Monday, February 20, 2012

I'm the problem

One day in 2004 I was sitting around on my massage chair watching my 60 inch television and it hit me, I am what is wrong with America today. I don’t know exactly when but we have gone from a country of hard working men and women who where happy just getting by to a possession society where we had to have the newest and biggest toys.

My parents never cared what they had, all they cared about was that myself and my brothers had cloths on our backs and food on the table. Our big expense was a family vacation once a year to Sea World or another amusement park, we got things we wanted but on special days like our birthday or Christmas. Both my parents worked 40 hours a week and for a while my mother had a second job, our best memories aren’t when they bought us things but when we spent time together as a family.

Since that day in 04 I have scaled back my life, living within my means and not going out and buying things I really don’t need. Our phone was out for a few days and with my father being disabled and the closest payphone over a mile away I broke down and finally got a cell phone. When my giant television went I broke down and bought another one and yes it is a big screen but in my defense my “job” is staying awake and taking care of my father between 7pm and 8am so I watch a lot of shows. I am still using a VCR to record shows and haven’t invested in any other recording devises even though tapes are almost impossible to find anymore and when I went into a store looking for some the girl working thought I was crazy.

When you walk down the street and see a couple hundred people standing in a food line looking for what might be their first and only good meal in a couple days then you see a couple thousand people standing in line waiting to be the first person to put down 500.00 for an I-Phone it really makes you wonder about priorities. When you consider yourself poor because you don’t have the newest phone or the hottest video game maybe you should think about the people who are really hurting, the ones who have lost their home and are living in their car or on the street.

I’m not saying having a roof over your head or a refrigerator to keep your food cold makes you rich but maybe we should be a little more thankful for the things we do have and remember that there are people in this country who are not even blessed with these. America is the richest nation on earth and to have children going without food or healthcare is a disgrace and for people to fight for their “right” for lower taxes and trying to take away safety nets for the poorest and oldest among us is a disgrace. I’m not rich but would be more then happy to pay a few more dollars and give up the newest gadget if it means a child would get to live longer or a grandparent can get the medicine they need.

I don’t have a million dollars in the bank but I do have a roof over my head and my family to me that is worth more then any amount of money can buy. It took me over 25 years to realize that but I’ve never been happier then I am now, even without the hottest toys or newest car. As long as I have people who love and care about me I will always be rich.

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