So I haven't properly had a rant in awhile. I love all of my pictures on this blog and the other one (see right hand corner), they all make me happy, but yesterday I got to thinking about my country, this America that I now find myself in and something just needs to be said.
Two things, well rather three things happened yesterday to spark this thought process. One, I went to visit a recruiter so I could get something, anything, by way of a job. Jobs are few and far between, I can now say it isn't just hype or my mother telling me, 'there aren't any jobs out there'and me rolling my eyes. I know first hand, it's true! I digress, this recruiter asked about my experience working at a medical practice, 'Is the UK medical system really as bad as the conservatives say'?
'No', I stated simply. And then I had a glimpse of a rare opportunity to let this gentleman who was actually interested into a different way of life, an un American way, so before his phone rang I managed to get out, 'I paid taxes that I didn't realise that I was paying, for a health care system I used regularly. I could see a doctor in a day, pay for a prescription for 10 dollars and saw a specialist on numerous occasions. Here, here I am nervous about getting sick or in a car wreck. It's amazing someone can lose their house if they have the great misfortune of getting sick. Everyone or anyone can see a doctor there and although there might be some hoops, as there definitely are here, I've seen a great many doctors care about their patients and actually provide good care'. And this is all true and he very much hesitated before answering the phone, wanting more on the topic.
The second thing that happened was that I spoke with my best friend who was distraught because the elementary school she worked for was probably closing. It's a great public school, a small school with a river running past, she not only has a small class size, but she is able to provide alternative programs/projects like yoga and various environmental projects for her kids. Hers is not the only school and I shudder to thing that this new development was now a direct result of the state affairs we've gotten ourselves into in California and on the whole in the US with our concentration on military spending. Can this be, that we still have a war in Iraq, almost eight years on and how can we all sit back and watch as more troops are being deployed to Afghanistan? How can we afford to spend anything else towards deployment on this costly war, and in the meantime neglect our school spending and as a result our children/future generations?
Finally I read in article about gay marriage in Arkansas or some midwest state. Congrats to them! Very progressive of them! But I still hate to point out that gay people in the few states that allow it have no legal rights under federal law. It makes me think of friends I met in London that are simply there because they are two females, married, one Italian, one American, and they are very much compromising their livelihood and way of living because the United States will not recognise their union, will not allow them to remain together. How is that Italy and Spain, such conservative, such machismo states, allow same sex marriage? How is that in England you can put two females or two males on a child's birth certificate thus making a child justly and righteously from both parents? And yet we in the United States think it all so barbaric for two people who love each other to actually tie the knot even though they might both be the same sex.
I have left for four long years and in that time America or the U.S. has very much turned backwards and uber conservative, I have to question, is it just me or them (Americans)? Am I more liberal? I can't understand why anyone isn't shouting, why Obama hasn't changed things, why we cannot be progressive and open and fresh and the leaders of the world in all things right; free health care, great education (China is surpassing us now), and equal rights for all. Let us not be left in the dust because of our conservatism and our world domination goals and our desperation for oil (END RANT).
No comments:
Post a Comment