New Year, New Alternator

Today I was blessed by my friend, and the candidate I work for. He fixed my car. I have an 12 year old minivan that was given to me 3 years ago. It has had little issues here and there as any old car has. But I am able to fix it for far less than a new car. This last repair came at a time when I just did not have the money to pay the mechanic. And we had just paid to get my husband's 11 year old car a new starter. So it sat till I could get the money for the part. Not a big deal, we had taken a break from our homeschool group, so we did not really have to go anywhere.

For Christmas my father offered to buy the part. I just had to provide the person. So Troy Stanley, Candidate for U.S. House came by and pulled the part. He came by today since we had gotten the new part & put it all back together.

I had to laugh, cause he is preparing to go to an event tonight in Lake City, and yet, here he was, putting in an alternator and new battery in my car so I could have it to go to the grocery store tomorrow. How more 'of the people' can you get. He is in touch with the reality of 90% of his constituents. He knows what it is like to know that you have to sometimes make a schedule to use the one car you have, or maybe two cars shared between 4 driving adults, 3 of whom are in college.

This year at the Christmas party for the local Republican party, we saw our opponent. I say saw because he never came to say hello to our group. We were waiting there, and even attempted to get close...but no. A brief moment he granted the gathering. That was it. No Merry Christmas greeting. No having some soda or a couple meatballs with the people who he works FOR! Not a show of gratitude to the group that is instrumental in getting him in this office he holds.

Why? What emotion, or character trait prevented him from greeting his opponent with a friendly hello, handshake & 'may the best man win' joke? Has he become so distant from the people he works for?

And I wonder, could you imagine him coming by a friends house on the way to a campaign stop to install an alternator? I doubt the idea of having an 11/12 year old van would even be something he would entertain. Perhaps, all our politicians should be required to drive what their average constituent drives.
Wouldn't that be a wake up call to all those in that Ivory Rotunda in Washington.

~~v

Health Care Debate

Well, I find it ironic that the day the House is debating Health care, I had to avail myself, or rather my husband of our nations horrid health care system. You see, he was mowing the lawn. It had gotten rather tall in one area under a trampoline and wham, he ran over a piece of aluminum piping and it shot out and hit him extremely hard in the ankle. It immediately started swelling and by the time he was in the house it was black and developing a huge goose egg. Not knowing if it hit bone exactly, we knew we needed to have it checked out sooner rather than later.

So off we went. I thought about hitting the closest ER but then remembered that Solantic ( local group of urgent care centers) was open and usually a bit faster. For non life threatening emergencies, they are perfect. You have ex-ray, labs etc right there and you know walking in (thanks to their handy medical menu) how much every service they offer will be.

Now, we are blessed enough to have health insurance through my husband's job. This was not always the case. For 3 years while he went to law school and the first year he was a contractor for the state, he had no insurance. We learned to use Solantic wisely. With their up front pricing, I knew how much it would cost to get a throat swab if my son's throat hurt. I knew that if we needed an ex ray and a cast, how much exactly it would be. Sometimes, with my primary care doctor, I would have no idea and they were often very reluctant to quote me a price for a visit. "It depends" they would say. "between $50-$700, depending on what we think needs to be done." Then they would just do test after test and then hit me with a huge bill.

So we walked into Solantic, checked in, got him in a wheelchair and within 20 minutes was in a room getting him ex rayed. In another 10 minutes, the doctor walks in and explains it is not a broken bone, just a horrible contusion. Tells him to stay off of it, gets a nurse to wrap it with an ace bandage, gives us crutches and a prescription for some pain meds.

Within the hour we were in and out with everything we needed.

Now, yes, had the ankle bone been broken, then we would have needed more. Maybe even have gone to the hospital where he may have needed more invasive treatment. And had that been so, we would have done it.

But how many people go to the hospital ER rather than going to one of these type of facilities when they break their nose, or their arm. When they have a sinus infection or horrible sty in their eye. They do that because they do not have a urgent care facility in the area. Or they have no insurance and they know they can skip out on the bill at an ER if it is too high, but maybe not their regular doctor.

But wait, here is the interesting part. While in the room waiting for the ex-ray to be completed, I heard the doctor in the hall saying "Well, when we have socialized medicine, we could be done by now since we would have met our quota. We wouldn't have to work so hard to help the rest that come in, that is how it will be with Obamacare." WHAT!!!! He went on to say " Everyone wants nationalized healthcare...so that is what they will get. It will be crap"

Wow, and he is a doctor. Not a rich overly paid specialist. Just a guy working at an after hours and weekends urgent care center, seeing lawnmower jockeys, skateboarding fiends, snotty nosed kindergartners and moms with backaches. And he doesn't want socialized medicine.

You know what, neither do I. And at one time, I was one of those uninsured who wanted health insurance. But there are better ways. Much better ways.

Welcome to my rant

Ok, here I am. I am doing this in response to many of my friends saying I needed to blog. I have now both a personal blog and now this, my political and social commentary blog.

To let you know a bit about me. I am a 30-something mother of a son. I always wanted 6 kids, but God has plans otherwise, so I am mothering many many other children in life through church, soccer and neighboring. My husband is an attorney that deals with helping abused, neglected and abandoned children. With his job, he has seen how the policy of the welfare state has damaged generations of families. The new mentality that no longer counts personal responsibility has ruined our society...here and all over the 'developed' world.

I am a conservative, both social and governmental. However, over years of learning the constitution and realizing that you can not legislate morality have come to the conclusion that most issues should fall to the states in regards to things like abortion, gay marriage, public religious displays etc. This will create a balance in the country where those who want to live a certain way, live in a certain state. We are a union of states. Very different people chose to live in separate places in the beginning of our countries existence. This was not only due to the resources of each location, but due to the pre-civil war existence of State's Rights. Today, we have lost sight of the fact that our Federal government should be smaller and less involved in our daily lives than our State government.

So here we are.

Today I have this question. Based on watching some of the streaming of events in the Capital today. Where was my Representative?
Can someone tell me where was Ander Crenshaw during the address of the rally? Why did he not use his (as he says) considerable influence of position (on the appropriations committee) to make a statement and show the nation, his constituints, and his fellow Republicans that he was going to hold them accountable?

That is what I want to know for today. Anything else you want me to talk about...or weigh in on, let me know.
~~Phat Mama V