine despot

now it's time

to put up or shut up

now it's time

to take our country back

now it's time

to realize that electing

a rude, loudmouthed reality tv star

with an ego the size of Jupiter

was a really stupid idea

and now it's time

to impeach the sonofabitch

who shouldn't have been in the White House

in the first damn place

now it's time

to fix our mistake

and really make America great

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Notes:

The November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt for today was to write a "free" poem. So I decided to move over, Rover, and let Sly take over and write a free verse about breaking free from the tRump tyranny. No putting a fine point on this one. Impeach the illegitimate bastard. 

Yes, Pence is his own brand of awful. We'll deal with him next.

Even more worrisome to me than the fact that Lord Dampnut and the Gentleman Serial Killer ran for office is the fact that there were enough people willing to vote for them that they got elected. Anyone who thinks that we live in a country where racism, sexism, classism, and all the other shitty little isms are a thing of the past is, as Flavor Flav once said, blind from the facts.

Inspire Me Monday #214: Get Angry

Copyright Olichel

Can I inspire you to be angry today?

It's hard for me to type a post about anger without using salty language, but I'm going to keep it clean.

Can I inspire you to open your eyes and see that things just aren't right?

Can I inspire you to see that it isn't right that people should be forced to sleep on the street?

Can I inspire you to face the fact that those people don't "deserve" this?

Can I inspire you to understand that it isn't right for people in the lower classes to be unable to afford decent housing?

Can I inspire you to see that it's wrong for people with disabilities to have to choose between eating and having medical care and being able to earn a living wage?

Can I inspire you to see that it's madness for people to have to be in debt for years for trying to better themselves by getting a higher education?

That it's madness that most higher-paying jobs require higher education but that education is out of reach for the poor?

Can I inspire you to realize that a society of haves and have-nots benefits no-one but those in the highest positions?

Can I inspire you to realize that the only thing "trickling down" is a word that I can't use in a "family friendly" post?

Can I inspire you to understand that the homeless are not "just lazy," that the poor are not "just stupid," that the "welfare queen" is a myth, that only a very small percentage of people attempt to defraud the welfare system?

Can I inspire you to see that very vulnerable people are falling into the cracks and have nowhere to turn for help?

Do you know that many elderly people live in poverty?

Do you know that many single parents live in poverty?

Can you see that there are a lot of people who used to work a "good job" but now need assistance, that the help is not there, that they didn't suddenly become "lazy" and "shiftless?"

Can I inspire you to realize that people with substance addiction issues deserve help, not jail?

Can I inspire you to understand that mental illness is not "laziness"?

Can I inspire you to understand that everyone deserves adequate food, shelter, medical care, and education?

Can I inspire you to understand that service workers are not "lesser" and do not deserve to be stuck working multiple jobs to make less than a living wage?

Can I inspire you to be angry today?

Because until we all get angry enough, nothing is ever going to change.

If nothing changes, things are only going to get worse for all but the wealthiest one percent.

I hope that I can inspire you today.

~cie~

Living Disabled in the Reactionary Empire

Copyright Conger Design

The following text is a reaction to this post. The response comes from The Real Cie's politically-minded alter-ego, Sly Fawkes.

Truth be told, the writing part of my life is okay. I'm a fairly prolific writer. I don't promise that it's all (or even that any of it is) bestseller material but I do a lot of it!

The rest of my life is kind of a steaming pile of suck. Being disabled in the United States is not fun at all. I'm not going to hit my political soapbox too hard, but I made less than ten thousand dollars last year, and while I do have Medicaid (and I live in fear that the critters in power will take that away) I do not get SNAP, which I absolutely need. Being food insecure is far from fun.

I would love to force the critters in power to have to live on $1100 a month (or less, if I have a bad month) for a year, no bailouts, no help from family or friends. Just that amount. Have fun with that, boys and girls!

I write about my thoughts on sociopolitical issues a lot more often than I'd like to. I  prefer writing fiction, but the truth is scarier!

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Caregiving Techniques: Slide Sheet + Sly Speaks: Devalued Professions

SMART Slide Sheets, Patient Not Able to Assist

This series of videos from MedCo Technology is helpful for both professional and home caregivers. They offer techniques to minimize the likelihood of injury to the caregiver.

Most injuries in both institutional and home settings happen because the caregiver is rushed. Institutional settings, particularly long-term care facilities, are often understaffed. Many times at-home caregivers are without help and may be caring for other children if the handicapped loved one is a child, or for children as well as an aging parent.

Caregiving tends to be a profession/skill which is devalued. It is seen as something which uneducated people do, and tends to be seen as a “woman’s profession.” “Women’s professions” tend to be paid less well than so-called “men’s professions.”

