Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Starving in the Land of Plenty? My first-ever EBook

I did something yesterday I never dreamed of doing.

It wasn't earth-shattering, and will likely have no impact on anyone's life but my own, but I'm proud of myself for doing it.

My first-ever EBook, titled "Starving in The Land of Plenty? A guide to surviving life's curveballs," was published on Smashwords. It's basically a common sense account of the things I've figured out through being broke, and changes I should have made long ago.

But primarily, it's about being healthy while being poor, eating well and cheap, compromising, sharing, and caring about one another because we're all in it together.

Maybe now I can get back to writing my blog, and I can tell you about our new coffeehouse at my church, or our Glee Club debut during Sunday service this past week. Though it's the big things I rant about, it's the little things that make me happy.

I'm having cataract surgery tomorrow, and my eyeballs will be out of commission for a couple of days, but I wanted to share my EBook news with you.

Thanks for reading.

www.smashwords.com/books/view/58593

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Just shut-up, Mr. President and Congress, and fix my country

Is it wrong to tell your high-ranking elected officials to shut-up? 'Cause with all due respect (and there isn't much), I'm asking my president and Congress to please just stop flapping their jaws and do the job they were hired to do, and that is to run my country.

There has been too much partisan distraction with birth certificates, campaigning (it's way, way too early), finger-pointing, and crazy rhetoric, and I'm just sick of listening to it. I've been yelling at the TV far more frequently, and that's never a good sign.

I want them to focus on the insane gas prices and trying to keep America from going down the financial drain by reigning in spending, providing opportunities for businesses (not government) to create jobs, giving us back our misplaced dignity and self-respect ... to live the American Dream of achieving and prospering through our own hard work.

Somewhere along the line, we've been schmoozed and sweet-talked into believing they have our best interests at heart.

After so many empty promises and so many disappointments, I have to ask, "Are we stupid?" I'm thinking we have to be if we keep falling for the same old line from the same old people and expecting a different result.

That simple fact is what is giving legs to a Donald Trump candidacy, something that in and of itself should give us great pause. (Not that he's not a smart businessman, and it's not that what he says isn't mostly accurate. His delivery might need work, though, or we could find ourselves with China calling all of our loans due!)

There isn't a single candidate on either side of the debate that I feel I can trust or believe in. They're all part of the same corrupt system, beholden to the same corrupt entities.

Maybe we need to decide (REALLY this time) that we're going to demand that they actually serve the people rather than themselves.

Now -- right now -- is the time in our history that we need to stand up and be counted and make our voices heard. We can no longer allow ourselves to be uninformed and ignorant of the Ways of Washington. If we don't do it now, we may never get another chance. We're on the Eve of Destruction, and they're guiding the missile.

Join me in asking the president and Congress to stop talking and start acting and, for once, with the best interests of the citizens in mind rather than their own? Surely we deserve better, don't we?

Friday, April 29, 2011

$30 million for a wedding? Really?

I have to admit I'm among those who arose at the crack of dawn to watch Kate and Wills finally get hitched after 10 years of dancing around it, and I wasn't disappointed.

The elegant and classic wedding gown, colorful pageantry, angelic children's choirs, formal ceremony, and fancy garb of the guests at the Royal Wedding was all I imagined it to be. And the hats? Well, they were just crazy ...

But then I got to thinking about the cost of this whole affair, and had to wonder how anyone, regardless of wealth and status, could justify spending an estimated $30 million on a wedding when so many people the world-over are hungry and without shelter.

I mean, after all the natural disasters, and the nose-diving world economy, can you really keep a straight face while eating Biscuit Cake that probably cost more than my entire year's rent?

Now mind you I don't begrudge them a nice wedding, and I wish them the very best of everything. But don't you think they could have eloped and donated all that cash instead? Just sayin' ...

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Setting up a blog? Me?

As those of you who come by can see, the going is slow in Blog Building Land.

This is totally unfamiliar territory for me, and even the (supposed) foolproof idiot's guide to setting this up has stumped me with some XML issue.

So bear with me, dear friends.

A little progress has been made, but I've got a way to go yet.

Thanks for your support and patience.

Hugs,
Dianne

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Today, I met Barbara

Barbara. That's what she told me her name is after we had been talking for 10 minutes while sitting in a room waiting for assistance this afternoon.

She's a beautiful woman, middle-aged, clean, nicely dressed, well-spoken ...

During the course of the conversation, though, Barbara told me she had been living in the local homeless shelter since October. She had always worked hard, she said, but then she fell and shattered her wrist and hand, went through a long healing process, which caused her to lose her job, then her home, then her pride and sense of self.

As I listened to her tell me how someone had stolen some small juice containers out of her backpack the night before while she slept on the floor (she hadn't gotten to the shelter early enough to get an actual bed), I could see the stress of what is her life etched in every small line on her face.

I could see that she is mentally and physically frail, and that no one is more surprised by her situation than she is.

All I could think is, how can this happen in America? Yet I know it happens every day, to all kinds of people who never thought it would happen to them.

When I think of the billions we ship overseas every year to fight wars for, and give aid to, people who don't even like (nevermind appreciate) us, I get angry.

