White House Petition: Abolish the word SHUTDOWN

UPDATE: When I posted this, I had no idea it was World Mental Health Day. That subject is not echoing nearly as much as "shutdown" in the same inbox mentioned below. That definitely needs addressed but in the meantime, the #WorldMentalHealthDay topic and associated hash tags are trending very nicely over at Twitter right now.

What I'm trying to say is very much about people's mental health. I've been riding our county's local transport system, MATS (Mountain Area Transportation Service), for many years. Means I've seen them go through several shutdown threats by default of them using government funding to perform their services.

Those lately ongoing shutdown threats translate into things like taking away the jobs of our bus drivers who are helping provide toward their respective families' finances. Also means the government is now seemingly near constantly threatening to take away things like MATS' riders' transport lifeline. In this county (Pickens County, Georgia), MATS is pretty much the only way for senior citizens, people with disabilities, and others on extremely low income to get around to gather up non-essentials such as... you know.. Life-sustaining food.

Meanwhile our ELECTED officials in places like Washington D.C. are beating their chests at each other by threatening to... shut down... things like those two items right there. By targeting resources that equate to voters' Life stability, politicians are also then beating up on those voters' sense of good mental health and well-being. The underlying intent of such a move is most assuredly that of attempting to drive voter anger and advocacy toward each varying side of the political discussion at hand. The Cliff's Notes version is it's dirty, underhanded pool at its most bestest finest.

~ The Original Post ~

A couple weeks ago, I was running through the day's offering of emails that come from a very healthy mix of most primary political persuasions. I became overwhelmed by the incessant use of the word... that blamed word... "shutdown" by what felt like everyone possible under the Sun. I'd had enough of seeing it thrown out at us from the left, right, top, bottom, front, back, over AND under the Congressional aisle.

And so a White House WE the PEOPLE petition was born.

Yes, this petition is... not totally sensible... And no, it doesn't really expect the word "SHUTDOWN" to actually be abolished. Its point is to deliver the message that it's time for the ELECTED members of our government system to quit treating people's sense of Life stability and thus their mental health as some kind of government ordained punching bag.

The petition may be found at:

White House Petition: ABOLISH use of the word... SHUTDOWN

The content of the Abolish the word "SHUTDOWN" petition goes a little something like this:

WE, the PEOPLE, implore of YOU, our GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES, to PLEASE cease and desist in tossing around the word "shutdown" like so much trash.

People's very real Lives are hanging by a figurative thread while YOU, our GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES, huff and puff your chests as you sling that very word across the table at each other.

WE, the POOR and HUDDLED MASSES, are TIRED of having our anxiety levels hijacked by YOU, our GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES, most often seemingly for the sole unconscionable purpose of headline grabbing.

Thanking you in advance for your assistance in this matter.

RESPECTFULLY Yours,

WE, the PEOPLE.....

Who....

Elect YOU, our *elected* GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES.

*hint-hint*

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock.. *wink-wink*

Hurricane Andrew: 16 Years Ago This Past Weekend..

For my closest friends who may be wondering..

Like these grown men, I, too, have been.. choked up the last few days:

• Hurricane Andrew: 16 Years Ago Today..

Dave Game is quoted as saying, There is no way to tame nature's fury.

That one unbelievably conscious Reality is as much a hard part now as the continual loss since it brings with it the ever-present knowledge that any second, absolutely any blamed second again now, it could happen all over again.. And the thing is that I, for one, just plum do not have the energy it takes to make something to feed the Soul, let alone defend Life, limb, and property against another Andrew..

Comes as much as anything from having fallen through the cracks back then.. There were some well-meaning folks, but, by and large, it was so overwhelming for all of us at the time, survivors and rescuers alike, that falling through just.....

Just happened.. multiple times along the way..

Post-traumatic stress disorder..

PTSD..

With Hurricane Katrina so much more recently in Memory, please learn about it, what it is, what it looks like..

Compassionately understand it..

As you read about it, think hard on CBS' remembrance piece and visualize the grown men depicted as misting up this near two decades later since H. Andrew..

Now, think of the 500,000 give or take that Hurricane Katrina affected and put them in those same Shoes.. For them, the disaster they bore was just that much worse than what the guys at CBS are reacting to in near tears.. I know.. I was there.. And because I was there, when I heard over and over and over what happened during Katrina, I knew it was umpteen times that much worse..

Have lost track now, but back when we did The World Bank Group's Disabled and other Vulnerable People in Natural Disasters three week deal, a grand total of some $600,000 had been earmarked for the mental health care of the survivors.. Haven't much heard of anything along those lines since..

$1.20 a survivor..

Earlier today, hm, yesterday, was reading something from the Los Angeles Times entitled Denver protester focuses on Hurricane Katrina.. In it, they write about survivor Derrick Evans who is said to have hauled an old FEMA trailer from Gulfport, Mississippi, to the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver, Colorado.. The impression he wished to make..?

Where did $129 billion for Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery go?

Can someone somewhere please help him find out..? Venturing to make a wholly uneducated guess that he has many, many, many a day it's all he and/or those around him can do to simply just get up..

All it takes is just one person, even if it's just one stranger, who gives a damn and has some serious fact checking tools to go with.. That's all it would take to help him help pro-actively change the Lives of hundreds of thousands forever..

But don't take it away from him.. Please stand there beside him, instead..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..