Liar! Liar!

Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire!
Is the cry again this season.
Politicians prevaricate
more easily than they reason.

Every one of them stretch truth
to be quite generous about it.
Politicians lie as freely
as cells phones appear to transmit.

When they tell the truth, by strange chance,
We all do a fact check on them
to verify this rarity;
a truthful political gem.

It is sad but also quite true:
we expect lies from our leaders.
Unfabricated truth from them
can unsettle many readers.

The truth should or ought be the norm. 
We need to expect it more often;
we have to call it forth from them.
The facts don't need to be softened.

©2012 C. Boeneman

Maybe

Maybe I was foolish:

me thinking I could fight

one as powerful as he.

Maybe I was foolish:

me thinking I could sway;

maybe halfway we could meet.

Maybe I was foolish

 me thinking that he cares

about the folk in the street.

It was very foolish

to think all of those things

he is just way too elite.

It was very foolish

He is a Congressman

and he's in the driver's seat.

It was very foolish

He uses us as means

to more power and deceit. 

Sharks (Haiku)

Shark swims purposely
It can smell blood miles away
like politicians.

How sad

How sad is it that my beliefs have died?

At least the beliefs about my country.

I used to think we were a good folk

but now all I see is stubborn pride.

How sad is it that politics are evil?

that there is a great divide among us

I used to think  we had common sense

but now all seem to be uncivil. 

How sad is it that politicians buy

their way into elected positions?

I used to think there was honesty

but now all seems to have gone awry.

How sad is it that all law makers

don't care about the People in the least?

I used to think I could believe one

but now ALL seem to be major fakers.

How sad is it that my heart seems fractured?

I wanted to still believe in my nation

I used to believe in the government

but now all of it seems  manufactured. 

How sad is it that they all seem acquired

for a price by major corporations?

I used to believe the People mattered 

but now all I see makes me sick and tired.

Voting 2012?

To vote or not?
Why should I vote this year?
None of the candidates care
that I'm still out of work.

None of them care
that "no job" led to stress
and stress led me to depressed.
that I'm going berserk.

They care for votes
so why should I help them
when they left me here to rot
and their job they have shirked.

One I supported
for thirty eight long years
told me I'm not welcome there
after stress made me ill.

I became depressed
and then suicidal.
Instead of understanding
they propelled me downhill.

Voting seems stupid
when it's for these people
who seek their own interests
and not the People's will.

Worms (Haiku)

Slimy worms burrow

Into dark dirty places,

like politicians.

Is The Democratic Party Inclusive Enough?

I find it interesting that since I have developed severe depression (currently seeking help), I have been uninvited from volunteering for democratic campaigns. Most notably,  Sander Levin for Congress. This hurts the most because the first political campaign I ever worked on was when Sandy Levin ran for Governor of Michigan in 1974. I was in high school and spent a lot of time stuffing and licking envelopes, licking stamps and making phone calls. He has been my congressman for most of the time since 1984 and I worked on campaigns for him off and on, especially in 1992 when I was precinct captain. The off years mostly had to do with work schedules. I have always been a supporter of the congressman. Now, to be uninvited from being a volunteer makes me a little sick to my stomach. Yes, I am suffering from depression. I would think it would be understandable given the fact that I have been unemployed for 3 1/2 years, have no income, no health insurance, no assets and my 78 year old mother has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma but still has to work in order to keep a roof over our heads. I have creditors dogging me day and night and our condo is worth less than 1/4 of what it is mortgaged for. So yes, I AM depressed. I can't find a job and that makes me feel worthless in and of itself.  

A large part of the reason I got involved with the Obama Campaign in February as a Spring Fellow was to keep myself busy and work on a great cause. Not to mention having something I could put on my resume. I was feeling really good about myself during that period. But the Fellowship ended and the leadership changed in Oakland County and I ended up the odd one out. I needed to be hired on a Field Organizer in order to be able to afford to keep driving to Pontiac but that didn't happen. So, I started volunteering for Sandy Levin. I did mailings, phone calling, walked in parades and a lit drop. Then the depression  and generalized anxiety disorder really hit and suddenly I was no longer welcome. 

I find it fascinating that so many people in his district are either unemployed and suffering from mental illness or both. They/we are still voting constituents. The mentally ill still deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Yes, it is uncomfortable sometimes. But if  someone with a mental illness (especially depression) wants to volunteer, why shouldn't they? Why shouldn't people with mental illness or 
developmental disabilities be active in the Democratic Party? This is another challenge to the Democratic Party to be as inclusive as they claim to be.  

*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author

The Least of These

 

Much of the problem I have with the Republicans these days has to do with their insistence upon cutting much needed services for the elderly, the disabled and the poor all so they can help pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. Many, if not most of these same Republicans call themselves Christians. Yet, anyone who reads the Bible knows that Jesus preached this: Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself. Who is your neighbor? Jesus responded with the parable of the Good Samaritan. The answer then is: your neighbor is EVERYONE.  The Republicans, the Tea Party and their rich sponsors do not get this. They ignore the Prophet Isaiah: "Shame on you! who make unjust laws and publish burdensome decrees, depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan. What will  you do when called to account.." Isaiah 10:1-3a)  The Bible is quite clear, yet those who call themselves Christians and pander to the evangelical right seem not to get what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus was NOT about hatred, racism or injustice. That is totally antithetical to Christian teachings. Jesus would not ask to see your insurance card before healing you. Don't you get it? Wake up. 

