Who can tell me sth about the American Dream

[lookout123]

the question that began the thread has been answered. you summarized it very well. from there it moved into the assertion that the american dream exists only for comfy middle class folks. most of us disagree with that because as you pointed out the american dream is an idea not a benchmark. money doesn't equal happiness. there are folks who are living their american dream on $25K per year and there are folks who are still scrambling to achieve the dream who make $250K per year. the phrase "american dream" is misleading, it should be "american's dream" - so that everyone could understand it, like much in this country, is about the individual.

[ladysycamore]

edit: my point is that if i can do it, anyone can. i'm sure there are some here that would point out that i'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, i still support bush afterall. its not easy. it is scary. it is embarrassing. but it is possible.

Exactly..possible. Anything's "possible" and nothing is guaranteed.

"Until you have walked in my shoes, you do NOT have the right to tell me what route to walk". Dr. George Keller

[lookout123]

that is the point LSyc. it is possible, not guaranteed. that is why it is called the american dream, not the american promise. we are guaranteed Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. notice that the key to that is pursuit ? everyone has the ability to chase their particular golden ring. it is up to the individual with a little bit of luck thrown in to achieve financial success. it is also up to the individual to live a happy life.
i'm probably butchering the quote but i always liked the idea - "happiness is having what you want, contentness is wanting what you have" - or something along those lines.

[ladysycamore]

Originally Posted by lookout123

that the world you see isn't reality. you choose to be a victim. you choose to bitch and moan about what you can't do. you choose to obsess about what stands in your way. you choose your life - don't blame it on america.

Reality, eh? YOUR reality isn't HER'S nor is it mine. Are you on disability? Are you dealing with a chronic illness? Are you finding it hard to find work because of your schedule of various doctors appointments, etc.? I suspect the answer is no. So what if she bitches and moans about her situation...you know nothing about how she lives because you do not live it. I have a small idea of what she is *feeling* because it's a goddamned bitch trying to work with a system that doesn't seem to be willing to help you out and trying to make adjustments in order to live a halfway normal life.

money doesn't equal happiness.

Speak for yourself. I certainly wouldn't mind a lot of extra cash right now. It certainly would make things more "happier" for me. I'm not even gonna lie...

(SIGH!) Okay, folks. I really was not interested in making this some discussion about me or my disability. The following is NOT whining; it's since you all asked. And I am NEVER going to write about this stuff again; in the future I will refer anyone who wonders to this post.

My long term memory which includes my years of education and professional training are intact, so are my verbal skills. These things are hard-wired in, so to speak. What I have difficulty with is my short term memory, my ability to concentrate, my spatial memory, and worst of all, I have gone what I call "blind" to time. My 15 minutes is your two hours. I have lost what psychologists call my executive function which is my ability to make a plan and take the steps to see it through to completion.

The posts that I write are seldom longer than a page, and usually consist of a couple of paragraphs. This writing reflects my old intact skills. I use the fact that I can go back down and refer to what everybody else has written as an aid to my memory so that I can respond in context to what has already been written. I cannot sustain writing something that goes much beyond three pages. It is too much for me. I get distract, go off and do something else and forget what I was trying to write.

Difficulty with spatial memory does not mean that I cannot drive the streets of my home town. That's an old memory. My short term memory is not that I forget that I'm at a red light or that a car is on my left hand side. I am aware of these things, but that short term awareness does not get stored into my long term memory anymore. When I get home, I could not describe the details of my drive to you.

When I am in an unfamiliar place, I often become lost. On this last trip (which it took me literally 4 days to pack my car for), I became lost 4 or 5 or 6 times. Once I was lost for an entire day on a maze of back roads. Lucky for me I had just filled my gas tank before that happened. I carry a book of 15 minute quads of the state and I also have an inexpensive GPS unit to help me figure out my coordinates. Despite the GPS and maps, I was still completely baffled as to where I was. When I wrote of my adventure on the Ute res in another thread, I had to stop because it was dark, I had been routed onto an unfamiliar road, and I had lost my bearings. I drove around northern New Mexico that night until 2:00 am when I finally lucked upon a small town I remembered from the old days and was able to get back on the right road. My friends have learned not to get too concerned about me if I don't show up when I'm supposed to. "Oh, how long we're you lost for this time?" they'll joke. I will also sometimes experience several minutes or more of complete blankout as to where I am. I'll be driving down the road and suddenly realize that NOTHING looks familiar and I don't know where I'm going. At such times I have to pull off the road and just sit quietly for a while until I become re-oriented. These are scarey experiences, and I am quick to pull over to the side of the road and get out of other driver's way when they happen to me.

