"...then I'm going to BE in the Army."
The Internet can do amazing things, no matter what the conservatives say. For one thing, it's a crucial way to fight that sense of isolation that can overcome you when you're the sole liberal in the room, in the family, in what feels like the whole city, or state, or unit.
With numbers comes strength.
And help.
The tragedies of Republican policies affect people intimately, and here's some glimpses at how some of the people I know have been affected---and could use some help they haven't even asked for.
I hang my hat most of the time at Livejournal, which serves as my base of operations, shall we say. Through it, I've met people I never would have met in the real world, from best friends to people I'm so close to they feel like relatives, not just friends. These are people who can finish your sentences, guess your thoughts, and perhaps, maybe, take the place of a hostile family that thinks liberals are just this side of traitors. If you say something they don't agree with, the whole 'support the troops' thing goes right out the window, because while they're the first person to whine, "Hey, I'm a nice person despite my racist, sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic beliefs! But you? You're an evil liberal feminazi traitorous lying Demonrat, and your service is obviously fake and nothing but lies." I paraphrase, but "Demonrat" and other things I've actually been called by some of these brave Chairborne Rangers.
So you can imagine how refreshing it was to meet a guy whose user name is 9thKvius----don't ask me, seriously, it's unpronounceable. I'll refer to him by his initial, G, and specify that he's the author of the quote that makes up this diary's title. That's because when he took the ASVAB, he got exactly one answer wrong, and pretty much every service came sniffing around. He comes from a long line of people who likewise served, and alas, he now joins another long line---that containing veterans whose rate of unemployment is higher than even the horrible rate afflicting civilians. Even after that amazing score on the ASVAB, he was determined to start off as 11 Bravo----a groundpounder infantry grunt----because it was his opinion that the best officers were those who started at the bottom and worked their way up. He volunteered for Airborne and Air Assault, and did a variety of missions that he can't talk about. He's a reserve police officer for his town, but he's not getting paid. That means, for those of you keeping track, that when Irene threatened the east coast he volunteered his services and actually risked his life....for free. And do I need to point out how valuable and important liberals are on police forces?
He's also one of those rare, nearly extinct birds---the genuine Southern Liberal, blunt, gently sarcastic, and as a former 11 Bravo very able to take care of himself, unless a kitty or a dachsund wanders by. He and I have long, delightful conversations about composting, tiny houses, and tiny farm animals, but very often, these conversations are dominated by the virtues of and methods for producing peerless chicken shit, which is to gardening what tomatoes are to good spaghetti sauce.
And that's where it gets truly amusing, because after he'd been commenting for a while on my blog he met another reader, who I'll refer to as Diva, because that's part of her screen name. Both of them are hard working, absolute suckers for animals and liberal causes, and they're getting married in November. As the person whose blog inadvertently brought them together, I'm the guest of honor. He moved out of state to live with her. Their combined household contains dachsunds, who are thoroughly spoiled, and at least one kitty who knew a sucker when he saw one.
I can't give too many details about Diva's situation, but here's the bare bones: after wonderful reviews at her job but tension with her immediate supervisor----who is extremely conservative and has a problem with Women With Opinions---he let her go abruptly when she refused a six Am meeting. The problem is, she'd done the correct paperwork-and-notification-thing weeks in advance for that date, which illustrates aptly what a shit this guy is, because you know why she requested the date off? It was her great aunt's ninetieth birthday. The lady in question sounds like she was a major inspiration to Diva, in addition to the rest of us. Gotta love these older ladies who say, "Fuck it, I got nothing to lose and no time to waste. Bring on the whiskey and the cholesterol!" (Not an actual quote, but you get the idea. ) Diva herself is not exactly quiet, but talking to her makes it apparent that anybody who finds her opinions or the way she expresses them somehow shocking either needs to get out more-----or stay inside entirely. Have you ever met one of those delightful people who, after one conversation, feels like someone you've known all your life? That's Diva.
The kitty who saw a sucker in the two of them is at the vet's and needs a lot of help, but he's beloved. Look at that face and tell me you don't understand. I'm sure you can figure that out. They're facing hundreds of dollars in kitty vet bills, even though Diva's got a bit of unemployment coming, and frankly, it looks like the guy who canned her might have overstepped in a way that will be officially recognized. Still, they're good folks, and they need help. If you can help, her paypal address is thedivalaments at gmail dot com.
