A Little Rant.. ok, a HUGE one.

I don't typically like to complain publicly, I usually save it for my husband, but sometimes I just get irritated.  I am going to do this Sara style and reveal how I feel about certain issues.. well maybe not quite as colorful as she does it but that's OK.

So most people know I work retail, and I don't particularily like my job, but when you have been somewhere so long and make decent wages, you don't just quit unless it's for a good reason.  Until I complete school and can move on, I will stay there.  I have worked at a total of 8 different stores, and until this year at this new store, was I enlightened to the fact that the first of the month.. S-U-C-K-S.  Apparently we are in a high food stamp area and these food debit cards get loaded with all the money a family needs for groceries for a month on the 1st. Imagine that.. like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight, magic happens.  This phenomena causes our store to get crazy busy for a week.  My feelings about this government program are mixed and not really the only issue of this post  I just tend to notice some of the things that bother me closer to the first part of the month and today was no exception.

I'm going to back up a little to earlier in the day.  Like I have mentioned before twice in a row we were in a home that went to foreclosure.  It upsets me on many levels that it not only happened once, but twice and has disrupted my family life in many ways.  I dont cope well with the issues surrounding the house we are in and realtors and all that goes along with it.  So today after getting a phone call that they wanted to take pictures..today.. I was pretty bent out of shape.  I told them, no thanks, come tomorrow because I  have that right.  After finally getting over that, we found out that we had to pick a different medical insurance plan.  This has happened every year.. each year it gets more expensive and more confusing. How is it that a relatively healthy family with no major medical issues can hardly afford to have insurance that they probably won't use but need in case something terrible happens?  It's insane the premiums we are required to pay "just in case".  Another example of our great government at work.

So here I am at work, I get to see into the personal lives of people by watching what they buy.  When it comes to the Food Stamp program, I get to witness what MY tax dollars are paying for.  Not just the misuse, but the ones who use it wisely and responsibly.  I also get to see how peoples habits reflect on who they are.  Like the drunk lady that comes in every night and buys alcohol.  She is intoxicated but her kids drive her here to get her drinks and smokes.  How about the morbidly obese that not only look very unhealthy, but I can smell them from the end of  the line and then they purchase the junkiest junk food ever with their food stamps.. nearly 300 dollars and not one fruit or vegetable.

This brings me to the purpose of my rant.  A lady comes in to my line with her family.  She is middle aged, her elderly mother and her young children with her.  She is suffering from something.. and tell me she had to take an insulin shot because of her diabetes a little bit ago.  When she was ready to pay, with her food stamps, she hands me two trays of caramel breakfast rolls.  The ones that have so much on them its pooling in the aluminum pan.  She then tells me that she wants to hide them so her mother doesn't know she is buying them.  This upsets me in so many ways.  First off, if you almost passed out, why the hell are you buying quite possibly the most sugary thing in the store?  You are clearly DIABETIC and dont need to be eating it, and you don't want your mother to know you are buying it because she knows this too.  You are obese, sick and you still want to eat it.  This my friends is why we can barely afford health insurance. 

This country is going to hell in a handbasket and I am not going to point fingers at any one person.  Its everyone.. its the food industry for having the crappy food, its the government for enabling these people to suck the life out of the funds the government doesnt have in the first place. Hey its the government for paying the farmers money in subsidies to  grow the crappy food to feed us Americans and make us fatter so we have to rely on more medicines that cost more money that make insurance premiums skyrocket.  I feel like for all the years I sat back saying I hate politics I could be part of the problem.  I finally feel like an adult and am hoping my children have a little brighter future, but the light at the end of that tunnel, isn't too bright.  I don't have all the answers, heck the only answer I think I do have is that something needs to change, and we can't blame it all on the President, past or present, or advertising and fast food.  Its a huge tangled web of problems that are going to all need to be addressed. I hope our children can learn from the many mistakes we have made and this country, the Land of Opportunity can become that again.