Healthcare reform

Here are my thoughts.... cause I know you are dying to read them lol

I think we all agree we need healthcare reform. GOP says we can't afford it. Dem's say we can't afford not to have it. Who's right? Who's wrong? Well both are right. We cannot afford NOT to do anything anymore. Healthcare costs are out of control!!! The GOP is right, how can we afford this after just now seeing a glimmer of light at the proverbial end of the tunnel?

Let me start with the Dems:
You had a 60 seat majority, why did you get NOTHING done? That was absurd! We didn't elect you to be nice to everyone and play house. We want you to do what you feel is in the best interest of your people. You screwed up when you said one thing and did another (the CSPAN camera talks will be used all of the next election). Take responsibility and move on. Grow some and let's get going! I'm tired of waiting folks. I'm tired of waiting. Pass with reconciliation and move on to a jobs bills....PRONTO!!!!!!

GOP:
While the Senate and House plans might not be what you want, they have a plan. Where is your counterpart? You sat in on some of those discussions on the floor, so don't give me lip about not getting a chance to input. The Pres. called a meeting with top officials, including YOU, and 3 days prior he released his idea of a plan. You came with props and wanted to argue about how you got there. I hate the connotation that Dems use for political talk saying you are the party of "NO", but when you say to the American public we will NOT vote unless we start over from scratch and wasted this past year, you are making these statements true. Don't get all pissy either when the word "reconciliation" is thrown out there. You used this process during bush for $1.8 trillion in tax cuts (estimated up to $4 trillion with interests) over 10 years when Healthcare Reform as the more expensive bill stands at $950 billion over 10 years. The gallup poll is BS! Yeah I said it! The poll on Jan 8, 2010 says 49% would vote yes or lean to yes while 46% vote no or lean to no. 6% no opinion. Is it close? yes but it doesn't support your opinion. Your opinions were heard. There will be an exchange, not a public option (GOP idea) and when a bill comes out to be voted on I'm sure there will be more. Stop your lying with saying public funds for abortions, Medicare benefits will be cut. These are 100% false (or we will see when a bill comes to light to vote on). And finally stop calling me Un-American, because I disagree with you. That is what America stands for...diversity! Shall we dive into the Bible, the basis of the GOP, and see what it says about helping others and being stubborn?

Wednesday the President will probably announce a timeline for health care. Thank you! Thank you for stepping up your game! Your bipartisan meeting was phenomenal! You ran the meeting as if you were the CEO, and guess what.... YOU ARE!!! Bravo! Don't lose momentum. You run this country and it's clearly it's working. The economy is growing! Job loss is dropping steadily! Even though you may not be a 2 term President, because basically Americans vote based on TV commercials, I see you trying. You may not be doing it all right, but I see the effort and thank you for it.

We as a country became selfish and got busted basically. We bought houses we couldn't afford, the average credit card debt was the highest it had ever been. Our elected officials spent money we couldn't afford with no sign of benefits or an end date. We did this! Stop blaming wall street and politicians. We spent more than we earned and we elected them into office. This is America, where our cocky attitudes trump what's right. As another election comes around I plan to pay attention. Not to the TV commercials, but only to what a candidate stands for. Don't fall into the chess game where buzz words and scare tactics coerse your political vote. Vote for who you feel will do what you want done!

It's not a matter of party so to say.....

I don't need to reiterate my views, I'm pretty sure you know where I stand most of the time by now. I want to challenge you for a minute. Now, we have the ideals and principles we stand for and it's the diversity of our different views that make up the great country we live in.

So why do you think you are conservative or liberal? Republican or Democrat? or are you Independent?

I just took a gander at the two main websites. The GOP (which stands for the Grand Old Party btw. that's just funny to me) and the DNC. I was shocked at what I saw of the opening pages! One was a little scary, all I could do was sign a petition, and I felt it left me digging a lot to find actual details. The other was more informative. By that I mean what you could donate to Haiti, read about Black history month and sign up for updates with one click.

Think about who represents you. Be proactive! Don't sit back and complain, go out and do something. These Senators and Representatives are always campaigning to me in my mind.

re⋅spect [ri-spekt]

I love to argue. If you know me you know I ALWAYS think I'm right and as I grow older I admit I have learned I'm wrong a lot more than right. Thank goodness for the internet and being able to google anything you could ever want.

I am Liberal. Shocker, I know. Eventually, I ended up not a fan of Bush, although I voted for him 1st term. I argued against it, I said mean things, but never once, at any point, would I say something so disrespectful as the following. I read this on facebook today and when I googled it..lol it is all over the place.


Dear Lord...in the past year, you have taken away my favorite actor (PatrickSwayze), my favorite actress (Farrah Faucet), my favorite musician(Michael Jackson), my favorite salesman (Billie Mays), and my favorite athlete (Chris Henry). I just wanted to let you know...my favorite President is Barack Obama.


Disagreements are where great debates begin and change happens. But wishing someone dead is beyond the scope of prayer, debates or even disagreements. Without going into the religion tone of which it is written, it's simply just wrong.

You gotta have faith, faith, faith....

Nothing like a little George Michael to get you going in the morning. lol

If you read about my new years 5 year plan you saw on there I want to find a church. A church - the people not the building. Everyone has their own opinions of what a church is. We call a building of worship the church, but the bible defines it as the body. Regardless I want to find a place to connect with other Christians who are supportive and happy to be alive (which isn't always the case, let's be honest.)

