What If?

What if you lost your job today? What if you became seriously ill and could no longer work? What if your entire world came crashing down throwing you into situations you were very unfamiliar with? I recently spent an evening lounging on the couch with my husband. We were watching a documentary by the BBC called "Poor America". It brings to light to the over one and a half MILLION American children who are considered homeless. It took us on a journey through the storm drains of Las Vegas where around 500 people live. We were shown children being interviewed about their eating, or lack thereof. We visited a tent city outside of Detroit. We were taken to rural Tennessee to a facility hosting free medical and dental consultations where hundreds of people were camped out by 2:00AM, battling the cold and the time until the facility opened.


Talk about enlightening! And upsetting. The United States has always been considered the land Of Plenty, where everyone had the chance to achieve "The American Dream". It seems that dream has became elusive, almost unobtainable for far more than the public realizes. For those who thought they had achieved the dream, then lost it all due to circumstances beyond their control, it has became a nightmare. The poor in our country are often ignored, sort of hidden by the media. Those shown on our local news are often portrayed as troublemakers, panhandlers making the "good people" nervous. Many times, they are labeled as useless, mentally unstable, lazy drug/alcohol using bums that put themselves in their situation and do not deserve our help, much less our pity. It's time to stop this way of thinking and it's time to stop it now. The truth needs to be told. It needs to be brought to the attention of every American who has been brainwashed that this type of thing simply isn't possible in the United States.

One of the segments went underground into the huge concrete storm drains under Las Vegas. With millions of dollars being blown above them, some 500 people live in these drains. Some may have a part time job providing a few bucks a day, maybe enough to eat on, but nothing to come close to getting them into a better situation. One couple spoke of a 2 foot wall of water that came washing through the drain during a rain. They lost what little they had, but it is a risk they have to take just to survive.

Another segment visited Detroit, Michigan. Anyone who has kept up with the news knows what dire straights this city is in financially. It almost looks like a war zone in some areas with all the abandoned buildings, including a police station and a school. Here we were introduced to a couple who lived in a tent city right off the interstate a few miles outside of Detroit. They were actually referred there by one of the homeless shelters in Detroit because the shelter was full. They had been living int his tent city over a year. Think about this for a minute - a tent, in Detroit, Michigan, for a year.

Off to Tennessee where we see a facility parking lot filling up in the very early morning hours. The facility is holding a free medical consultation for both medical and dental. A mixture of people, from children to adults to obviously handicapped are camping in their vehicles, some even ling up at the door wrapped in blankets to ensure they can be seen. When the reporter speaks to these people or they are heard talking during the filming, you can hear the obvious accent of these mountain folks and i can just imagine all the "dumb, redneck, ignorant hillbilly" remarks coming. before you fall into thinking such, be aware that these people, just like those in any other area, are simply hard working families trying to make it from one day to the next. we saw a man who could very easily die without some proper medical care, yet he has no insurance and no money to pay. But he does have a family.

The saddest of all, which is why I saved it for last, was when they were speaking with elementary school children and a few who worked at the particular school. One woman said she noticed the children taking handfuls of ketchup packets and putting them in their pockets. When she inquired about it, she learned the children were taking them home so they could make "ketchup soup" by adding water, just so they would have something to eat before going to bed.

A young boy of eight spoke of going to bed hungry, how his parents didn't make anything on some days and how it was hard to go to sleep with his tummy growling. He also spoke of how his parents are planning on giving up the baby the mother is pregnant with because they have no money to take care of the baby. He said it made him sad. This is simply too much for a child of eight to be worrying about.

The saddest of them all was a cute, tiny six year old girl who was a bit more quiet and reserved than the others. She spoke of her mother eating a rat because there was no food. Yes, a rat. Are you kidding me? Here, in the land of Milk and Honey, children have been forced to watch a parent eat a rat. What did the child eat? It didn't say, but I would bet the same as her mother. This child will never forget this memory. This should show how bad things truly are. It will cause disbelief at first, but hopefully it will cause anger, frustration with the way things are currently done and handled, and hopefully spur an overhaul, a change for the better and pave a new road to the American Dream.

Perhaps as a nation we need to first of all, stop sending money, medical supplies and medicines, food and everything else imaginable overseas. I am not against helping others, but we definitely need to help our own first.

You can watch TV commercials or go online to see the many charities asking for your donations to feed hungry children. Yet, rarely have I ever seen an American child. I have seen African, South American, Middle Eastern and many others. Why? I know there are people starving all over the world, and it truly is a sad thing, but what about feeding our own first?

In the town that I live in there is an international non-profit group called MAP International. They distribute medicines, medical supplies and other relief efforts, a total of FOUR BILLION dollars worth in 2011. Yet on their website, I saw nothing about any help within the United States. I'm not saying they don't provide for US citizens, but none were shown or spoken of. Not one American child featured, not one elderly American. I did see their "featured stories" box - De worming supplies to the Ivory Coast, helping a Kenyan village, and about Travel Packs (boxes of medicines and supplies) going to Haiti. Hmmm... nothing to the citizens of the United States? Not one tiny portion of the 2011 four billion? Why?