But it is not just Christians who have this problem because the Prophets preached not to Christians but to Jews. So anyone in the Abrahamic tradition gets hit with the teaching by Isaiah. How do we treat the poor, the oppressed, the weakest? And for politicians it is not just in the abstract...not just all the poor, all the unemployed, but it also means, this ONE unemployed person who stands in front of me. It is most especially about the particular, not the general. How do you treat the ONE who has been unemployed so long the stresses have caused great and deep depression and desperation? The answer is not just in passing laws to make things better but also in helping the ONE. It is much easier to see  and deal with the general because it doesn't become personal. But the ONE who stands before you calls for an immediate and personal response. That is much harder, isn't it?

Faith in the One G-d calls us all to step up and love our neighbor and not just in the abstract. It means understanding the stresses on the One and to not make them worse by treating them like dirt when they are in front of you. It means not acting like they are the OTHER, the scary, when they are just the Neighbor in need, the weakest among us who have been decimated by the ones in power.

So, who is YOUR Neighbor?


*ALL content herein is the opinion of the author.

Mental Health and ACA

I have been to forum after forum about health care reform over the last three years and one thing I have noticed: All the talk is about physical health care. Literally NONE of the discussion has focused on MENTAL health. Yet, people without health insurance are just as much in need of mental health care services as they are for physical illness. 

This is demonstrated best by someone like me. I have been unemployed for 3 1/2 years and lost my health insurance about 18 months in. I lost my unemployment benefits six months later. So, I have NO personal income, no assets, no bank account but lots of stresses: creditors who harass me constantly, an elderly mother who has to work part time to keep us housed and fed, even though she has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a condo worth only 1/5 of what we originally mortgaged it for. The longer I go without employment, the worse it gets, in every way. With no health care, my asthma remains unmanaged and uncontrolled. I am no longer able to see my primary care physician on a regular basis, so the anti-depression and anti-anxiety medications she prescribed for me are not monitored regularly.

The consequences of this combination of circumstances has been rather disastrous for me.  The longer I am unable to find a job, the worse I feel about myself and my circumstances. The more hopeless I feel. The more useless I feel. The longer I have no income, the more stress creditors put on me and the more desperate I feel. The longer  this goes on, the guiltier I feel about my mom and the more I feel that she's be better off without me. The worse I feel about myself, the less likely I am to be able to find a job. This cycle of despair and hopelessness has led me to become extremely depressed and suicidal. The depression indicates that perhaps my meds are not working or need to be adjusted, but I have been unable to afford to go to the doctor. So, last week, I planned to commit suicide. I decided to jump off an overpass head first. All my research showed that even at a relatively low altitude, a head first jump is most likely to be successful. Yes, I researched it. If I am going to do it, I do not want to fail and make things worse. 

As it happens, I chickened out because of my fear of heights. And also, because I am not unlike most people who attempt suicide. I don't necessarily want to die, I just want the pain to end. But the pain never ends, or so it seems. Fortunately, a person I never even met in person (Facebook friend) suggested I call 211. I looked it up online and recognized one of the resources listed for help. I am now getting help but so many other people are not so lucky. If I had health insurance, this would never have gotten this far because I'd have been monitored by my primary care doctor, or, failing that, would have been able to go to a covered treatment service. Without it, getting help before I succeeded at ending my life was a shot in the dark. How many people will have their shots in the dark miss and thus end their lives?  This is what the Republicans in Congress would have us live with as they continually attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They are SO heartless, they do not care if hundreds of thousands of people end up committing suicide because they have no health care. Or that many more will be homeless because of their untreated mental illness...What IS this country becoming that those who are elected to represent ALL the people ignore the pain of the "least of these"?  

So when you think about health care and health care reform, please do not forget about mental health.

Republican Pharisees

I find it fascinating that a government body (The US House of Representatives) which meets for a maximum of 4 days per week (more usually 3 1/2 T-Th) can sit and debate taking away affordable health care from the American people but it has not, in 1 1/2 years, acted to create ONE American job. The Republicans spent all day debating the repeal of the AHCA, which has just been declared to be constitutional by the US Supreme Court. They sit and they waste time while REAL people are REALLY hurting in this country! They allow the CROOKS (banks) of this country to accrue TRILLIONS of dollars while not ONE of them has been jailed for destroying the nation's economy. They sit there and insist that the nation's wealthiest people need their tax cuts while they equally insist on paying for those tax cuts on the backs of the poor. 

The Republicans often identify as conservative Christians. They can call themselves anything they like but their ideology is the furthest thing from any of the teachings of Jesus. They ARE, however, pretty much right in line with those of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day. If Jesus were here today, based on the words in red in the New Testament (and the Prophets in the Old), He would condemn the GOP in the strongest possible terms, especially the ones who profess to follow Him. The Biblical record is clear: G-d Judges those who oppress the widowed, the poor and the sick and imprisoned. If those in the Republican party and the 1% who call themselves Christians do not repent and turn away from evildoing they WILL be Judged. Count on it. This IS the Word of G-d (Isaiah through John).

P.S I am NOT the agent of Judgement nor is anyone I know or do not know. Judgement usually comes in the form of the consequences of our own actions, not at the hand of someone else.