Loss of spatial memory also means that I do not remember new faces. I can talk to someone I have been newly introduced to for an hour and the next day pass them on the street without knowing who they are. It takes me at least 4 or5 encounters with someone before I can begin to recognize them as someone I know. For example, when I first moved into where I now live, my landlord came to my door one day and I had no idea who he was even though we'd spent an hour or more talking only the week before. That's scarey and makes me fearful of new people because I always feel they know something that I don't.

Clodfobble, you are very quick to judge. The reason why I get so little from SSDI is that I refused to apply for disability for a long time after this happened to me. I considered going on disability to be a personal defeat. I attempted jobs as a gardener, a janitor, a dishwasher, ANYTHING to earn some money. In every single case I was fired from every job I attempted for being too slow and because of my difficulties with arriving on time. My short term memory lost manifests itself as an inability to rember what I should be doing - I "ping" from thing to thing and never get back to my original task. Does your city have those people who sell flowers on street corners? Well, mine does, and I tried that, too. I stood on the corners of my city's street holding out carnations to passing drivers. To keep my spirits up, I would play that song by Jewel, "Hands" on my cheap little boombox...

"My hands are small, I know; but they're not yours, they are my own and I am never broken...I won't be made useless. I won't be idled by despair. I've given myself to my faith. Its light the darkness most fears..."

Don't you DARE tell me I think I'm too good to attempt menial work. Don't judge a person before you've walked in their shoes.

I could go on, but I would think that the above should be sufficient. If you still want to judge me. Go ahead.

[glatt]

Mari, thanks for sharing that information. It's none of my business, but I'm curious. What's your situation now? You don't seem to be camping anymore. Where do you live? Is someone helping you? How do you have internet access? At a library? Again, it's none of our business, but I'm curious.
Thanks.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

All-American WalMart? They're public enemy #1!!!!!!! They have done more to contribute to the decline in America, than all foreign companies combined. They are a bigger boon to China than rice. They've put more Americans out of work than automation.

Okay, not to hijack the thread too badly -- how do you feel about Target? (pronounced "Tar-jey" around here...)

- Pie

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Pie

Okay, not to hijack the thread too badly -- how do you feel about Target? (pronounced "Tar-jey" around here...)

- Pie

I was wondering the same thing. I never shop at Walmart. Mostly because they aren't around here. But I do shop at Target. They are a good clean store with decent employees. Much nicer than the Walmarts I've been to.

Are they as evil? I never noticed that they had rock bottom prices on anything. I mostly just shop there because they have a lot under one roof.

Also, what about Home Depot? Lots of Mom and Pop hardware stores have gone belly up because of the Despot.

Originally Posted by glatt

Mari, thanks for sharing that information. It's none of my business, but I'm curious. What's your situation now? You don't seem to be camping anymore. Where do you live? Is someone helping you? How do you have internet access? At a library? Again, it's none of our business, but I'm curious.
Thanks.

I was finally awarded my SSDI and got a back payment last June. In addition, my story appeared in a local paper and a retired Air Force Colonel who had been a professor of Russian history at the US Air Force Academy stepped forward with a very generous offer of financial help which allowed me to pay the rent on the cottage I now live in through next Feburary. The money from SSDI allowed me to replace my battered lap top with a new computer and I have a phone which I get a small discount on the bill for. I get dial-up access to the net through AOL. I just keep putting in new disks with the free offers of hours. I am very concerned about what my situation will be next Feburary if I have not recieved a housing voucher by then. I pray a lot.

And, BTW, I bet there won't be another word written in this thread by Brianna, Clodfobble, Lookout and anyone else who just were dying to turn this thread into their own little spam fest against me. It really makes me angry that what started out as an impersonal political debate had to degenerate into what it did, and then have the people who turned it personal slink off without another word. I can understand why people might be confused about my situation, but if I'm not writing about myself why do they insist that I do? I shouldn't allow myself to become upset over a few cyber strangers, but I am. People are soooooo STUPID! On one hand they say I appear intelligent and on the other they say I'm faking it. Well, if I'm so smart and I was lying, wouldn't I dumb down my posts and play the role of the popular image of a brain injured person? Like: itz werrie hard forr mee tooo tipe now *(3 my hans don werlk rite 86 and eye ferget n whut i wuz sayin..."