Just because you don't see something does not mean it does not exist. When you ignore a problem, it does not go away. Even if you see a problem, you will never solve it until you get to the root of what caused it. You have to ask questions, such as why our economy is is the state it is in. Why do we have so many people losing their homes? Why is our nation going broke? Why are many our elderly having to worry about losing some of the benefits they paid into their entire working lives when they already have to choose between medicine, food or heating? Why? And then figure out what we going to do about it?


Just about any working American will tell you our welfare system is severely broken. We have too many second, third and sometimes fourth generation recipients. We have allowed an "entitled" population who feel they deserve everything to be handed to them and they are breaking us. We have illegal immigrants feeding off of us. We have a failing educational system causing us to rapidly fall further and further behind the rest of the world. So many problems, but are there any solutions?

There are always solutions if people are willing to put in the work, the dedication and the sacrifices to make them happen. Excuses of "It's too difficult". "It's not politically correct", It's too much work" are simply not going to get it done. It's beyond time to suck it up and get busy.

Welfare - many years ago the government created two programs - the WPA and the CCC. The WPA (Work Projects Administration) put people to work doing jobs such as roads, bridges and construction projects. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) put young, unskilled men to work taking care of and developing our natural resources such as forestry lands and parks. Instead of just giving a handout in the form of welfare, why not reinstate such programs and have people to work? The government will still be "paying out", but at least we as citizens will get something for our money. When you put someone to work, you are also allowing them to have some pride as well as possibly learn a skill. This will flow over in tot he next generation, thereby breaking the entitlement mentality. Children learn by what they see around them. If they see working parents who pride themselves in being self sufficient, they will strive to be that way as well.

Illegal Immigration - When an illegal is found, it should mean immediate incarceration until such time as they can be deported back to their native country. The second time they are caught, they spend a minimum of 1 year at a work farm prison before being deported. The third time, or if they have been arrested within the United States for a violent or drug crime, they get a minimum of 20 years at a work farm prison. They will be forced to work on said farm, providing not only food & goods for the prison, but also for sale to the general public. The moneys reaped from these sales will go toward running the prison and to our Border Patrol. Woman who are caught will follow these same rules. Any children born in the United States will also be deported if their parents are here illegally. If someone wants to immigrate to the United States in the legal fashion I have absolutely no problem. The key point here is LEGALITY. Give our Border Patrol and law Enforcement the rights they need to enforce the above options.

Failing Education System - Start by firing inadequate teachers. Increase salaries of those who actually "teach" rather than just spend time at a school for a paycheck. Get rid of all the "work days" when students are not in school. Go back to the older schedules, such as school starts the Monday after Labor Day and ends the last Friday in May. Breaks will be the usual holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas (Winter break), Easter (Spring break), as well as any Federal holidays. Stop taking children from the crib and placing them in "school". A study by Cambridge University shows that children who are forced into school before the age of six are simply not ready. They are simply set up for failure because their minds are not ready for a curriculum. When they begin failing at such a young age, it often sets them up for future failure in higher grades. In other words, let our kids go back to being kids! School has became the nations babysitter. Even within the well-to-do, children begin their life with a babysitter or nanny until they are old enough for "school", as young as age 3 for many. Then, the school is responsible for them from early morning to afternoon, then often until early evening through after-school programs. Our kids are growing up without their parents. They are learning from their care givers, their teachers and whatever celebrity is currently at the top.

As for curriculum in general, make sure our children learn not only the basics of mathematics, reading/reading comprehension and English grammar skills (the old reading, writing, and arithmetic"). Make sure our schools are also teaching our children how to work, balance a checkbook, live on a budget, save for retirement or for a "rainy day" and how function and gain employment in our ever changing world. An educated society is much better equipped to run that society than an uneducated one. Give our schools the tools, from computer labs to college prep classes, from work study programs to apprenticeships for skills. We need to learn to be honest with ourselves - every child is simply not going to be a doctor, a lawyer,or a physicist. As a society, we will also need plumbers, carpenters, brick/block masons, landscapers/horticulturist, and other such craftsmen. Give our kids the educational choices and give them the reasoning skills to make the right choices. A person who is content within his vocation is more productive, happier, and has fewer health issues from stress related medical problems.

Our government is spending us into oblivion. Even I have the basic skills to figure out that you can't spend more than you make and expect to be out of debt. Do you realize that as of May 2011, China now owns 28% of our debt? Which means they own us! The credit rating of the United States is frightening. Leaders are voting themselves huge pay raises and benefits for life when they leave politics. They are giving "bail-outs" for companies to stay in business and create jobs, but the only ones benefiting are the top CEO's with their bonus packages and vacations. They are passing laws that may sound good, but they line the pockets of big corporations and their cronies. They are wanting to cut benefits that many working Americans have paid into their whole life. They want to raise the retirement age thereby saving money on paying Social Security. The rich just keep getting richer, it's politics as usual.

Meanwhile, we have children in the United States of America eating rat for dinner.