Major Medical Issues ongoing ..

a reply to: payuporgtfo

And fight you should, thank you for your kind words and reasonable position. I don't know that we can see it the same way, and at one time I would have and did chastise anyone who was unfortunate, I used to say that sleep is a crutch and provided for the lazy and less fortunate.

My opinion has been rewritten throughout my life, I was once a believer in religion now I am agnostic on good days and atheist on bad . My point is I am not closed off to new information, but for my view to change typically I have to live it because I am a hard nock and a stubborn man.

The overwhelming evidence at least in my experience is that the poor and homeless are people just like you and I who are paying extreme dues for bad choices made many many years ago, and that some it wasn't even a fault of theirs but they became a causality of a system that does indeed encourage economic disparity, quite tragic if you ask me.

I don't want to sound pretentious or condescending but perhaps if you haven't it might be a good experience to see for yourself, spend some time with the poor and or homeless and be open to their story's and plight.

Having said all that we cannot have a 1st world country and have people starving and freezing in the street, not only for the obvious altruistic reasons but also for the morale and cohesiveness of a society. I don't wish to change your mind, this is a touchy and personal subject to me because it's so close to me. I guess this guy says it best.

a reply to: TechniXcality

Perhaps I haven't seen nor experienced what you have.

It would take me a very long time to reflect on every experience that has driven me to my conclusions... but I cannot except the reality of people not being able to find work.

Yes, there are those who are unfit mentally or physically to meet societal standards, but I know far too many who are perfectly able to accept those roles and yet chose not to out of apathy and laziness.

I do not mean to degrade people who use assistance in general, but as a 9th generation American I am afraid for our future given what I do see.

My families history is extremely well documented and rather prestigious. I have original letters written between loved ones from all stages in Americas history... from Pre-Revolutionary war to current. Reading them in a chronological order gives a very frightening perspective of where we are now today.

I cannot accept the levels of apathy of today, we are failing ourselves.

a reply to: TNMockingbird

@TNMockingbird It seems you and I got the same lottery ticket. I got 2 infant nieces and a nine year old nephew. My Mom came shortly after, but I never would have been able to do it without her. I had to fight with the government in 2 different states, and the only way I was able to get them not to place the children in some poorly managed foster care program, was to bribe them by not accepting money from them for the children. So I raised all three until adulthood, and they have each done me proud. Not that we didn't have a few challenges along the way, but I raised them way I was raised. Pure Old School.

You never know what hand life is going to deal you. I went without a many a day and night. I worked 12 years, 7 days a week. Rain, shine sick, hurting or well. No one knew what hardships and struggles I had, but many thought they knew. I never accepted a dime from either State. Not because I didn't need it.

It is sad that people should have to feel shame when they are struggling and need help. That is one of the reasons I worked in a job were I could help and fight to get those help that needed it.

Just because our government has deteriorated and is pulling down our country. He don't have to follow it down the drain. We have problems here in American but we don't have to become small, petty, selfish, greedy, non-compassionate people.

You never know when you are going to be the one that will need help, and it really ticks me off when we don't place the needs of our American citizenry as a priority.

originally posted by: payuporgtfo

originally posted by: Blazemore2000
a reply to: payuporgtfo

No. I'm saying you have no right to judge anyone's relative health based on your inexpert and limited observations. Are you trying to say half of Americans have an EBT card now?

Half of Americans are using state/federal assistance... YES

As someone who works in Human Services, your statement is NOT true! You are displaying your gross ignorance of reality. Just stop already.

a reply to: Komodo

If you continue to have problems getting through, call your doctor's office, and ask the person that does the billing for a contact number.

Many states have contracted with HMO insurance providers, and have assigned all their patient's to a contracted provider. The billing office should be able to help you.

originally posted by: ChiefD

originally posted by: payuporgtfo

originally posted by: Blazemore2000
a reply to: payuporgtfo

No. I'm saying you have no right to judge anyone's relative health based on your inexpert and limited observations. Are you trying to say half of Americans have an EBT card now?

Half of Americans are using state/federal assistance... YES

As someone who works in Human Services, your statement is NOT true! You are displaying your gross ignorance of reality. Just stop already.

Are you trying to state that you alone can attest for all levels of the welfare system? State and federal? Spoken and unspoken? Even the damn FDA has assistance programs.

Get real and provide some details please.

originally posted by: payuporgtfo
a reply to: TNMockingbird

I deal with, and see this every day.

