We've Come a Long Way Baby!

In 1968 a young VT girl at the ripe old age of 22 moved to Hartford CT and took up employment at Arthur's Drugstore on Farmington Avenue. There she met a young single gal of the same age, the mother of a 2 year old little girl.

The young lady, named Angie, became the Vermonter's closest friend. They worked together, shopped together, went to Dr. and Dentist appointments together, had lunches, went to movies, and told each other their innermost secrets. Life was good.

When Martin Luther King was assassinated it brought great sadness to both of these young ladies. How could this be happening? What is wrong with these people they thought. We are all God's children.

One of the repercussions from MLKs tragic death was the hate, anger, and resentment of blacks towards whites, the anger that MLK was gone, the leader of their dream. This was further evidenced by the two young girls as they tried to carry on with normal activities in spite of the rioters that filled the streets of this populous city from time to time in the days following. There were people everywhere in the streets some days. Sometimes almost crushing crowds would carry them along, past the store they wanted to get to, or past the car they had parked safely hours before. "It isn't safe", the news people said to be on the streets. The girls were so young and naive. They thought " Why would anyone want to hurt us? We've done nothing." They were best friends after all.

The girls came out of work one day to find the windshield of the Vermonter's car smashed by a rock. The rock had a paper wrapped around it and the paper was held by a rubber band. The paper had two words on it.

A couple of days later the girls went to get the windshield fixed and went back downtown for a dentist appointment that the Vermonter felt she had to keep because it had taken 2 months to get it in the first place. While sitting upstairs in the dentist chair in front of a huge glass window overlooking the main street, a rock came flying through. The rock was wrapped in a yellow lined piece of paper. On the paper was written 2 words.

The next evening things had quieted down a bit more and the girls decided it was safe to go to the theater as they had previously planned. The movie was great, the popcorn was even better and they laughed and cried through the movie as young girls often do.

They were walking home after the show, around 10:00PM, almost to Angie's house, enjoying the beautiful night air. Still talking about the tragedy that had happened to MLK and how happy they were that things had calmed down so much, getting back to normal. Life was good.

Just as Angie reached for the gate to her walkway, two men, smelling and sounding disgustingly drunk, jumped out, grabbed the girls, yelled racial slurs and commenced to beat the girls mercilessly. This went on for what seemed like an hour but really was probably a matter of minutes. No matter how the girls fought back, weighing less than 100 lbs. each, they were no match for the two drunken enraged men.

One of the neighbors heard the girl's screams and called the police. When the police got there the 2 men took off running...they were never found. Angie lay on the ground moaning and crying, her face covered in blood, her breathing shallow. The Vermonter lay about 5 feet away, she too, covered in blood, crying, trying to catch her breath and get her bearings. The ambulance came, took them to the hospital and the girls were admitted and treated. Angie had a broken nose, three broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. The Vermonter was luckier, she had a slight concussion, a broken jaw and a sprained wrist.

Both girls were in the hospital a little over a week. Angie's ribs healed slowly, her heart even slower. The Vermonter's jaw was wired shut for 6 weeks and both girls were out of work for over a month. They kept each other company, wrote notes, watched tv, read books and cried together and comforted each other. they were still best friends. In fact they remained best friends until Angie moved away and the two lost track of each other.

Today, as I watch with great emotion, the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America, I think back to how far we have come. Yes their is still racism, hate and bigotry. Yes there are still riots and wars. Old wounds have healed, new days have come and today is one of the greatest days in American History.

Angie, I wonder if somewhere Angie is watching this great event today. I wonder if she thinks back to those days of trials and tribulations of our youth, how naive we were. I wonder if she remembers how determined we were to not let what was going on in Hartford hurt us. I wonder if she remembers our vow to never let the color of someones skin make us turn our back on them. Yes I wonder.

The words on the papers wrapped around the rocks?
'NIGGER LOVER".

It never stopped me or Angie of course.. even though I was white and she was black. (We were best friends you know.)

GLITTER GLUTTONY AND GREED

Hi Folks,

Here we are in January of 2009, the Holidays over again and a chance for a brand new start for the year in many areas of our lives. We have many things to be thankful for and many not to be thankful for. Here are some of my rambling thoughts.

We should be thankful for the fact that our government is going to step in and save our banks, our mortgage companies, possibly our automakers, our credit even. RIGHT!! What in the world are we doing? Take a real look!!

The government is rewarding "bad behavior" on the parts of all these companies. Essentially what the government is saying is that because these companies did not do their homework before making crucial business decisions, because they were motivated by greed, or because they fed the "FAT CATS", the CEOs multi-million dollar bonuses when they fired them even, (the world is motivated by greed in case you haven't noticed) we the taxpayers have an obligation to bail them out.

Worried that you are going to lose your house because you can't pay your mortgage of $2000 a month to say nothing about catching up the last 3 months payments to pull the house out of foreclosure. Now the government is going to help you out by bailing out the companies that helped you get where you are.

THIS BAILOUT WILL BE WITH YOUR TAXES! Get a grip folks, there aren't any free rides. No matter how hard our government tries, they do not GIVE us anything. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any help for these companies. I don't have enough facts to make an informed opinion. I do believe this all should be closely monitored and every dollar accounted for!!

Any time the government gives you a helping hand there is a hangman's rope attached for you to freely use. Pay attention to history. You will be encouraged to get more in debt with propaganda telling you to use more credit cards, buy a bigger house with bigger payments,(even tho the word on the street is that credit has tightened up)use layaway, buy now, no interest and pay in 10 years (okay, I exaggerate), prices are going up, you are going to hear it all.

If you are smart or money savvy, (that's another whole subject, obviously many of us aren't) you will take action and quit procrastinating by using some of the following suggestions:

Cut up all of your credit cards except one saved for emergencies.