And is it just me, or are bosses using the high unemployment rate to let go good workers out of sheer spite? Diva crossed her tees and dotted her eyes, so to speak, but hey, lotsa fish in the sea, it's a sadist's dreamscape. She's not the only good person I know who's in this boat. If you'll indulge me, let me introduce you to a couple more:
There's Adelheide, who's been a friend for more than ten years, on line and then in real life. She's had a bad run of luck, loaning money to friends who didn't pay it back and who turned out to not be friends at all when she asked for a modicum of repayment. That led to all kinds of repercussions, especially when she got downsized, lost her house, and then had her bills pile up and the bloodsuckers circle. She finally managed to file for bankruptcy when the bloodsuckers claimed they'd served her and a judge agreed-----when they'd served an address she hadn't lived at for three years, and which she had corrected them on repeatedly. One day while chatting with her on the phone, I discovered---quite against her will----that she had almost no food in the house beyond broccoli and rice, and she was too stubborn to ask for help, even though she's the first to offer it. She's been working temp jobs when she can get them, but here's the kicker: some of the temp agencies are going out of business! She just lost her dear, beloved Riley kitty, quite suddenly, and restarting unemployment till she can get another temp job might take a while. She visited me once, and proved herself to big a big, loud softie, a sucker for any kitty who batted his or her eyelashes at her, as well as for cranky vets like me. She kept yanking stuff out of my hands and telling me sternly that I wasn't supposed to be doing that, but....she won't ask for help. She doesn't know I'm doing this. She's the first to offer, but she'll eat bare rice because she's just not made to ask for help---she's the first to offer it, though. And then she'll take that big heavy thing out of your hands because, dammit, you need to sit down and rest, silly! Her paypal is adelheide10 at gmail dot com.
Chochiyo_samawas an exemplary school teacher for nearly thirty years before they abruptly canned her. Because they could. She, too, lost her beloved house and now lives in her mother's basement, two years from the retirement she would have gotten if people in her school district had any sense of honor at all. She's devoted her life to service, just as much as G has, and what has she got to show for it? She is, I fear, at the forefront of a punitive wave of abuse directed at teachers by people who fear that their children might have their minds open by that one incredible teacher who can make a difference in their lives, might change their lives.
How would you like it if you had to take a whole house and decide what to keep, have to decide what you could keep? That's what C_S had to do, and that's what people like her school district don't care about. She lost heirlooms, antiques, the very fabric of her life. Her story is being recreated all over the country, as some of the hardest-working people in the world---teachers----are treated like criminals and sometimes, it seems, toyed with, as once again, some employers seem to take advantage of the high unemployment rate to indulge in sadistic tendencies. What do you do with a life after it's ruptured from the outside, after a life time of repeatedly striving to do not just the right thing, but the idealistic one?
These are just four people that I was lucky enough to meet thanks to the Internet. I'm an injured veteran, confined to my house by crippling panic attacks and flashbacks that have essentially gone untreated, but every step of the way, I've seen people like this---suffering their own losses----step up and offer help to others. Every word of that sentence is true. People living on piddly amounts of social security offer a dollar or two for this person's vet bills, that person's mortgage, and so on. And when they're not helping others, what are they doing? They're paying their bills, they're putting money into the local economy, they're supporting small businesses, who in turn support other businesses and hire workers and pay taxes, and keep this economy going. All of them, if you offered them a job right now, would leap at it, because they believe in earning their way, nothing more.
Whatever these four people earned in payment, they turned around and paid taxes, bought food, supported other people, and were part of a community. If we could have the WPA and the CAA again, I'd be willing to bet that my friends would merely be a few amongst many volunteering for any job at all. Yet somehow, as a country we've gotten to the point where the idea of giving people jobs---and in class New Deal style, benefiting the country by way of works and projects---somehow gets promoted by Repubs as wasteful, profligate, and an example of the country's entitlement problem.
These people are four of the casualties of that mindset, and those policies. I know you don't know them, but I hope you'll consider helping them, and in doing so, you can be assured that they will promptly turn around and do extravagent things like pay bills.
The link to Diva and G includes a link to the animal hospital where Smoky is currently a patient, in case anyone would prefer helping with the bill directly.
I hope this is okay. Words are inadequate, because frankly, each of these people is a better person than I am, and yet they get treated like this. In a very real, small way, every day they work, every dollar they earn or receive, helps support many other people, and to get back to doing that, or to keep maintaining till they can once again do that, is more honorable than heroics, because they get up and do this every day, with no fanfare, no applause, and---as I hope I've shown somewhat--- no respect, though any one of them has been working for at least two decades now, at a bare minimum. Maybe that's why, ultimately, I'm a liberal. I see people like this, and I see those more deserving of compensation and support than any CEO.