Hope for the fall

Has everyone forgotten the positive? I hope that President Obama continues to push for service and grassroots organizing. If we don't take care of each other, there is nothing more to hope for.
I have two albums in my CD changer in the car. A song on each with the word hope. I hope... Why can't the news stop and the governments just realize we are falling, you have to fall to learn to walk again. If they put down something soft to fall on, instead of trying to keep the fall from happening, I think it would work out better.

Layoffs and the real story of USAA

The Sacramento Bee and Business Journal this past week have published articles about the closure of USAA insurance's call center in Sacramento. A total of 625 employees will have to decide whether to move to another USAA office (Az, Tx, Co, Fl) or take a severance package and lose their job.
Six years ago, I was in this same position. USAA consolidated my job and moved us to either TX or AZ or we could take the severance. I took the severance and decided to begin a new career in teaching. At that time, those of us who left read a faint writing on the wall and speculated that USAA would close the entire office within five years. We were almost right--it was six.
It's funny to me how the business journal and bee speculate about why or what it has to do with the economy or what it might mean for the insurance industry. It has nothing to do with any of these things. USAA bulked up over several years in the 1990s and in 2000's the began trimming back down. Another reason they are leaving California is their constant battle with employment laws here. There was always one set of "rules" for CA employees and another set for everyone else. USAA has wanted out of having to tailor things for CA employees for a long time. San Antonio management has always been frustrated by the differences in California. Plain and simple, the cost to do business here in this state is higher. If they are looking to trim the fat, Ca is a clear and easy target.
My concern though is that it was easy for me six years ago to restart my life: my husband had a good job, the severance package allowed me to finish my degree and begin teaching, and we had good equity in our home. What will happen to these 625 employees (among them people I call friends) in the current state of our nation. Shouldn't USAA have more of an obligation in this current downturn?? Yes, they are offering people jobs elsewhere, but six years ago of those who moved with USAA to AZ from my department, they then laid them off there and consolidated the department to San Antonio. There is no guarantee. And what if your spouse has a good job here, why would you move and have your spouse leave their job--one of you would still be out of work.
Should you be concerned about the insurance industry overall? Absolutely not. (Of course, as long as it's not a company that is heavily merged with the financial industry--if that's the case, then yes, worry. But supposedly they have regulations to keep the two separate, right? Regulations smegulations!)

Suing the State of California

I wish someone could tell me why anyone would think it makes sense to sue the controller of the State of California because he's only paying the bills that take priority. So the government is already broke and then these lawyers are going to waste more taxpayer money for the government to defend itself. How is this helping anyone get paid???

Last semester my class watched the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? and learned that oil companies and automakers has sued the California Air Resources board over the increased requirements for clean air. Another unbelieveable lawsuit to me...

I realize that the government probably has attorneys on its payroll for indidences of lawsuit, but couldn't they be spending their time on something more important? Standing for the rights of individual citizens rather than defending themselves against mulit-million dollar corporations or money grubbing lawyers?

Paying Taxes

For years I've said that I don't mind paying taxes; I just want to make sure that my money is going to good use.
I am astounded that the rich rulers of the republican party have managed to convince the average republican citizen that taxes are a bad thing, and that somehow they are paying for someone to "slack off"--someone who's taking advantage of welfare or beating the system in some way. While the reality is that someone on Wallstreet or heading a big corporation is the person who is really getting away with something. I've never tried to live off of welfare money, but it certainly can't be easy or enough to have a life filled with material prosperity! It might be enough to just get by.
I just laugh when I hear these party rulers in Congress cautioning citizens that paying more taxes is a bad thing. If we get better public transportation, green energy, healthcare, and other services, how in the hell can it be a waste of money??? Those will save me, my children, or our planet somewhere down the line. It sounds like a smart investment to me.
I want to pay taxes and I want the taxes to go to benefit us all. Maybe I'm a socialist, but I don't have a problem with that. I don't see socialism as something threatening (I guess because I'm against the excesses of Capitalism.) I see socialism as a smart way for a country to take care of all its people instead of just monetarily rewarding those at the top, providing a few meager services for those at the bottom, and leaving the rest in the middle to fend for themselves.
So go ahead President Obama - increase my taxes -- I just ask that you make sure they are spent wisely and tell me what I'm getting for my money!

