Rdfrdmom2: My granddaughter turned 6 today. She is amazing.
    adewpearl: I've so enjoyed reading about her over the years. Please share my birthday wishes with her. -


Rdfrdmom2: I have been missing for awhile for an assortment of reasons - too many to list here. I'll be here sporadically over the summer as I'm having major foot surgery on July 9th. My 4 1/2 year old granddaughter, Lexi, has volunteered to be my nurse. Life doesn't get much better than that.
    Rdfrdmom2: In a few days I will have the opportunity to assist students who are struggling in Algebra I by teaching them 3 days a week. I have been working with kids in grades 3-5 for a month in math & reading. I also teach GED classes on Thursday nights. I had forgotten just how much I love teaching.

    I am humbled by the opportunity to help struggling students turn their lives around. -


FanStory wrote to Rdfrdmom2: Congratulations! Not As Long Lost Friends won the contest "Free Verse Poetry Contest"
    heyjude: Jan, congratulations on winning the free verse poetry contest. -
    AlexAX: Congratulations :) -


Rdfrdmom2: It is high time for the citizens of the United States to place their resources on what is important ~ unless, of course, I do not understand what our citizens truly value. A culture is, and should be, judged by how it treats its young, helpless, and elderly.

If one views budget cuts across the nation at every level, it would appear there is little or no real concern for the aforementioned categories. Rather than belabor the point, I simply ask you to seriously think about the following areas receiving major cuts: (no rank order)

1. public education
2. mental health care
3. Medicare
4. Medicaid
5. Famis (insurance for low income families with school-age children)
6. Aid for the Homeless
7. Social Services
8. Taking Millions from Hospitals
9. Paring pensions for government employees
10. Neglecting transportation systems in many states
11. Geriatric care
12. Extending life of school buses from 12 yrs to 15 yrs (how many politicians do you think drive their vehicles for 12 - 15 years?)
13. Reduction in forces in almost all areas of public service -- fire, police, rescue, etc.
14. Public assistance of any kind

It is 2 a.m. I will get back on this again. While many will suffer from the budget woes, those who will suffer most are our elderly who worked faithfully with the expectation of at least being able to exist at the end of their journey; our children who are just beginning their journey; and the handicapped who are unable to take the journey alone.

I ask you, what are we, as a nation, going to do about it? Roll over and allow it to happen or begin to take a stand?
    tonyafterdark: Yes it's time to wake up...The white house seems to have lost touch with the needs of this great nation...A former leader of the soviet union once said in the early sixties " We will defeat the democratic society with out firing a single shot" !!...in other words , from within ...This administration is determined to do this...while we sleep...We as Americans are Patriots of this great nation that we love...and we should and we will... defend This great nation !!! -
    Jean Lutz: I happen to be one of those "elderly" who has worked some 40 years. I am not nearly as upset about what has been done to us for the past thirty years or so as what is now being done to my children/grandchildren. -
    Kathryn Varuzza: Woohoo! You said it so well. You know the real secret is the people have the power, the rich elite just don't want us to realize it. :) -
    LYLE: I cannot remember a President and a Congress as stupid as what is now in office. Democracy is dying in this country, but no one seems to care. The Middle-East, the Middle-East, etc., etc. I am sick of hesaring about the Middle-East. If the Arabs fear each other, let them solve their problems with their money and armies. We have a serious problem in this country, but no one seems to notice, except the
    10-15% of the population without jobs. Countries die from within, not from Arabs some 13,000 miles away. If the people still have any power, they should use it to force us out of these wars and out of the occupation and deployment of troops in about fifty countries. Spend that payroll here where we need it. -
    LYLE: I cannot remember a President and a Congress as stupid as what is now in office. Democracy is dying in this country, but no one seems to care. The Middle-East, the Middle-East, etc., etc. I am sick of hearing about the Middle-East. If the Arabs fear each other, let them solve their problems with their money and armies. We have a serious problem in this country, but no one seems to notice, except the
    10-15% of the population without jobs. Countries die from within, not from Arabs some 13,000 miles away. If the people still have any power, they should use it to force us out of these wars and out of the occupation and deployment of troops in about fifty countries. Spend that payroll here where we need it. -
    LYLE: Sorry about the double posting:( -
    tati: Jan dear,

    First, I wish you a birthday full of smiles, love, hugs and joys. And congratulations! Come as You Are by Rdfrdmom2 finished in second place in the Tetractys contest. Iā??m so happy for you, Jan. May your success continue.

    tati
    -
    Aski: I agree with your stated values. In Canada to a certain extent we face the same challenges. What needs to be clarified is what are our most important values? Understandably if economic development is not encouraged there will be an inability to fund the caring responsibilities that need to be done. A greater challenge is to question some of the perceived values that are being served now. -
    Razz: Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! -
    babylonia: i totally agree with you. it is ironic that education seems to be first on the chopping block leaving more children to be cursed with an illiteracy we can't afford. BUT then it's not like we have jobs requiring educations to go around. you don't need a bachelors to ask "do you need fries with that?" or to respond to "clean up on aisle 8". it's insanity that keeps it going. it doesn't matter ... democratic or republican ... they obviously get their needs taken care of and the rest of us can suck eggs.
    -
    countryrose8: Call To Arms! Call To Activisim! Call to Civil Unrest and Overthrow Socialist Government. For the first time in my life of 57 years, instead of taking taxes from the working man to cover the government's deficit, this sadminstration is allowing themselves unprecedented liberty to take pver half the hungry people's food stamps (from $94 a month to $44 month) Disability payment cutbaks on food stamps have been reduced three times in the past year, some are receiving $16 a month. You try to live of $16 a month's worth of food. -
    ceye: I got reduced to $22. in 2008. -