I was raised to have a strong faith and I thank my parents for that. That is a huge part of where my morals were defined and who I am as a person overall. But I have seen the dark sides of churches. As a child, I grew up in a RLDS church. That's a branch of Mormon if you are unfamiliar with the terms. I remember being happy and always at church, but have one image that overwhelms the rest of them. It was around the late 80's and there were some disagreements with our church and the headquarters in Independence, MO. From what I understand (I was pretty young) there was a conference coming up and there were female instructors. Our church didn't believe that women belonged in the priesthood. So they refused. This ticked off headquarters and they came down to basically take over the church. I remember the last time we went on a Sunday. I remember these people beginning services from the pulpit and then shortly after our past and elders came out and sat in chairs in front of them. It became a 3rd grade contest of who can talk to the loudest. IT was simply awful. We stopped going to church at that point.

I began attending my grandmother's Baptist church after and enjoyed it. MY parents didn't go but it was in distance for me to walk to. Something that amazed me in my lifetime was the fact that my grandparents on my dad's side always went to different churches every Sunday. My grandfather went to the RLDS and my grandmother the Bible Baptist. The didn't let faith interfere in their marriage and lives. The believed in a common ground and attended both church's functions. They just agreed to disagree because faith is personal to each individual.

If only Conservative Christians would stop judging others and Liberal Democrats would not generalize Christians as crazy. Will we ever meet in the middle?

A daily affirmation...

So I find myself re-energized into my work again. Whether it's a mindset, or a store change or for the short period of time where I had the freedom to try new things, regardless it's different and I'm different. I still have a long way to go and continue to learn more every day. When you stop learning, you need to change jobs.

Improvements:
I continually struggle with dealing with a different management then my own. Currently I am in a situation where my manager has a dictatorship style management skill and I find myself getting distracted. Whether he is right or wrong it's about improving the business and we all should be open to ideas. It just reminds me of an old boss I had once that was very military and always micro-managed. It's not fair to my new manager to associate him with those generalizations and I need to respect the business.

Lessons learned:

Your employees are your most viable asset. If they don't do well, you don't do well as a business. So listen intently to not just what they are saying, but also what their body is telling you. I know I have a hard time not having favorites of those that remind me of myself. You just naturally connect with them and easy to give more praise, but you have to be equal to everyone.

Keep your door open. Everyone is not on the same intellectual level, but everyone knows the business well enough to offer their ideas. Snowballs (ideas with a simple concept that grow) are the key to major players in the game.

Building trust. Nothing angers me more than when someone asks me to do something because they don't want to do it. Never ask your employees to do something you wouldn't do. If there is a cleaning schedule, roll up your sleeves and scrub those toliets too on occassion. It doesn't demote you in their eyes...trust me.

Let people make mistakes as long as they learn from them, then you are doing your job. Moving to the next level is everyone's goal (big or small). If they don't feel like that then you don't need them, they are there for the wrong reasons.

Take time to tell personal stories. It shows you care and gives insight that you are a real person. Plus if you can make someone laugh or smile while they are at work then they perform 75% more. Check out the research.

Is paranoia really where we've come?

I was on the train after a meeting for work heading back to my store. I was 1 stop away and look to my right to notice a homeless guy passed out, but in the seat between us a black briefcase all alone. I honestly panicked a little franticly pounding on the MTA's door until someone lady came out. I told her there is an abandoned bag. She calmly said oh I'll get it when we get to the end of the stop. Me, with my loud mouth said "Well I'm glad I'm getting off at the next stop."

I thought the worst when I saw it ended up having a laptop and before our next stop the person who left it had already called it in, so they grabbed it. But it made me take a deep look at myself.

My 2014 resolutions......

So basically I am making a list of 10 things I want to do in the next year. A friend of mine, told me about this idea her sister did and literally put it on her fridge. As she accomplished them they got crossed off one by one. I like this idea and while some may be extreme I have 5 years to figure out how to do them.

1. Visit friends in London and Australia. I always say I will go and never do anything towards that. I don't even have a passport yet, so clearly we know what the first step is.

2. Buy my first house. I've always rented and that's worked for me, but it's time to grow up a little and plant my feet somewhere, where ever the good Lord takes me.

3. Build a family of which will consist of probably another dog and adopt a child. Now this will come down the road closer to the 5 years or 10 maybe rather than tomorrow side of the list but I'm throwing it out there. This also includes getting married, but as it stands right now that is pretty limited to a handful of states. I think 5 years will change that though.

4. Go to Puerto Rico. I'm not sure why just yet, but I have always wanted to go and so I'm going to do it in the next 5 years.

5. Find a church that I feel comfortable in. I have completely lost faith in the church community. That doesn't mean I've lost faith in general. I am a devout Christian, but I've seen the hate spew from the pulpit. Just to clarify I'm not talking about how the church feels on the gay issues. I'm talking about watching churches turn their backs on people in crisis because they didn't want to be associated with them. Isn't that what a church is suppose to do? Support you in a time of need and help further your faith? Sorry I got a little soap box there.

6. Improve the quality of life for those around me. Donate more to charities. Whether it's to a bell ringer at Christmas or a girl scout selling cookies, or simply my time helping Seniors get into college, I can and will do more. Everyone needs to pay back society. It's just good karma folks.

7. Working on my cookbook. Yeah, i threw it out there. I love to cook and i decided in 2009 to start writing these recipes I make myself down into a cookbook. I figure in 5 years I should be 50% or more through with it.

8. Become a better communicator with my friends and family. I do okay right now but not stellar. So while I realize life has taken me away from monthly birthday get togethers or Sunday dinners after church, it could be so much more. Nothing is more important than your support system and i want to keep them around for a while lol.

9. Financially, I want to grow my retirement fund so that I can retire sooner than expected. I've worked hard to get it to where it is and I'm proud of it, but it's a focus for me.

10. Don't strangle anyone. Hey, I need something I can count on 100%

What are your goals for 2010? or even 2014?