Sunday, May 31, 2015

So, you think you " support our troops."

All over the Internet there are memes that have the words: "I support our troops" along with photos of service people, active duty, retired, lost in combat, graves at Arlington, etc.  What do those words actually mean?

How many of us say those words or share those memes, especially on Facebook?  And that's the only thing we do.  We even fly the American flag from our homes and cars, we attach red, white and blue magnetic ribbons and decals on our cars to proclaim our support.  What does that do? Nothing.

Do we actively try to find a job for a vet who doesn't have one?  What are you doing about finding that homeless veteran a safe place to stay?  Do you donate time and/or money to legitimate groups who actually do these things for veterans?  How, exactly, do you support our troops?

There are those who demonstrate their support by actively and physically doing things to make veterans' lives better.  There are those who can send money to legitimate groups who help make veterans lives better once they come home.  These people are wonderful and I'm grateful that they do what they do.

But, like Congress, if you "support" the troops when they are off fighting in other countries but don't give a damn when they come back by not electing people who will support them physically, emotionally, making sure they can get jobs, housing, benefits (that were promised), top-notch health care and education, then you don't support the troops.

Talk is cheap. Posting memes on Facebook or slapping a magnetic ribbon on your car is cheap.  Back it up with real action, physical or monetary.  But back it up.  Don't make your words ring hollow.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

A Source of Money

People aren't lives.  They are a source of money.

I've lost two dear friends to cancer in the last fifteen months.  Each passed away about six months after diagnosis.  While I still can't wrap my head around the passing of such wonderful and young women, I feel intense rage at the machine that continues to rake in money through costly treatments that, for the most part, don't result in cures.

With all the money donated over so many years, ostensibly to fund the research to find a cure for this goddamn disease, there hasn't been the breakthrough I, and millions of others, expected..... a full cure for all of the different types of cancer.  This horrible malady should have been eradicated years ago.

What goes into "so-called" treatment?  Weeks, months and sometimes years of ingesting chemical cocktails, all in the hopes of "going into remission".  Even being in remission for a certain number of years is no guarantee that this dreaded disease won't come back in some form or another.

And the money for all this "hope"?  It all goes to the pharmaceuticals who reap in HUGE profits on the drugs they hawk, the researchers who find bits and pieces to the puzzle but never really come up with enough significant results to wipe it out completely, the cancer charities (some of whom are bogus like the few just shut down here in Arizona).

We are lulled into thinking pink ribbons mean something.  They don't.  "Running for a cure" is an admirable thing to do but that money raised goes partly into someone's pocket (sometimes a lot of it) or pays for the outlandishly expensive drugs (because profits, you know) or pays for telemarketing calls begging for more money, and, yes to research where finding A CURE FOR ALL CANCER still seems to be very elusive.

There are cures out there.  There has to be but Big Pharma would lose an enormous amount of money (profits) if they became widely known.  To them, people aren't lives.  They're a source of money (PROFITS).  And so I lose friends. I feel rage. And I cry because that's all I can do.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

I'm your next blog!

Okay, I was going through my FaceBook page and came across a funny meme. I wanted to read it to my husband who was watching television.  I asked him to mute the sound and watched while he poked the remote here and there, changed channels, brought up the Guide and generally looked bewildered trying to "mute" the damn thing.

I just couldn't hold it in any longer and proceeded to split my sides laughing and laughing and laughing.  I was guffawing so much I couldn't read the meme to him at which time he said to me, while laughing, "I'm your next blog."

The TV remote seems to be a complete mystery to him.  I think, sometimes, that he'd prefer the old buttons on the TV.  To say that he is tech-deficient would be an understatement.  But he sure does provide the reason for a lot of laughter in this house which he good-naturedly endures.

Still laughing so hard, I managed to croak out to him that I'll do the blog and include the joke.

Here it is without the photo of Bush accompanying it:

Donald Rumsfeld briefed the President this morning. He told Bush that Three Brazilion soldiers were killed in Iraq. To everyone's amazement, all of the color drained from Bush's face, then he collapsed onto his desk, head in hand. Finally he composed himself and asked Rumsfeld, "Just exactly how many is a brazilion?"

So, here's to my husband, who always provides the funniest off-the-cuff moments.  No wonder I have so many lines on my face.  They're all laugh lines!