The Difference Five Years Can Make

I am not prepared to analyze the downhill slide our country has gone through since President Bush lied to our country and declared war on Iraq. So I am going to approach this subject from a personal level.

All I know for certain is that five years ago today, my cousin, Pvt. Kelley Prewitt was new to the Army. And his first thought upon hearing that we were at war was probably “Oh, shit.”

Five years ago he had joined, like so many do, to get his life together. Five years ago, his parents had a son. His sisters had their brother. His comrades had his dedication. And sweet home Alabama had his heart. Five years ago, at age 24, Kelley had a future.

Less than one  month into the war, his life was blown apart by an Iraqi ambush. It had been 11 months since he enlisted. His funeral will always stand out in my mind as a symbol of motherly love, loss, overwhelming grief and waste.

The numbers of those who have joined him sickens me. Almost 4,000 of them.

May they rest in peace.

What Would You Do For Free Health Care?

I watched the Michael Moore movie “Sicko” last night. I should have watched it sooner.

Since 2005 when my son was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, I have spent every minute of every day worried about health care, and worse, health insurance. Now I feel like an idiot. What am I doing in this country? Being born here is only so much of an excuse.

Just knowing that the prisoners at Gitmo are getting free, state-of-the-art medical care is enough reason for me to leave this pitiful excuse for a health care system behind.

I just lost my job. I have six months of unemployment coming to me. My son is 16, and too sick to keep his grades up.  Why not withdraw him from high school? His plan is to get better (hopefully through surgery), get a GED and go on to college for web design.

But he has to get better. My husband and I have been working our asses off for two years to pay for insurance that may or not pay the doctors, who have taken their sweet time running tests and trying medications that have not worked. Medications that costs more than I will ever have. To think that in France, or even Cuba, my son would be treated like a human being with an illness. Not an insurance card.

My husband wants to stay here and work, and we are having problems anyway. So why not just go? Why not just drive from Alabama to Canada and start over? I can get a job. I have nothing to lose at this point, except money and time. And I’ve spent both on less important things.

Anyone got advice on this?

Coverage of Campaigning Not Entertaining

I feel nostalgic for a time when all our nation had to worry about was judging other people.

Remember back when we could worry about blow-jobs in the Oval Office, what Monica was wearing, and Linda Tripp’s face lift? When we could elect people based on how they felt about moral issues, even things that would never affect most of us, like abortion and gay marriage? Now in the face of things like the war, oil prices, the mortgage crisis, and lack of health care a little extramarital fling seems like nothing.

I am already sick of this presidential race. The fact that the writer’s are on strike means I have few 30-minute comedy breaks from the constant coverage. I mean, the actual election is a year away. A lot can happen in a year. Someone could die, have a sex scandal, yell awkwardly (ala Howard Dean), come out of the closet, get busted, have someone carry them away on a gurney (ala Britney Spears) or dance as bad as any Caucasian in history (oh wait, that already happened on Ellen.) I actually hope something does happen, because the litany of lame arguments are starting to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher.

If my household is any indication, we are all bias over the stupid stuff anyway. Huckabee plays bass, and in my husband’s and son’s opinion, that makes him fit to run our country. While he doesn’t suck, and probably doesn’t have time to jam with us, I don’t know if that makes him presidential material. On the other hand, look at what our current system of qualifications has gotten us.

All I needed is one more reason to cut the cable off. And today I get a friggin’ letter from Charter Cable with price increases. The DVR is going… there is nothing to record. For Christ sake, at this point everything is a rerun.

When are the writers going to realize that the world is going to probably go on without them? That maybe when everyone is whispering about a recession, along with the fact that writers are replacable, it isn’t a good time to be making demands. Not that the demands weren’t justified… but the timing was off. Pick your battles, that’s all I’m saying. If the country had nothing going on but W and Condaleeza caught doing some cowboy and African Queen role-playing, maybe we would care more. Maybe we would be outraged about the unfairness suffered by talented people, people unlike most of us, who are lucky enough to make money being creative. Especially now when we need the distraction.

Now, where was that book I was looking at?