A thought provoking note

The following is a note from a person I never met. The ideas are frightening when you consider where our economy is heading financially. (and taking a great many of our citizens)


Thoughts from a homeless guy now that I'm back on my feet

I won't ramble too much. Most stories are the same. I just want to tell you what I notice now that I'm stable.

-- Here's me: At age 18 I was a drug mule and got busted on my first trip. My first time, but the amount (marijuana) was enormous and I got 4 years. First two years out, I had some bad luck with roommates; got robbed so much by my own roomies I had to move out but was then immediately hit by the back-rent no one paid. No one could be located except for -- guess who -- me.

-- I had the apartment's lawyers and the phone company chasing me for money. How'd you like to hire somone who has at least two garnishments you have to figure out for each paycheck? Also, would you like to lease an apartment to a guy who has an unpaid judgment from his last apartment? Don't forget the convicted felon part.

So, I was homeless for about 4 years until the manager of a car dealership took a chance on me and now I am the manager of our detailing department.

Okay, so what are the things that I really appreciate?

-- Light switches: In a shelter, lights come on, lights come off and you have no say. The ability to control your own lighting is a big deal.

-- Access to toilets: Ever hear someone mention how those 'disgusting' homeless guys pee outside? Where else should we? The search for a place to relieve yourself is a constant problem when you are on the streets.

-- Weather: I don't pay much attention to weather anymore. On the streets, weather is your life. A homeless guy rummaging for newspapers only wants one section, the weather report. If you can read, and you know the weather, you will have every dude you know asking what is coming.

-- Clean water: Are you impressed with the cleanliness of your average gas station restroom? How'd you like to drink from that sink?

-- Not losing things: Homeless shelters are life-savers in bad weather, but they are also a guarrantee that you will lose all your stuff. Either it's stolen while you sleep, or the shelter staff told you you have to leave it outside. Secret hiding places never are.

-- Night fear: You never stop being afraid of being outside at night. Think it's scary to have a breakdown at night? Someone gets mad, gets drunk or gets mean, you are going to be the first person they find.

-- Internet: I am now an internet addict. I got arrested in 1997 and I barely heard of the net back then. When I got my job in 2005, I got sent to a computer class right away. When I got my own place six months ago, I went all out and got my own computer plus an internet line. It is like magic. I cannot get enough of it.

-- Health Care Fear: Did you hear about that Bumfights video? It's BS! No homeless guys are going to fight. We never fight each other because everyone is afraid of getting hurt. You hear about guys who sprain their ankle and then die because they couldn't move for two weeks. Or, you hear about a guy who cuts his arm and his arm swells up the size of his leg. Little injuries kill. I was always terrified of getting hurt because of that.

-- The Looks: I admit, I got used to the looks from people in the real world. I kept a pretty clean appearance but people can always tell when you are in the 7-11 just to warm up or kill time. I never minded the looks. Didn't really care, not sure why.

-- Girls: I still have not solved the girlfriend riddle, but I love talking to ladies when they come pick up their car and see that we made it look like new. Seeing a woman's smile is nice. When a woman smiles AT you, its like nothing else in the world.


The following is my comment about this growing situation:
Cab drivers were the easy touch in the frozen north called Anchorage. We would take homeless to shelters, and the police station, to the hospitals, and to a meal sometimes late at night. Often I would just have them sit in a warm place for a few minutes while I awaited my next fare. They almost consistently wound up on the street because of one event. Usually a bad judgment, or just a last straw of poor circumstances strung together.
Nearly all admitted that they were one check from the street for a while before they lost their job, health or had an accident.

Think of what we may be called to do as a society of abundance when that abundance is soon among a smaller segment of the population in your town.

Enjoy this ride.
CABBY

Beer flavored Doritos

New York Times on the net today:
Touts beer flavored Doritos.
Microsoft canceling 5,000 jobs.

Anchorage Times this morning:
Palin to give state of the state tonight, you can watch it streaming at KTOO.org/gavel
Alaska to lose jobs for first time in 20 years.
Murkowski to have seat on appropriations committee. (Stevens used to chair this committee.) She gave up a chair on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Albuquerque Journal today:
Coaches allegedly knew of hazing; Staff accused of drinking at camp
Don't feel sorry for the Governor He loves the job.(remember the one with his hands in the till)

Here is the point.
Everyday we are told what the news is.
Everyday we accept it as the news.
Everyday we do not read a paper, we can decide what the news is.

