Underestimate Women at your Peril

SCOTUS has decided to weigh in on the employer/birth control part of the Affordable Care Act. That's all women need. Although the court ruled the ACA constitutional, this part is troubling. 

When did an employer have the right to decide what medicine I can have? In all the years I worked for other people, and was lucky enough to have health insurance there, the only issue I faced was, did I have chiropractic, dental and vision. Sometimes I had to get pre-approval for procedures, but never did the subject of birth control come up. So either this was done behind the scenes, or it didn't happen. So why now?

I can only surmise that this has to do with the Tea Partyesque attitudes that seem to have brought our government to a virtual standstill. This need to control women is both diabolical and pathetic. 

Men have no right to control anything about women. At some point, this will be made clear to everyone, because we're not taking it anymore. The battle lines have been drawn. And we're more effective than you can imagine. So step back or prepare for battle, because here's some things we're tired of:

• our children dying at the hands of nut jobs with guns. 
• our state and federal governments oppressing our vote, our income levels, and our constitutional rights. 
• going to prison for defending ourselves from crimes committed against us. 
• our children going hungry because 3/4 of us work at minimum wage jobs and the Tea Party wants to take food stamps away from the most vulnerable among us.
• making less than our male counterparts doing the same job. 
• the government viewing poor people as drains on our society, while politicians lay prostrate at the feet of the rich who fill their election coffers.
• undocumented families living in the shadows, willing to incur employer abuse so that they can live here. It's slavery and it's illegal.
• our veterans not mattering..oh they matter when you need them to protect us, but then you leave them, and their families, by the wayside when they come back home.

I could go on, but you get the point. Here's the thing. Time is running out for misogynists. Women are stronger than you. Together, we can do anything, including putting you where you belong. 

Underestimate us at your peril.

Does the Tea Party understand what we owe our veterans?

A few days ago I wrote a post about the Republican party not being a friend to veterans. Apologies if I repeat myself, but clearly the GOP and its Tea Party puppet masters don't give a rat's ass about veterans, their families, or, for that matter, active duty personnel and their families. The checks went out on October 1st. If the shutdown goes on much longer, no one eats next month, or pays their rent, or their car payment, or anything else. The surreal nature of this leaves me searching for the right words..you know, words that are calm and not vulgar. Because I really don't understand how a small group of people could do this and not face arrest and imprisonment. The shutdown and the potential default on our debt ceiling (which none of them apparently understands) is not something we should ever face as a country. Too much is riding on things functioning properly. 

Anyway, here's the promise we make to people who defend us. If you defend us, we will take care of you and yours. It's that simple. As I've said before, my husband is a disabled veteran. As this is now our only source of income, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. I've already made minimum payments this month on bills I typically pay more on. We're trying to limit our grocery shopping in the event that this month's money needs to stretch into next month. Both our boys are adults, live elsewhere, and are employed in non-governmental jobs so there's that. We have only the two of us to be concerned about and we'll be okay. We tend to live simply so we're somewhat used to austerity. It just feels better when it's self-imposed instead of nut job-imposed.

But not everyone will be okay. Most people live from paycheck to paycheck and that includes disabled veterans and their families. We cannot allow a small faction of Congress to tie the country up in knots with their insane ideology. And it doesn't really matter if it's veterans were talking about, or if it's WIC moms. People are already being hurt right now by the behavior of these imbeciles. Everything just stops without money to pay for it. If we let the shutdown continue the casualties will be massive.

Here's the thing.. When you make a promise to people who defend us, you have to follow through on that promise. It's been difficult enough for service members returning home to the economy we have, but if they're wounded, the backlog to even get started with the VA is horrible. And when you factor in the notion that we went to war on a lie, then the lives either damaged or lost make it so much more critical to not abandon them this way. 

The Tea Party Republicans must stop this insanity, grow up, and reopen the government. Then they need to resign and go home in disgrace.

Veterans: Republicans are not your friends..

Wouldn't you know that Bachmann and company would take advantage of veterans trying to visit a WWII memorial yesterday. How craven are these people? Well, after shutting down the government, these idiots helped these folks break in to the monument, blaming the President for its closure. They're what I like to call, wrong.

I've been married to a disabled veteran for 34 years. In the early years, the VA couldn't seem to figure out that his wife and children (me and our boys) qualified for health care benefits. It eventually got straightened out, but our first child was paid for with insurance from a job, and our second child was paid for monthly because we had no insurance. We sold our truck to pay the last $400 we owed. Both were c-sections so this was expensive. It's so much easier these days to get somewhere with them, but we're in the system now. For new veterans and their families, this government shutdown only makes new claims take longer and in view of the existing backlog, to affect these folks this way is criminal. To blame the President is ridiculous.

When the Bush administration lied the country into war with Iraq, Rummy said, you go to war with the military you have, not the military you want. It would have been nice to go to war with the administration we elected too..you know the Gore administration. But then I wonder if Al Gore would have ever taken us into war with Iraq. Something tells me had he actually be allowed to serve as President, we'd be in a much different place now. Instead, George Bush sent our troops into harms way without body armor. I even remember reading that parents were being asked to send stuff to their family members serving that the government should have been providing. I had no problem going into Afghanistan, although I think it should have been a Special Forces deal. We never needed to engage in either place the way that we did. Remember who did this. Remember who sent your children to die without protection. 