When I hear of the breaks given to multi-billion-dollar corporations to the point where they pay no tax, I get angry.

When people who have never worked a day in their lives are better off than those of us who did it the "right" way, I get angry.

But mostly, I am sad ... for Barbara and for all those like her.

I'm also afraid, because I'm a single personal disaster away from being Barbara; I can see myself in her spot if one thing in my carefully juggled world goes awry such as it did in hers.

We need to look into the faces of those who are homeless and see ourselves. The point is that most of us are Barbara, but for a bit of happenstance.

I don't know what the answer is, but I wanted you to know ... for Barbara's sake.

Friday, April 8, 2011

I Call Myself An American

By Dianne Eason

The United States of America, land of the free, home of the brave, where purple mountains sit majestically above the fruited plains …

That's the country I learned about as a little kid, or at least I think it is. Frankly, I don't recognize it anymore since we've become a population of divided, disinterested, disrespectful ego-maniacs and purveyors of our own self-serving agenda rather than that of one for the common good.

Some might take offense to that assessment, but we're all responsible for the way things are. We elect the politicians who make the policies that put the World Face on our country, and who create the good, bad and ugly edicts that govern us. We're all Americans, we're in a mess, and we allowed this negative state to happen with our indifference.

Does “need” now wear the face of greed?
Washington would have us believe that we are a nation of idiots and takers by the policies they create that suggest we're not capable of succeeding on our own good character and work ethic without their intervention, so they make us rethink what really is best for us. I mean, if it's supposed to help "everyone," and it's “free” we'd be selfish to think it's not a good thing, right?

The truth is, all the government is doing is making us more dependent on them, and nothing is free. Ever.
But there are those who eagerly take what it believes to be just that, and a government who willingly gives it and creates more and more bureaucracy to maintain the handouts. Someone ultimately pays for it, though, and it's often people who can't afford to.

Those people come from all walks of life, too, and we're all colors, all religions, all economic levels, all beliefs, etc. But the one common denominator is that we're all Americans, and that's how government needs to look at us.

Labels divide us
The words in Patrick Henry's last speech in 1799 – “United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” – are as relevant to our situation today as they were then.

When you put labels on groups of people – rich vs. poor, haves vs. have nots, entitled vs. those we don't deem deserving – you mentally divide them.

If we remember that Americans of all stripe get up and go to work every day (if they're lucky enough to have a job), worry about how they're going to pay their mortgage or rent, fuel their car, feed their family, keep their medical insurance, save for the future, if Social Security will even be there when they're older, how they're going to pay for their kids' college, if the kids will be able to find a job afterward, and wonder if at some point they might have to file for bankruptcy because they're in so far over their heads they can barely breathe, we can work toward a common goal.

Just because it looks like someone “has it all” doesn't mean they do. All it means is they put on a good show, and most often to their own financial detriment. They, like many who are visibly wanting, worry if they might end up homeless and destitute and if anyone, or at least their government, might care.

That is Real America, and that's where there is little hope for a future of good if we maintain the current course of division.

A self-serving government
Each time I tune into any one of the four or five different news channels I watch (all of which have their own partisan tilt), I am more and more disillusioned with presidents and lawmakers who can't relate to me, if for no other reason than they are ensured a secure retirement and medical care basely solely on the fact that they once “served” their government and the people. In fact, it's the “people” who end up serving them!

The reporters parrot the politicians' calls for “bipartisanship,” all while telling us what is wrong with the other guy's plan, or why they don't have one, or why it isn't what the “people” want.

Do any of them have a clue what the “people” really want? What they need? Are any of them really listening or willing to make the non-political, non-partisan compromises and concessions that will ensure a more stable and respected nation?

We want them to be Americans first
What the people want is a country that remembers the sacrifices that were made for the privilege we have of being free, and what “free” really means. We want a country that is “by the people, FOR the people,” as cited in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, not a clown show run by a bunch of self-aggrandizing rich guys caught up in a power grab and living in cushy digs on our dime in Washington! We want a country that is highly regarded and welcomed around the world, or at least one that nobody hates enough to want to blow up.

Instead, we have a country where all we hear is that it's the other guy's fault. It's the Democrats! No! It's the Republicans! No! It's the damned Tea Party and the Libertarians who have it all wrong! Every time a label is pasted on a point of view or belief, I ask myself why because I call myself none of those.

I call myself an American.

We are the people
I'm not a Black American, or a White one, or a Republican one, or a Native one, or a Democrat one, or a rich one, or a poor one, or a Mexican/Irish/Anglo, etc., one. I do not label myself, and I hold no allegiance to anything or any one group or any one philosophy except that of the one that is good for my country.

We may disagree on exactly what that is, but I think we can all agree that when our Congress stands fast along party lines on any given issue, regardless of whether or not there's room for reasonable compromise, you know they're not thinking about the country and therefore us.
If our elected representatives recalled for even one second what this country has represented to the world over the course of history, they'd be mortified by the image we now portray.

A new campaign and election cycle is fast approaching. When we choose who we will support and, ultimately who we will vote for, we need to remember who we are. We need to be Americans.