There are so many choices for the news today, I haven't chosen the local paper in almost a month.

I have a 'frequent' button on my computer that takes me to the headlines around the country.
The last time I was there was right after the election. I guess I don't use it much either.
www.newseum.org
- just in case you are interested.

Not reading the local paper has saved me a walk out to the cold driveway, and being disappointed early in the morning. I do not sense that I have missed much - as you will probably think of this - when you have read this.
No fare for this trip, we just sat and read the paper.
CABBY

Change

Well, I went to see a movie.
No, I do not think of movies as important, any more than I think of those who make them as important.

The movie I saw was the David Frost / Richard Nixon drama.

We are indeed due a change. I hope we do not head back to those types of politicians, those certainly were not the good old days.

Without going into details, I can only say that I am happy to have seen this movie prior to Inauguration Day.

We have been promised 'change' and have not really had it defined, so who knows what to expect. However, I bet if we had a wishing tree, your hopes and mine for change would be so similar that it would become boring after sharing just a few of our personal expectations.

I know we all expect something, tho.

I had hoped to see cooperation and lack of a dividing line down the center of the Senate and House.

However, as of the last discussion of the Financial Crisis issue, it seems like nothing has changed.

So, with a black President, we are anticipating a removal very soon of segregation of blacks and whites. Too bad that same kind of removal isn't looking like it might be in the future of the Dems and Repubs.

We may have a new definition of segregation: The haves /have nots; the Dems / Repubs; the bailed out / the non bailed out; the employed / the unemployed; the insured / the uninsured, etc. Business as usual?

I am actually amazed at how little good I expect to really see in this change.
Oh well, I may just have been Tricky Dicked.
CABBY

A Very Interesting Interview

Mike Mc Connell
Director of National Intelligence

Interviewed:
Charlie Rose January 8. (Charlie Rose.com)

If you want to know how things in the US Intelligence team have changed since 9 11, this would be a great place to find out before the administration changes.
The Intelligence community has the expectation to be gutted, if you listen to the talking heads.
I suggest you get this info. I am not sure how long it will be available.
Do you know exactly why Sadham decided to convince the world he had MWD when he didn't?
This interview tells the story as Sadham told it.
Dale

The times. (long, but final maybe)

Accelerating unemployment:
I noticed just this week that the government didn't publish a percentage of National unemployment. Did I miss it? Or, are they hiding it? During the Great Depression unemployment rose to over 25%. Then there were only 120 to 150 million people in the work force. How many are there now in the work force? How many become unemployed daily now?

Go find a different job, or hopefully you are not unemployed – try to find a job. {Editorial note: I do not believe in try. Either you can or you can’t there is no try. This may be the exception to the rule. I recall when it was possible to find a job in a single day. Even in a single hour. Oh my, how things have changed….}

Unscrupulous money lenders:

Why are we putting up with the obscene salaries for them to take our retirements and savings? Why aren't some of these executives in jail or at least under indictment?

A generation of self-seekers:

Why is it that we vote for our special interest instead of the self interest of the country as a whole? Let’s appeal to our ‘elected’ to represent ALL of us.

Nationalized banks:

Some say it is a passing necessity. I say bull shit. I know bull shit when I smell it, and this is a new permanent fixture in our economy.

Financiers who binged on speculative excess:

What? Are we allowing these people to stay out of jail? Are we crazy?

Banks failing:

Yes, just try to get a loan - I dare you! Then tell me how you will pay for it as the economy continues to dry up. Reduced maximum credit card limits, increased credit card interest rates, and larger penalties for missing credit card payments are all a part of this. Stricter lending guidelines are a result of the bankers seeing the downturn as a National threat..

Businesses, large and small failing:

Just drive past ten strip malls. I defy you to find just six (or four) that do not have recently vacant closed small businesses. You can read the paper, internet news, watch pbs reports and know about big businesses. Check out your local scene. I encourage you to not listen to the National news, they are selling condoms, padded bras, money lenders and American cars, not reporting the ‘real’ news. I wish we had Mark Twain to comment on the National News. Or for the younger generations, Tim Russert.

