Monday, September 08, 2003
YOUR DAY COULD BE A LOT WORSE. Got a call from a constituent -- a very upset woman who was very hard to follow because she kept interchanging her he's and she's until you had no idea who she was talking about. She lost her housing [in my boss's district] and now lives on a campsite, plot #13, up north (the worst thing you want to do in this state is to lose the roof over your head since wait lists for affordable housing are one year or more, and the alternatives dismal). She had driven down here with her foster son, whom she adopted eleven years ago, to visit her grown biological son for the weekend. While out visiting some friends, the biological son and his girlfriend locked her out of the house and got a court order for temporary custody for the boy, citing she is unfit because she hasn't enrolled him in school yet and is physically unable to care for him due to a mile-long list of painful afflictions. She claims biological son and his girlfriend are drug addicts who met each other in a failed de-tox program. She is worried about adopted son (now sixteen and smoking pot) who has all kinds of behavioral issues and needs medication which she fears he isn't getting now because drug-addict son is probably taking it himself. Adopted son gets violent without his medication. The girlfriend of the alledged drug-addict/biological son has her own kids living in the same house and whom she beats regularly. The word 'father' never came up -- just a tangle of broken dead-end lives. She just loves this kid and wants him back. And heaven help the person who has to drill down to the truth let alone to the best interest of the kid.
BAD LUCK IS SOME PEOPLE'S MIDDLE NAME. Then there is my Haitian car mechanic -- a wonderful guy and great body work specialist who works hard and loves his family. About a year ago, a piece of metal splinter hit his son in the eye and partially blinded him while he was working on a car (mine I hate to say and I have felt guilty ever since). Today I called the shop to see how my latest body enhancement project was going, and he told me that the reason my car wasn't ready was that one of his workers (probably a relative) drove one of the cars that had been left at the shop across town and got involved in an accident where two bicyclists were hit. The owner of the car has contacted his lawyer. My friend the mechanic has one less employee at the moment, a huge family to support, and is behind schedule on his workload.
GULLIBILITY AS YOUR GUIDE. Tonight I attended one of those way-left political assemblies held at a high school in my boss's district. He didn't want to go to it because he says the organizers are all "crazy whackos" i.e. grassroots groups, really-intense-labor-leaders, and the like. He's the elected representative and I'm the underpaid aide going because my PR instincts tell me that you don't want to piss these people off given their toehold in the ever-growing Latino community. I can see what he doesn't like about these groups. "CLOSE THE CORPORATE LOOP HOLES!!!" they shout. Don't let in-state corporations off the hook by letting them pay minimal taxes! That's a nice emotionally charged issue you can get behind, right? -- make the greedy companies pay! The problem is that if you don't offer these corporations tax incentives, they go bye-bye to open shop in Alabama or never come here in the first place. Period. Even with the present tax breaks, this state is one big headache for corporations trying to do business here. Try to recruit a well-qualified person here only for her to tell you that "gee thanks for the generous offer but housing prices are so outrageous I can't afford to live here." Whoa girl I'm sounding like a Republican! Not. Raise the state personal income tax. If you're going to revolt against taxes, start with the $87 billion dollar bill just handed the American public (call it tax or call it deficit -- it's all coming out of your pocket one way or another). I left the forum just before anyone caught sight of said Representative's aide climb into her hubby's Beamer to drive home to a glass of Chardonnay (don't worry -- I'm feeling like a very shallow Democrat these days).
AND HERE I WAS DISTRAUGHT because the Home Improvement center I went to on Sunday didn't have the exact bathroom tiles I wanted.... plus I have this inexplicable rash that manifests itself by a wave of itching that makes itself indiscriminately, and with no apparent rhyme or reason from one end of my body to the other. Which makes me think I'm going pre-menopausal, or have a never-before-now unidentified food allergy. Wouldn't be so bad except when it makes its way to parts of my body that are not conducive to wild scratching on the subway. Don't go to the gutters guys. The worst is when it goes to the nape of my neck. Doctor's appointment tomorrow.
BAD LUCK IS SOME PEOPLE'S MIDDLE NAME. Then there is my Haitian car mechanic -- a wonderful guy and great body work specialist who works hard and loves his family. About a year ago, a piece of metal splinter hit his son in the eye and partially blinded him while he was working on a car (mine I hate to say and I have felt guilty ever since). Today I called the shop to see how my latest body enhancement project was going, and he told me that the reason my car wasn't ready was that one of his workers (probably a relative) drove one of the cars that had been left at the shop across town and got involved in an accident where two bicyclists were hit. The owner of the car has contacted his lawyer. My friend the mechanic has one less employee at the moment, a huge family to support, and is behind schedule on his workload.
GULLIBILITY AS YOUR GUIDE. Tonight I attended one of those way-left political assemblies held at a high school in my boss's district. He didn't want to go to it because he says the organizers are all "crazy whackos" i.e. grassroots groups, really-intense-labor-leaders, and the like. He's the elected representative and I'm the underpaid aide going because my PR instincts tell me that you don't want to piss these people off given their toehold in the ever-growing Latino community. I can see what he doesn't like about these groups. "CLOSE THE CORPORATE LOOP HOLES!!!" they shout. Don't let in-state corporations off the hook by letting them pay minimal taxes! That's a nice emotionally charged issue you can get behind, right? -- make the greedy companies pay! The problem is that if you don't offer these corporations tax incentives, they go bye-bye to open shop in Alabama or never come here in the first place. Period. Even with the present tax breaks, this state is one big headache for corporations trying to do business here. Try to recruit a well-qualified person here only for her to tell you that "gee thanks for the generous offer but housing prices are so outrageous I can't afford to live here." Whoa girl I'm sounding like a Republican! Not. Raise the state personal income tax. If you're going to revolt against taxes, start with the $87 billion dollar bill just handed the American public (call it tax or call it deficit -- it's all coming out of your pocket one way or another). I left the forum just before anyone caught sight of said Representative's aide climb into her hubby's Beamer to drive home to a glass of Chardonnay (don't worry -- I'm feeling like a very shallow Democrat these days).
AND HERE I WAS DISTRAUGHT because the Home Improvement center I went to on Sunday didn't have the exact bathroom tiles I wanted.... plus I have this inexplicable rash that manifests itself by a wave of itching that makes itself indiscriminately, and with no apparent rhyme or reason from one end of my body to the other. Which makes me think I'm going pre-menopausal, or have a never-before-now unidentified food allergy. Wouldn't be so bad except when it makes its way to parts of my body that are not conducive to wild scratching on the subway. Don't go to the gutters guys. The worst is when it goes to the nape of my neck. Doctor's appointment tomorrow.
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