Beam Me Up, Scotty….

 

I have not been abducted by aliens, nor have I been held hostage by anti-blogger insurgents. Nope.  Life hit me square in the chops this week and I have been frantically running on a hamster wheel.

You would think that my thighs would have trimmed up, but alas, nope.  I have a couple of awesome recipes I am going to post in a minute, because you know we have NOT stopped eating around here…but for this post I want to rant without interruption..Which is the very cool thing about blogging.

First of all, it is Chris’s last week. I wish I could say I had spent a ton of time with him but I haven’t, unless you could call him sharing my office while we both worked on computers quality time.

I have done a ton of writing this month. Again, you would think my fingers would be lean and thin….

Marc had two VA appointments this week.  One was for an EEG.  We have not gotten the results back but he had several seizures while he was hooked up so we are hoping something showed up.  He has, over the past couple of months, started having seizure activity where his muscles will all pull to the center.  It is an odd thing, looks somewhat like a violent hiccup.  My guess is that it is related to the medications he is on but the doctors seem stumped..in fact they won’t acknowledge that it is happening. Yay.

Warning..begin long rant….

But the thing that has topped it off is that our old house, which has been a rental for 5 years, is in danger of foreclosure because the tenant decided to stop paying rent in February. We evicted her in April but she appealed the eviction and now it is tied up in the Dallas court system..our hands are totally tied.  We have had to hire a lawyer to try to push it through as quickly as possible because even when her lease is up next month there is no guarantee that she will actually move.

And here is the kicker….She and her family are vandalizing the house and the police can’t touch them because we gave them permission to live there.   She will not allow us entry to inspect but she has removed the air conditioning unit and torn it apart. Yay.  To get a temporary restraining order would cost us over 2,000 in the long run  and the lawyer says that there is no guarantee the judge would find in our favor.

Now, over the past few months I have read several conservative bashing blog posts.  I have read them ion food blogs, homesteading blogs, green blogs and some of my favorite bloggers have been part.  I have read it on forums and gotten emails with republican/conservative jokes.  I don’t feel a need to respond to that. I disagree, and that is enough.  I am confident enough in my own beliefs and ethics to not need to do any bashing.

In my area many, many people have the attitude that they live a privileged life.  Oh, it is not the folks with savings accounts and 800 credit scores.  Nope.  It is the folks on welfare, food stamps, and whatever else.  You see it and hear it everywhere here.  My tenant is one example.

It does not occur to her that perhaps her actions are bringing harm to my family.  She does not stop to consider that we still have to make the house payments on the house, or that we pay the fines for her friends parking in the yard.   She is totally protected by the law and she has worked the system enough to know it.

While we were there yesterday trying to get into the house, talking to the police, and finding out how few rights we have as citizens, her children (unsupervised as usual) were hanging out the windows swearing at us and spewing racial slurs at us. Now, if my kids were to do that to them and use the word that must never be used they would have been in deep trouble. Why does it not work both ways?

I am all for equal opportunity for all people.  ALL people. But living in a largely minority area I have noticed that racial intolerance and injustice happens both ways not just one.  We need to recognize that and admit to it.  White, 40 year old males are not the enemy.  The sin nature of man is the enemy and there is only one Answer for that.

It isn’t a political system either.

I am conservative. I do not like government sticking their nose in my business. I don’t like being told that I have to vaccinate my children, or that I have to let a low life parasite live in a house for free while Marc and I struggle to put food on our table.  I find it odd to want to save the whales while promoting  abortion.  Personally I don’t see why we can’t save the whales AND the babies.  But that’s me.

I live in a country where veterans fight a war every day for recompense that is owed them.  Marc, in a wheelchair and unable to work gets 20% disability from theVA at this point.  That is 200.00 a month.  Two hundred.  We have fought for over two years to get that.  Someone that has 5 children, is unmarried, self employed and not admitting it so that the only income she claims is from food stamps seems to have the whole government backing her in her folly. She is not the only one.