(Of course, with three kids and a meager middle class income, I probably never pay any taxes anyway....but I would be willing! :) )

Moving Toward Peace

Last night my husband was speculating on what "the terriorist groups" were going to do now that President Obama is making changes to foreign policy. I said they aren't going to do anything but fade away, because how can you muster up enough anger in people against the U.S. when the U.S. is being kind and humane. I guess I was trying to say that Obama is killing them with kindness. He then said but they have all these other issues with christians and jews etc. I still think the main thing that propels their cause forward and keeps youth joining is the anger against the acts the U.S. has committed in the past few years. Bush has given them someone to hate. Hate is what creates the ugly thing we call terrorism. If we take the hate away and replace it with kindness, their followers will diminish, their power will fade away. Then my husband wondered if the terrorists even exist to the extent that we've been told and whether they are simply like the weapons of mass destruction Bush never found in Iraq.
I think Obama is truly trying to "usher in a new era of peace." Whether the rest of the world will accept the outstreched hand, I don't know. What I am sure of is that we are doing the right thing. And because of that I can sleep at night and I can feel sure that we are passing on the right values to our children.

The throwing of the shoes

Hopefully I won't be jailed for saying this, but I have been laughing hysterically over President Bush having shoes thrown at him in Iraq. I suppose it's funny to me because I think he exudes absolute arrogance by going over there one more time before leaving office and acting as if everything is okay when in reality he has created a total mess for Iraqis, for American troups and their families, and many other people living in the middle east. The person who threw those shoes threw them for me, for you, for anyone who can't believe we ever started this war in the first place. He threw those shoes in frustration at the mess that Bush has created abroad and I laugh because I would have liked to throw those shoes too because of my frustrations over the mess Bush has helped create here in America and abroad.
What really bothers me now is that while I can play games on the internet that allow me to throw shoes at the face of president Bush, Muntazer al-Zaidi is in jail for doing throwing them--for actually calling Bush out about his bold arrogance.
How can we get this man out of jail? I wish that I knew. If rudeness were something you should be jailed for, then shouldn't President Bush be locked up too?

Stop the Economic Meltdown! with positive thinking and funny phone stalker stories

Hasn't anyone in the media ever heard that thinking positive thoughts brings positive energy and continuing to focus on the negative brings about more of the negative? I guess not, since they keep reporting how thousands of employers are shedding jobs and giving pinkslips right before the holidays. Maybe if they focused on how the new president's policies will pull us out of the slump and bring new freedom to America, things would start to get rosier. But really what do I expect since if you turn on the 10 o'clock news all you see are the murders, muggings, and molestations that have happened in the course of a day. No merry, mutinous, molasses for them.

So how about if I tell a funny story to liven things up and keep focused on the positive...

Last night, we didn't answer the phone so someone called several times and hung up without leaving a message. (Yes, I know, I'm probably the only person in the nation without caller id.) My husband says, "it's probably the bank calling to sell us something again."
So this morning, the kids and I are eating breakfast before running out the door to school. The phone rings, I jump up to get it - it only rings once and hangs up. Then it happens again--same thing. Then one more time. After breakfast, I'm in the kitchen and it rings again and a second time, exasperated, I grab it and say "hello".
It's my grandmother (who's known for not leaving messages) and she wants to know whether movies she's getting the kids for Christmas should be VHS or DVD. I say DVD but not that Blue-ray because we don't have that (of course we don't since we don't have caller id). I don't have the heart to tell her that they stopped making VHS several years ago. And I certainly don't have the guts to call her a phone stalker! Instead, I email my sister the story and she laughs because she's been stalked by her too.