Modern society will remain mired in misery until people in all walks of life and in the devalued helping professions and situations are seen as worthwhile, contributing members of society, which they, in fact, are.

~Sly Has Spoken~

 Image copyright juliahenze

Purchased from 123rf.com

The Cheese Grates It: The Old Tired Wal-Mart Gag

So, this was in an acquaintance's feed, and I was livid. I stated that I didn't find it the least bit funny as this is the sort of thing that someone with dementia or a severe mental illness might do. I also stated that the "Wal Mart" stereotype was pretty old and tired. In the area where I live, Wal Mart is one of the few options. You know who goes to Wal Mart in my area? People. Just...people. Maybe because I'm not a judgmental douchebag I don't pay them much mind, but nobody has ever really stood out.

This image was also upsetting to me as dementia has had a strong impact on my life in the past several years in particular. I used to work with geriatric patients but had to get out of the field because it was becoming too personal. My father had vascular dementia at the time of his death. My aunt has Alzheimer's and my uncle is trying to continue caring for her, but it's becoming more and more difficult. She spends much of the night dressing and undressing repeatedly and trying doors to see if she can get in or out.

Dementia also began robbing someone not related but still very dear to me of his mind when he was only 55 years old. He now remembers nothing about his life, including those he was close to.

So I don't find this sort of thing amusing. There is something amiss with this person's mind. They are almost certainly living in poverty. None of these things are funny.

The person who posted that crap also posted this and several others. I commented, "yep, because big people and handicapped people shouldn't be allowed to have friends or fun." Then I unfriended her shallow ass.

We all know that being my Facebook friend is a special privilege reserved only for the elite.

Yeah, right.

In truth, it's fairly hard to piss me off enough to get unfriended. I unfollowed a number of people due to their Lord Dampnut support but didn't unfriend them.

However, if you think it's totes hilarious to post demeaning images of an impoverished elderly person who obviously has a severe cognitive or psychiatric impairment and caption it with something along the lines of "hurr hurr hurr, Wal Mart shoppers, amirite?"

...and then when someone states that it really is not funny to ridicule people with dementia or severe psychiatric illness or people living in poverty...

you follow that so hilarious image up with images ridiculing fat people and handicapped people because hurr hurr hurr Wal Mart shoppers, amirite?

You can bet I'm gonna unfriend your unsympathetic, bullying ass.

We have plenty of shitty politicians whose awful policies and behaviors we can ridicule from sunup to sundown. Ridiculing the mentally and physically impaired and those whose bodies are viewed as unattractive in a society which has a very narrow view of beauty is quite simply a crappy thing to do, and I am not going to associate with the sorts of people whose idea of a good time is belittling others, especially those whose lives are hellish on a daily basis anyway.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

The Cheese Grates It: Angry at the assumptions

I participate in the Daily challenge (challenge.meyouhealth.com) and sometimes their questions really, really, really piss me off. They assume that everyone is in the middle class, and that the middle class isn’t an endangered species in the United States as more and more people become both job and food insecure.

The question was “think about the last time you were upset and try to recall if you were hungry, tired or both.

Yes, I was bloody well hungry!  I hadn't eaten properly in days. I was down to my last $30 and had purchased hummus, tortillas and donuts and was rationing them. 

I am employed, on average working between 48 and 60 hours a week. I am a skilled worker, making $20 an hour. This sounds like a lot, but it isn't. Most of what I make goes into mortgage plus lot rent on my mobile home, coming to around $1200 a month. A standard 2 bedroom apartment in this area costs that much, so there wouldn't be that much difference.

I'd had a dry spell at work while my patient was in the hospital, but food insecurity is nothing new to me.

I have no insurance because at $400 a month for the cheapest crap, I can't afford it.

I make too much money to qualify for any sort of public assistance, and since I have a job, I don't qualify for Medicaid.

Questions like this are geared to people who don't have issues like food insecurity. However, many more people do these days. Yes, even people who work hard, like work all the time hard. It doesn't just happen to "lazy" people who "don't want to work." It happens to the working classes--a lot.

So, I was hungry and tired of being hungry. 

If you're offended by my rant, sorry. This question triggered me because it was so similar to that old "are you really hungry, or are you instead perhaps angry or tired. Whatever you do, don't eat, because nothing tastes as good as thin feels" crap that I put myself through on the impossible quest for the "perfect" body that I was on between the ages of 12 and 45. I still have an eating disorder, always will have an eating disorder, and whenever I end up rationing my food I run the risk of falling back into the trap of believing I can starve myself to thinness.

That's why this question made me react as I did.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~