Wages being cut:

Some salaries and bonuses will take many more reductions. If you keep your job, pretty soon you will feel this event. Business has slowed down, so there is less money circulating, which means there is less to pay employees.

Hours being reduced:

When business slows, fewer people are needed to populate the stores, factories, markets, and entertainment venues.

Benefits more expensive:

As the government goes further in debt, the resource for citizen benefit will take a major hit at the lower income levels for sure. As the economy slows more, it will begin to be seen at more affluent levels. Health care and proactive ways to reduce the effects of crappy diets and obesity will become more the focus over the long run. However, when it is realized that Americans accept that they are obese and not willing to do anything about it, the benefits will become more difficult to qualify for and to receive because the ‘thinking’ will become that we have to do something for ourselves, and not rely on drugs and surgeries.

Social medicine being the means to provide health care:

We already see that America pays more for less. Do you really have a choice anymore about who you see, and what testing is allowed? Where does all of the money for health care go? I suspect that it goes to those attorneys that prosecute doctors and to the insurance companies that went upside down in our stock markets. It sure doesn’t go to the docs.

Extended unemployment benefits:

This has already started. What happens when 25% of our work force is applying? Yikes! We do not have to be the government to know this is a dead end road.



It is even starker for countries other than America.

My point of taking you on this taxicab ride is that these are nearly all the same features that America faced when we as a country had the Great Depression. You get the picture. These are all features of today's U S economy.

Do you recall that you and I knew we were presently in a recession about a year before the press and the government would admit it?

Do you realize that we are at the threshold of another Great Depression? Do you hear any alarm from the reporters? From the ‘elected’? Nope. They are afraid to admit that things are going to hell in a hand basket. 1. We may not buy what they are selling (the press). 2. We may expect them to perform for ALL of us (the ‘elected’).

What are they thinking in Washington yesterday (1 8 09) and today (1 9 09)? Do they think it is important to defend themselves as Democrats and as Republicans instead of the decision makers for ALL of America? They are still thinking they represent their home states. Who they represent is ALL of America. Period! The business model has changed!

I say it is time to call, write, email, send a telegram, share what you think with the ‘elected’ and your face book friends and your email contacts and your family and your business contacts and your blog. Oh yeah, while I am on it, it is time for us to write more instead of less. My niece’s son Andrew said it really well this a.m. (He is quite young by my standards and I really respect him for having a say). Here is his quote:

“First of all, do not apologize for length. It is nice to actually talk with someone who does not feel the urge and need to condense their thoughts down to meaningless one-line statements.” So, have a go at being conversant about the state of affairs we are in.

If you do not know how to reach the 'elected' in Washington, go to your local library or to your local library website and get the information and act now. After the recent elections, the names probably have changed and you will want to contact the current people.

We must speak for ourselves; they are not speaking for us.

Just yesterday, it looked like the politicians in Washington are attempting to wrest the changes from the new administration, and the new administration has not even taken office.

Why are they reporting about the back packs that the President elects children are using, when we are failing as a nation? Come on National News as a group, we want news, not crap.

Help yourself. Help me. Help your offspring. Help by speaking your position of co-operation as a must, party politics as a part of history.

Well, I just reread and edited this. Whew, what a mess I forecast. I am confident that we have HARD times ahead. That is my reality. I just wish we could all see it as OUR problem, and not as something that is occurring ‘over there’ or ‘over there’ or in BFE or where ever each of thinks it is or isn’t occurring.

Enough from me.

This cab fare may be the last. I am not sure if I am up to the events in the future. I will donate this fare, as I am anticipating that you will need the money to feed yourself. Please buy your sustenance wisely, nutrition will get much more expensive rather than less expensive.

Good bye from
CABBY

PS: Want a sign of the times? We just received our new Yellow pages from the local Telephone Company.

It is 3/32 of an inch thinner. It is now just 1-7/8 inches thick, and the total of pages of “Advertising” is 1415 where last year it was 1554.

A sign of two events I suspect. 1. Technology – people use them less. 2. Less money for advertising.