Granted it may be unfair to pass judgement on someone online, when i see completely healthy people swipe EBT cards at the grocery store I get a little unnerved... ALL THE TIME!!!

here, it seems you are implying that only sick people need ebt cards. If that's not what you meant, my apologies, but as far as people who are struggling to find work, between jobs ebt cards can be beneficial to their well being and provide food which gives them the strength to look for work.

originally posted by: peppycat

originally posted by: payuporgtfo
a reply to: TNMockingbird

here, it seems you are implying that only sick people need ebt cards.

Did I say that? or are you trying to imply that to get your agenda across?

PATHETIC!

a reply to: TNMockingbird yes, I agree we've gone off on our own tangents and my apologies to the OP. TNMockingbird makes a good point about reaching out to local food banks. I have had to go this route and the extra food makes a big difference as they mostly give out staples and canned food.
Take good care and may you figure everything out.

a reply to: payuporgtfo

Oh I agree 100%, there are huge problems taking place, I do not believe that the majority aren't able to find work that is only a issue for a percentage, like I was; there are many working and paying their dues not able to eat.

Others still,who suffer severe psychological disorders, I would like it to be like it once was where we build a fence stake our property and make a home, that's not where we are anymore maybe perhaps in some parts of Alaska.

My point is washing everyone is not fair, yes there is abuse that takes place but we have to allow for such things so that the people who really do need help do not get pigeon holed. It's a tough position, all that I ask is treat every case by its own merits, and hear and listen to people.

There is a homeless man I met he is a black man and a very nice man. I visit him often and I bring him food or even money, I treat him like a human and not a ghost, unlike the rest of society,.we laugh together and sometimes I take him out to dinner and get looks from the gallery,he's always very polite he asked me once what he could order shamefully, I told him order whatever you want, order the whole menu.

The man is a very good person who has suffered a seriously tragic life, when I was homeless and working he gave me food once and also a place to sleep he went and spent the last five dollars he had on me because I was hungry. Makes me almost tear up, but here's a funny story one that I asked him if I could post and he said yes, I came to visit him one morning with breakfast, and upon going to his spot he was not there but what I found was quite hilarious, and I had to take a picture.


I don't know if this breaks T&C and my point in posting was to give an ancedote , showing the humor and lighter side and also the humanity that people who are less fortunate share with all of us. If it breaks T&C please remove.

Anyway, I gave him a hard time and we both laughed, he said his friend left it there and I asked him what kind of friend does that! He laughed, my point is he's a good guy, human like you and I and suffering for choices made many years ago now.

He just recently got food stamps and I took him to the HHSC office he hadn't been on them for years, let me tell you something this man has brought joy to my life he is a none replaceable friend and I don't look down at him at all but society does.

So I know the story's, I've lived them, we must take care of our fellow Americans and I believe that with all my heart. Sorry for the ancedote and bit of a ramble trying to bring humor and perspective to the matter. Have a good evening brother

a reply to: payuporgtfo as I said, if that's not what you meant, my apologies.

originally posted by: payuporgtfo

originally posted by: peppycat

originally posted by: payuporgtfo
a reply to: TNMockingbird

here, it seems you are implying that only sick people need ebt cards.

Did I say that? or are you trying to imply that to get your agenda across?

PATHETIC!

aha ha pathetic, people in between jobs should eat. Sadly not everyone has the security of guaranteed work. By saying you get mad that healthy looking people are using ebt cards in my mind implied that only sick people should have them. If you didn't mean that, once again, I apologize.

a reply to: TechniXcality

I can assure you we wholeheartedly agree on assistance for the mentally ill, physically disabled, and any veteran no matter what.

I am however speaking of a different breed.

A (ex)friend of mine was working as a waiter.. making quite good money. Male, Single, quite fit

One day we were at his APT and he showed me dresser drawer full of loose cash, about $2000 or so.

Several days later we went to the store to buy some beer for a party, which i bought, yet he had some purchases of his own... just general house stuff. eggs, paper towels etc, bought with food stamps

I later asked him why he was getting food stamps. He said "because it's free". Well that ended up not in an argument, but us not associating quite so often.

I have too many similar examples to even mention. Not necessarily as blatant as he was, but examples where ??? still remain.

Do you REALLy need assistance?
Are you REALLY that disabled?
Are you REALLY that sick?

I fought my whole life man, I spent 30 hours putting shingles on a roof in the Cochella Valley at 12 years old to get an xbox

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

I salute you!

AND...why did I scratch off that lottery ticket? LOL

Just kidding of course...wouldn't trade any of it!

a reply to: payuporgtfo

yes....

well...if you had asked me ...instead of ASSUMED that I wasn't looking for a job .. then yea.. you would have gotten the WHOLE picture...

but since you didn't ...you just sterotyped me ...yeah...and we wounder why the world is in the Sh*t hole it is in today..stereotyper fanatics...who bury their head in the sand and expect EVERYONE else to be just like them ...because ..yep ..I have a job and have a warm and cushy place to lay their head at night... why doesn't everyone ELSE be JUST LIKE ME ..

