So you all know that my mom’s life hangs in the balance and I’m still asking about prayers. So how did we get here…
[You may or may not care, but I do… and when I’m going through stuff have to communicate. It’s what I do… I’m a natural blogger. It wouldn’t matter if I was tech blogging or not… I have to write.]
My dad worked 30+ years for J&L Steel in Lousiville, Ohio. Like us programmers they kept adding to what he did (and then changed his title). He was a maintenance guy. I don’t know what all he started doing but by the time was done they had combined 3 or 4 different positions into one. My dad went to welding school and learned about hydraulics.
None of this is really important, but if your a programmer look at the similarities. Where I just worked they had gotten rid of all the Project managers and combined that with the regular resource managers (although they all through alot of the work on the developers). There were hardly 3 BA’s in the company to get requirements (for at least 25–60 developers), so you can guess who was gathering requirements. The QA department was shut down… In the midst of this they kicked up our paperwork for our SLDCS process. It’s just like my dad… He went from simply greasing machines, replacing filters, to full hydraulic work, became a welder, and I have no idea what else.
So he put in 30 years, for my mom and me. When it came time they decided that he needed to get out. Co-workers were dropping like flies from cancer. Dad was a afraid of leaving us. He retired with enough money for them to survive and come to Florida to visit us. They also had full insurance… they had to pay a little bit, but they had full insurance. As you know unions sign contracts periodically… so 3 years later the company negotiated that there either needed to be a pay cut or the insurance had to go. The vote happened and my dad who was now a life long memeber of the union was not allowed to vote. So, my mom and dad lost their insurance. I think they were about 55 years old at that point. They were offered to be able to buy into the plan if they would pay the full amount. The full amount was over half their monthly pension (which of course was fixed). They couldn’t afford it. My mom had been dignosed with diabetes (long before this), and so they had trouble finding alternate insurance; my mom did call me and tell me that they had insurance, but I found out this week that they let it lapse because it had gotten so expensive to snowbird in Florida with us 6 months. My mom also decided to let their life insurance lapse. In effect they have nothing.
What do I think of this? I think our politicians have let us down in the USA. I’m not saying we need national coverage like Canada (or several other countries), but my dad retired with a contract… the company is still in business… why were they allowed to cancel his coverage or basically tell him sorry we can’t offer you something affordable.
I would like to have the guys who decided this together in a room for 5 minutes. Everyone would walk back out, but I would land into them. Oh yeah, by the way, Thank you George W. Bush and the Republican congress for doing what the credit establishment wanted and changing the bankruptcy laws so that my dad and mom can’t even declare bankruptcy from this (they took away the 2 most common reasons for bankruptcy here in the US: medical, and credit card). What did the rest of the American people get? Did we get a do not mail list for credit card apps? Did we get a cap on medical expenses? Nope, we got nothing… it’s all about corporate interests.
Sorry, I’m pissed about all this… and it’s even worse that I had no idea. My mom always preached to me to keep my insurance up and then she has none when this happens.
I would like to encourage you my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to remember that NO political party has your interests at heart… they are only trying to figure out how to steer their agenda that it gains your vote. If you think the US Republicans are God’s party… you better go look at the first great Republican: Abe Lincoln. Abe said that everyone says “Might Makes Right. I think that right makes might.” In the old testament God repeatedly warned Israel leaders to remember the poor and the powerless because that was going to gain God’s favor… today we favor the rich and powerful and fight to push “morality” but we don’t really want to talk about what the scriptures say about justice… The Democrats have the opposite problem when they talk about tolerance… tolerance does not mean acceptance that every way is right… it doesn’t work that way (I’m making a general statement).
Sorry I had to get that out… it’s been inside of me for a long time. Sorry, if I offended a few of you, but you cannot continue following the party line and calling it godly... it's not. I would highly recommend the book God's Politics by Jim Walls (go look it up on Amazon). It talks about both sides and where they've gone wrong, and what we should do about it.