Remember that it's the Tea Party Republicans along with their actual Republican counterparts who have advanced the war on women, children, seniors, poor people, you name it. Don't cheer when they use you to put the blame for their own shenanigans on the President. Because that's what they're doing..using veterans to promote their lie. Don't allow yourselves to be manipulated by these people. They couldn't care less about you. You were a means to an end for them. They don't understand the sacrifice you made for all of us. If they did, they would have never let this shutdown happen. Even for no other reason, couldn't they have thought about all the new veterans trying to get their disability claims processed? What about all the vets and active military personnel on food stamps? What about all the vets who are homeless? If we had never gone into Iraq, we wouldn't have this backlog, and oh my goodness..maybe family members would be alive and intact instead of what people are coping with now.

And what does the Tea Party do? They say thank you to veterans and active duty military personnel by shutting down the government just so that we don't have the Affordable Care Act. They hold us hostage. They hold you hostage. Of course the ACA went into effect yesterday anyway. All of this is for nothing. But its effect will be long lasting.

When you go to war, you never do this lightly. These wars may make a bunch of Bush's cronies lots of money, but it's destroyed so many lives. And when a small faction of people can destroy the country further because they have no clue how to properly govern, instead punishing the country with their radical ideology, we all need to stand up against them. What we don't do is cheer them on when they act like idiots.

Understand who the enemy is because they are among us.

At the Portland VA yesterday...

So my husband had a root canal scheduled yesterday at the Portland VA Hospital. He's a disabled VietNam vet and the VA takes care of him. I know all the problems that exist with the Veteran's Administration, particularly now, but in my husband's case, his care has been pretty good. We left before we were supposed to one time, and the eye doctor he was seeing actually called us while we were driving down I5 (we were taking our youngest son at OSU out to lunch). Although we really felt foolish, we didn't go back that day. But the doctor was concerned, so he called. I thought that was really nice of him. Now there's an eye clinic in Bend so we don't have to drive all the way to Portland for that. We only do it for the dentist. But that wasn't always the case. In the beginning, he had to go there for everything. Then, the VA decided that they would pay private doctors over in our area to treat disabled vets. That worked okay, but the payment was less than doctors typically charged and not all would take a vet as a patient. Then a miracle happened! The VA opened a clinic in Bend.

Awesome! Except it doesn't have dental yet. But we're hopeful. And recently, they moved to a larger space which is really nice. The staff is really great and I know Jerry appreciates everything they do for him there.

So back to the Portland VA Hospital. It has become such a welcoming place. I have to say that years ago, like in the 80's, I didn't have that feeling. I think it was last year or so that we walked in the front door and were greeted by some delightful nursing students who asked if Jerry had had his flu shot yet. He said no, and they took him over to the flu shot table and he got his flu shot. Everyone in the lobby was in such a great mood. People were visiting with one another, smiling and laughing. It was wonderful there that day.

But then, other than parking, we usually have a positive experience at the VA hospital. The food in the hospital cafeteria is basically okay, because after all it is cafeteria food. The hospital staff treat everyone with respect and dignity. The dental folks are awesome. The eye doctors he has seen there are also great. 

But I do know "nightmare" and "VA" go hand in hand. It took years for us to have medical insurance for me and the boys - not because it wasn't available, but because no one at the time could figure out which section we belonged in. Finally a very nice woman in Salem took care of everything and we finally had insurance. But we didn't when my youngest was born and since both boys were C-sections, we had to pay out of pocket for him. We sold the truck to pay off the last $400 we owed on our beloved child. Of course, had we had insurance then, we'd probably still have that damn truck. It was an International. I hated it. So there's that. 

The VA has a backlog that is ridiculous and destructive. And shameful (thank you, Bush administration). It's taking far too long to get benefits established and care given. Every time I hear about a veteran not getting the care that he or she deserves and needs, I know that it's happening because our government has made that choice. I've seen the VA work the way it's supposed to work. These people work hard and care about the veterans they serve. Given the opportunity, they would gladly meet and/or exceed the needs of our veterans. But they can't do it without funding.

Our government has some interesting priorities. They take us into war on a lie. They don't give our troops the equipment or body armor that they need to stay safe. In a cavalier fashion, they take away our civil rights in order that our "freedom" is preserved. That's hilarious. And then they don't take proper care of our veterans when they return home. And this time, we didn't even have a draft. These people defended our country without being forced to do so. Our first priority should be their care. They risked everything. Everything. 

And to our government: please don't go to war again. You clearly don't understand your responsibility for those who do your bidding. And I'll just bet that when you finally do, we'll never go to war again. And pull your collective heads out of your collective asses and fix the backlog. Don't leave these people hanging while you try to repeal Obamacare one more time. Or whatever it is you idiots do to not earn your paychecks.