ME

ME

ME...

get you're head out of the sand and look around a bit...there's a whole LOT of stuff going on and it's not as easy as most think it is..

I'm sorry to all .. since I had 'assumed' everyone knew my plight as of 2014...which is still ongoing.. please review this thread and then comment...on this thread...
My Life In Three Boxes

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: payuporgtfo

To be fair, it's entirely impossible to judge someone's true health while standing behind them in a grocery line.

agreed...

this kind of attitude stems from a true narcissistic personality

a reply to: TechniXcality

Thank you for this .. !!!

First TIME EVER NOT being able to work in 36 years of my life or finding work in a tourist town, which is another first in my life...

So, maybe this thread turned out to be not so bad after all,if it means bringing light to a situation that might effect us all at one time in our lives, although I wish no one would ever go through I have since Oct 2013...with this, I will give a brief overview of my situation at hand to this very day..

~Hurt on the Job and Workmen's Comp denied ANY compensation during my injury until 90 days later...yes...yes they did...wife at the time (now divorced), had only a small home business which assisted in paying some of the bills but, not much more since she was not able to find work. (to long to get into here )

~unable to work due to a severe leg injury, (unable to walk, stand for ANY period of time more than 10mins, completely unable to kneel, squat, sit, run, jog ...I was a cripple) which to this day has NOT been even been diagnosed AT ALL because of the red tape involved and NO MRI performed (even to this day I've been denied an MRI even by my regular doctor because the state medical procedure states that there must be other means introduced before the MRI is to be conducted, i.e. meds, muscle testing, nerve testing THEN the MRI) .. even if it was performed, my Comp Lawyer stated .. that the courts don't necessarily look at this as physical evidence

~Before the eviction, we had looked into getting any assistance from the county, even for senior citizens, there was none due to the economy and the severe lack of housing due to immigration...their words NOT mine; we were evicted in March 2014 (wife went to a woman's shelter and I went on the road ..homeless)

~After a few stops to a couple of family members and unable to find ANY housing in Bend, OR which only has 1% of housing available, I was homeless again and still with my injury I had sustained in 2013

~Landed on the coast and been here ever since, double hernia surgery 3 months ago and fully recovered and legs are better to run (some), but I can walk again which is in my opinion a complete miracle. still unable to find work more than 9.25/hr and full time, everyone is hiring part-time which isn't enough to rent a studio here for $600.00/month

~Car is down due to tags, insurance and lost title (working on this)...

thus the reason for EBT, through ALL OF THIS...otherwise...I might have been starving to death, as for the medical...it's not much different than before.. and now I to make another attempt to reapply on-line (3rd attempted)

I'm completely unable to call to get any answer except for "thank you for calling...our phones are busy at this time, please call back later )...this was 3x every week over the course of 2 months ..

THUS ..this thread.

originally posted by: KomodoI'm sorry to all .. since I had 'assumed' everyone knew my plight as of 2014...which is still ongoing.. please review this thread and then comment...on this thread...
My Life In Three Boxes

I am not going to do a lot of preaching to the choir, so all I can say is, you are not alone. At times life is such a misery that you almost can't make out rhyme or reason for its purpose.

I can tell you that healthcare in the US is a commodity. Hospitals and by extension the new groups of physicians are all about the bottom line and little else. Earlier this month I was called to a local hospital to attend to a 17 year old victim of a sexual assault. Her face, arms, legs and hands were so scratched up; it looked like she had been attacked by a wolf.

I had just entered the room, when the detective knocked to inform me that he would be back to pick-up the evidence I collected, when the ER doc pushed past him to tell me that he had a full ER and he needed us to finish up as quickly as possible.

I was speechless for half a second, but that was all it took, because the Victim Advocate let him have what for, and reported him. Too many of them don't care anymore. It is all about the numbers. The patient got thrown out of the equation, right behind the nurses.

I can remember my grandmother saying. "If I stop, I will never get started again." I was young; I thought it was just another thing that old folk said. I never thought that one day it would too become my mantra.

Between the physical pain that nothing relieves, and the heaviness of heart that makes you just want to go bed and not get up again, you find that tiny amount of umph, that spark that gets you going. I thank God for bladders, because I have had days were I would have just kept rolling over, not bothering to get up at all.

I make it through the day like so many others like me, and you, on sheer will and conviction. I repeat my mantras as needed; “Not today”. “You are not going to beat me today”. “I am up and I’m not stopping, because if I stop, I'll never get started again”. Hey, you do what you got to do.

Again remember; you are not alone.