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Just had to add that. Sorry, but I now have anger problems along with my other difficulties

[Trilby]

Here are three words written by Brianna: Borderline. Personality. Disorder.

and, folks, it's not me!

Originally Posted by Brianna

Here are three words written by Brianna: Borderline. Personality. Disorder.

and, folks, it's not me!

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

[Trilby]

it was thoughtful. I'm no rookie to these things, you know.

Originally Posted by Brianna

it was thoughtful. I'm no rookie to these things, you know.

Right. I am in a very bad mood today, and tag you're it. You've proven you can dish it out, now let's see if you can take it.

To begin with you claim that you were an RN for 25 years and yet you don't even know basic science as shown by your confusion of CO with CO2. You tried to write that off as a typo. So just how skilled a nurse were you anyhow? Did you make similiar "typo's" when administering medications to your patients?

You claim a person can become an RN with a 2 year degree. True enough 25 years ago, but today the nursing profession is steadily moving forward to require stiffer academic requirements for the RN certification, and the baccalaureate degree is becoming the norm. No doubt while you were still in your profession you were subjected to a certain amount of pressure to upgrade your academic credentials, and you couldn't make the grade because you don't even know the basic fundamentals of freshman biology and chemistry. In addition to that, your treatment of your patients was lacking in compassion and empathy just as your posts are on this board.

In other words, you were burned out - "Have you seen the RN's this country has been churning out? All you need is a heartbeat."

Great pride you took in your profession, there. No doubt you woke up one morning with a pulled back muscle (back problems are an occupational hazard in the nursing profession) and trotted right down to your human services offices with your disability claim. You had private health insurance and private disability insurance and you knew the right people (and they were probably happy to see you go) and viola'! A nice fat disability check for life. How nice for you.

Somewhere along the way you picked up a superiority complex - no doubt from those "God-like" doctors you had to work with everyday - which you use to cover up your deep seated feelings of low worth - "if you have an IQ of 80 you can do the nursing program! hell, you don't even have to speak English."

To compensate for this you have become a self appointed expert on any topic which may arise including the SSDI system. You and I both know that your private disability insurance company held your hand and walked you through the SSDI process and makes up the gap between what SSDI really gives you and the amount you recieve on your disability check.

"Starting out, recent measly 2 year grad, I made 50K." "I've worked in the ss system for 25 years." I see. You worked in the social security system for 25 years. That means you would have started your career in the late seventies. No one paid nurses 50k back then. They barely make that much now. Or did you start out as a government worker and change careers? Your statements don't match up. You are obviously twisting your story to make it look as though there's some validity behind your words.

You smugly state that "FEDERAL SSDI takes 2-4 months in Ohio. The award is 1271 single, 2570 for a woman with two kids." Anybody who knows ANYTHING about the SSDI system couldn't help but laugh at such a ludicrous statement. I don't have the faintest idea where you got those figures. Maybe that's what your private insurance pays. It sure ain't how the Feds do it.

You have consistently given false information in your posts and used extremely misleading wording. Your credibility is non-existant. For someone who is "no rookie at these things", the ignorance you display is appalling . Thank God for your helpless patients that you no longer work as a nurse.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by marichiko

So what's your point, Bruce? Did she get the extra $1100 because she was dishonest and cheated on her tax return? If so, I'd be mad, too. I don't advocate dishonesty. Or did she get the extra $1100 for earned income rebate as a single Mom of 2 boys? That's a family of three living on less than $1400/month from the information you give. If that's all she earned, I don't see how she managed to make ends meet, and you begrudge her a lousey extra $1100? Give me a break. Why aren't you angry over the $50 billion that your taxes are helping to pay towards rebuilding Iraq?

Oh, really? Low income people everywhere will be delighted to hear this. Perhaps you should make this astonishing news of government largesse more widely known to the world. A single person who earned over $7,000 a year was required to pay income tax in 2003. The Federal guidelines for the poverty level is anyone living on less than $9,310.00 a year. That means that people living in poverty are required taxes, so what's this "the poor don't pay taxes"?

I'm not begruging her anything just pointing out not all the poor pay taxes. Remember high horses make for long falls.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I'm not begruging her anything just pointing out not all the poor pay taxes. Remember high horses make for long falls.

Well, I think we misunderstood one another then, Bruce. That was my point about a million posts back (I think) that anyone who gets more than 7K a year pays taxes. I've been a tad grouchy lately, in case you haven't noticed.