It crosses racial barriers, this new system of you owe me.  I see it in the people who have decided that red lights mean stop to everyone but them.  I see it in the teenagers at the stores talking on their cell phones rather than waiting on customers.  I see it in the people that pay for groceries with food stamps and walk out to brand new SUVs.  When did we get this way?

Welfare was never meant to be a lifestyle.  Helping people does not mean making them a country of co-dependents and yet that is exactly what we have done.  The government whispers “Trust me, I will take care of you” and we listen and follow.

We live in a country where spanking children is considered abuse and people actually COUNT at their children when they are cussing? What? Sorry. I use organic, eco-friendly soap in my house and cussing means you get to taste it.   Cuss again and you get to scrub the toilets.  We have 8 men in the house at the moment…NO ONE wants to cuss. Our children think saying "sucks" is a bad word.  They say "Yes sir", "No ma’am" and they grow up and have long term relationships, and serve in the military so that the people in the US have the freedom to call them names.   Marc and I don’t swear either.  My dad used to say that swearing was the sign of a small mind and a limited vocabulary and I have seen nothing to prove him wrong.

The government cannot do a better job with my kids than I can.  While my sons were being called “F–king, White Candy A–ed Crackers ” yesterday they were sitting quietly where we had asked them to wait while we talked to the police.  They could have responded but they did not.  They have learned self discipline because we have taught it to them with consistent, loving discipline of many types. Perfect? Nope. But well adjusted and respectful? Yep.  And since we home school they are home all the time. I don’t have to worry about how to get through the summer.  They will entertain themselves, do chores, read books, swim in the creek, and do school just like they do all the rest of the year.

The kids in my area that are “poverty privileged”  will, for the most part, vandalize homes, get in trouble, and develop bad habits over the summer.  Girls have learned that having sex whenever you feel like it is o.k. because you can either sweep the evidence away or have a baby and collect welfare..just like mom.  They have every bit as much potential as anyone else, and more opportunity than many.  There are educational and help programs available to welfare kids that are not available to my kids because we own a home etc. Some of them will use these things and they will go on to be successful adults but others will not. The vast majority will squander their money, depend on the government to suckle them, and use other people to their advantage.

Guess which political party they belong to?

So before you bash conservatives consider that liberals are not perfect either. Humanity is an imperfect condition.  No politician is going to make a significant change in our country because they can’t.  Significant change will happen when we change our own actions.  When we take responsibility for our actions, our emotions, our mistakes.   Change will happen when we take charge of our own lives and are willing to work hard for what we have and not expect to have a share in what others have worked for.  Teaching our children to respect others, no matter what race or religion or political affiliation they are will be easier if we do those things ourselves.  And, while true abuse is intolerable, discipline is necessary.

Change is not about me requiring privileges because I am a woman.  Change is about me being confident enough to place others in priority over myself. That is confidence? You bet. I am confident enough to enjoy serving my family, honoring my husband and deferring to his headship in our home.  Why? Because he has the responsibility of our family on his shoulders and I don’t believe in entities with two heads.

Change will happen when our hearts are changed and our minds are renewed.

Without a vision the people perish. Most of us have no vision for our family, no vision for ourselves, no vision for our country. It is not cool to be proud to be an American, or to be patriotic.

Some of us go to church on Sunday and ignore the play-book the rest of the week.  People know we are Christian because of our bumper stickers rather than our lifestyles.

In my area Mexican national flags fly above the US flag at businesses. This offends me.  At least three generations of my family have fought for that flag and it should be second to none in its own country.  I am proud of my son who serves.  I am proud of both Marc and myself because we are veterans.  My dad is buried at the local national cemetery and Marc and I have two military flags displayed from both our fathers funerals.

You cannot throw away the freedoms we have fought so hard for in favor of government babysitting, surely?

Unfortunately you can never make stupidity illegal so therefore no matter what laws you make only those people who respect the law will actually follow them.  Positive change cannot happen at the top and filter down, it must begin at the bottom and filter up.  It must begin with  you and me.

I told you this was a rant. I am sorry if it is not very cohesive. I had to get this off my chest before I went on to the sweeter parts of my blogging life.  Thanks for allowing me to do that.

Image:Marye Audet