Get rid of 100 or more of the channels on your TV that are never watched, (TED TURNER does NOT need your money)

Get rid of that 10 MPG SUV gas hog. If you feel bad about that just take your cash, pile it up and burn it..same euphoria as the smell at the gas pump when you fill the tank.

Get rid of the bells and whistles on your phone service, like 3 way calling (when you only have 2 friends), call waiting, call forwarding and anything else that you never use. I don't care if it's a "good deal" package. Of course it is! It's a good deal for the communications company you use and they laugh all the way to the bank!

Take the kids cell phones away or strip down the minutes and the extras. Come on now! I see a group of 8 yr old kids waiting for the bus, every one has a cell phone glued to their ear!! Sure you feel better if you can track Johnny. Great! Use some discipline for yourself and Johnny. Limit minutes, usage etc.

I know a single Mom with 3 kids and here's the breakdown of her major bills. The cell phone bill is $1000 a month, (they have to get every bell and whistle, every new gadget) mortgage $1500 a month, SUV payment $555 a month and she earns $5000 a month. Dad pays $1000 a month child support. This single MOM just lost her job!! Think she'll be losing anything else...like a car, a house, a few cell phones? Don't count on Dad...he's got 6 weeks left at his job!

Drive right by McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, stop at the store and pick up some chicken, go home and MAKE supper for your family! Trust me, you can do it, cooking is not a disease, it could be a very beneficial activity. Your kids might be healthier, your Dr. bills might be less, you might even get more appreciation!

Cut out the fast foods, chips, candy and soda! Along with wasting money are you purposely trying to kill your kids? NO you say? Oh YES you are!! Get your head out of the sand and do reading!

Make a list every time you go to the store and TAKE IT WITH YOU! Do not buy what is not on your list!

Every time you go to make an impulse buy say to yourself,"Do I really need this?" or ask yourself, "Can I live without this?"

Cut back in every way that you can and sock away a few bucks, pay yourself first. Live on a budget! Come on, you've been hearing it for years! Get with the program and be responsible for your own security!!

We are in a New year with a new president coming in, renewed hope being declared from every corner of the world! Do your part for you AND your loved ones and take the steps to protect yourself in case none of these great promises come to fruition!

The way of life is now what I call "THE THREE G'S". GLITTER, GLUTTONY, AND GREED!

Take a good look around you!! You will see!


Thank you for stopping by and be sure to check back for the next rant from Phili's Banter!

Thinking Out Loud

11/01/08

Here’s some food for thought. Grab a good toothpick and pick out what’s important to you to chew on!

Recent headlines claim Oprah will be hit hard tax-wise with Obama's plan.

I love Oprah, don't get me wrong but I find it hard put to be upset that out of her earned $275 million for the year she will presumably have to pay $16,775,000 more in taxes under Obama's plan. (Hello!!! It's not like she'll go hungry or become homeless because of this.) I know that she has earned this money. I know that she does a lot of good in the world but still!

Under McCain's plan Oprah would pay about $9,075,000 less in taxes. That's okay with me too, as long as Molly Middle Class doesn't have to pick up the slack, but I ask you, will Molly Middle Class, when she files her taxes, find her tax bill reduced in the same proportion to her earnings as Oprah? I hope so because she’ll have to use it to pay taxes on her insurance benefits.

WHAT? Did you notice? McCain's Plan would treat health care that you get from your employer as taxable cash income? This tax money would go directly to the insurance providers! (The Insurance "providers" will then most likely pass it on to the CEOs as a huge bonus right after they replace said CEOs for non-performance!) ANOTHER PROBABILITY is that those premiums paid by your employer will go to be going up!!

WHAT? Makes sense doesn’t it? Your premiums will have to go up because the insurance companies will have to hire additional employees to do the bookkeeping involved in all that new money coming in. Happy note: New jobs?

WHAT? This could very well put you, Molly Middle Class, into a higher tax bracket. Think about it! If the insurance benefits being paid by your employer amount to $12,000 a year, you MIGHT have to claim that $ as cash income, you definitely will have to pay taxes on it under McCain's plan if it becomes a reality, and it COULD put you in a higher tax bracket!

WHAT? Did you read about the NEW RULES that MEDICARE is going to publish? Get this! MEDICARE WILL NO LONGER PAY your hospital expenses for treating any conditions that were caused by the hospital, conditions that could have been? Things like bedsores, infections that could have been prevented, removal of "things" left inside you during surgery. Now I ask you! Does that make sense? THIS ISSUE THAT WILL AFFECT MILLIONS OF AMERICANS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ELECTION, so you might want to take note and stay awake during your next surgery!

WHAT? Who will pay? YOU! Because of carelessness, or lack of proper procedure, or just someone not being diligent during your hospital stay, you the patient, will have to pay the bill with your money. You read it right! The Surgeon “accidently” leaves a clamp in you, the clamp is found 3 months later after much stress and discomfort to you, plus many preventable visits to the Dr., you are hospitalized again, the Surgeon removes the clamp, and you COULD receive another hospital bill AND another bill from the Surgeon but MEDICARE WILL NOT PAY!!!! Pretty scary! I know of 3 people that were hospitalized in the last 2 years (different states, different hospitals) and out of those three, 2 of them ended up with a staph infection they acquired while hospitalized after surgery. A staph infection neither of them got rid of for over a year AND 1 of them had to have a second surgery to repair the original surgery that never healed due to the infection!!!!! Pretty bad percentage on the good luck side wouldn't you say? The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions stats say that hospitalized patients develop 1.7 million infections a year. It also states that these infections cause about 270 people a day to die! That’s 99,000 deaths a year!!

Tune in tomorrow for more "Thinking Out Loud"!

Phili Banter

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