Reply #48: The world didn't quite turn out like I hoped it would....

[AnneD]

I am 53 and except for one time-have voted (Dem) since I was 18. I may not have had money but I donated my time and enthusiasm. I wanted a clean environment and have tried to recycle. I have wanted a car that ran on a different fuel but Detroit let me down.

I knew that it would take more to support my age group so I advocate increasing the SS and medicare when they did-I also wanted it in a locked box in the 80's but no one listens to one person in their late 20's when they talked about retirement. I wanted it to continue because I saw that it was a blessing to my aging family members and my widowed sister, but Washington let me down.

I had planned not to be a burden, but saw my job evaporate. Thank goodness I saved enough to that I could retool myself (there goes the retirement egg). I pulled my self back up and started saving again. I was looking forward to getting a house-but the market crashed, I lost a fourth of my savings, and Wall Street let me down.

I am back at square 1, unable to offer more than the minimal help to my one child. My youthful strength is slipping and I will be lucky to finish out my career (Nursing) in one piece-they want them young and cheap these days. My saving grace is that I WILL get a pension from the state. I hope my state won't let me down (there are too many to screw with and I watch out state pension broad like a hawk.

Others may have let me down, but I didn't let myself down. I've had to eat shit sandwiches some days-but I am still here. I had a plan (and still do)and a bit of luck. I always try to learn everything, 'cause God only know when you need it. The world I will leave to my daughter isn't what I had planned to leave her, but I never gave up trying (wish we could have had the cool drugs legalized for you-sorry).:shrug:

One of the things I have learned is that money is power-and Washington has both. The powerful and moneyed (on both sides of the aisle)want to keep theirs. Now the GOP will part you from all your money by passing laws they say will help you, but they just pick your pockets clean. The DEM will pick your pockets too, but they don't pick as much and they do use some of it to benefit ordinary voting folks. And while there is a bit of this pitting one group against another in the Dem's, it is worse in the GOP. Pitting one group against another is a way to keep control. Now think about that next time you participate in a thread like this. It is just a distraction to keep you from being active in doing what you need to do.