No Pay, But Yet They Work, They Fight, They Love

I'm not sure if the budget will get passed as of the posting of this blog.  I am offended at the possibility of our military not getting paid.

Congress has let me down yet again.  I'm not sure what they have ever really done for me except to make sure I'm not allowed to do stuff.

The world will continue on with its fighting.

Babies will continue to be born.

Our military will continue to go to work each and every day without fail and without pay.  They will continue to love their country, flag and family.

Congress and President Obama will continue to do their jobs but with pay.  I'm thinking that this is just isn't right.  Maybe we should send Congress and Obama to the front lines since they are continuing to collect their pay checks?  I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this but I'm saying it to the world right now.  I'm not happy with my government.

Military, when paid, are paid at the poverty line.  Many a military member of E-4 pay grade has a family which includes more often than not a child or two or three or more besides a wife.  Most live pay check to pay check.  Most are struggling with credit and trying to establish themselves.  Many will fail if not paid.  Many will go without food.  Eventually with fuel being a priority over food so that the military can continue to go to work, since they are required to do so, the funds for fuel will run out.  Picture the military walking mile after mile after mile just to go to work on an empty stomach and a mind full of grief.  Grief because they have starving family members at home.  But still they will go to work.

Congress is protected under the 27th Amendment.  They will continue to get paid while my husband will go without pay.  Often the pay check is the only reward and recognition a soldier will receive for all his or her sacrifices.

Here's to our heroes!  I applaud you all in our struggles for freedom.

No Pay, No Infertility Treatments, No Extras, No Necessities Either

I'm an Army Wife so my ears have been tuned to the news that the government will be shutting down as of tomorrow if a budget isn't passed.  Will I think it will happen?  Well I didn't before but now I think its a distinct possibility.

Here is a link to a news article from USA Today on that very subject.  I am reading in this particular article something that really shouldn't surprise me but somehow it still does.  Congress and Obama will still get paid if the government gets shut down.  How is this fair?  If the rest of the government won't get paid why should they?

No pay for J would mean that we'd not be able to continue to afford those out of pocket infertility treatments.  They aren't cheap and with our budget being slashed to only essentials its something we'd have to go without.  Forget about saving up for the IVF treatments which run about eight thousand dollars.

No pay would mean that J would not receive his clothing allotment this month.  Its a yearly stipend of a really small amount that the US Army pays to its soldiers so that they can afford to replace worn out gear.  Its so small that it means he can barely get one pair of combat boots, a pair of trousers, jacket, a pack of t-shirts and possibly a pack of socks.

No pay would mean that there would be no more date nights, though of late their haven't been many of those with his schedule.  It would mean we'd eat at home and those meals would be trimmed of all extras too.

No pay would mean that J wouldn't be able to come home after morning PT for breakfast.  He wouldn't be able to come home for lunch.  Gas is way too expensive to be wasting it on such things as going home for food. 

I'm sure this couldn't last too long.  I mean how would Obama deal with all the guilt he has to obviously feel knowing that his government employees are going without food.  Or did he forget that the majority of the government employees now live pay check to pay check.

I wonder if we could cut our government budget if we made Mrs. Obama cook the food for the entire family and visiting diplomats?  I wonder if we could cut out President Obama's vacation fund?  Ooh I wonder if we could make him pay for his own travel expenses?   

I think I'd pay a small admission fee just to see the Obama's live off a welfare food allowance for four people for one month and entertain on that allowance.  Do you think they'd get tired of eating spaghetti with no meat sauce?

I'd like to see President Obama pay the utilities bills for a month on his wages.  I'd like to see President Obama pay for the fuel for his transportation for one month out of his own pay.  He obviously needs his pay to do those things, right?  Seriously what does he pay for that he feels he needs to have his income not stopped?  Is he afraid his credit rating will plummet?  Is he so deeply in debt that he owes creditors?  I doubt it.

The President could have volunteered to not get paid until the budget gets passed.  He knew he had nothing to risk knowing that he and Congress will always get paid because its in the 27th Amendment.  

PETA Responds To My Email

Yesterday I emailed PETA about how insensitive they were to have a contest on the same week and in honor of National Infertility Awareness Week whereby the winner of the contest receives a vasectomy free of charge.

This is the email that I sent to Ingrid Newkirk:
Dear Madam:

I am infertile.  I am outraged that your organization would think that offering up a contest to win a vasectomy would honor infertility awareness week. 

Do you even know what it is like to be infertile and want a child knowing that you might never conceive a child of your own?

Perhaps you should remove that contest or at least the part of honoring infertility awareness week link.

It would be best to offer up to those of us in support of infertility awareness week a chance to win a cycle of IVF treatments.  Or just donate to the infertility awareness website.

I really hope that you never suffer from infertility.  I hope you that if you have children when they decide to have children you never know what its like to not continue on your genetics.  Its hard on the parents of infertile couples too.

I won't say more as it might offend.

Sincerely,
Rebecca
an infertile female hoping for a cure


This is their apology of sorts and long response emailed back to me:

Dear Ms. P, ( I removed my last name)

 

Thank you for contacting PETA about our contest offering a free vasectomy. We apologize if our contest has offended you as it was not our intent. We meant no offense, especially to those who are struggling to conceive. Please know that there are many people who wish to be sterilized—it’s those people that we’re aiming to reach. To learn more about this contest, please go to http://www.PETA.org/features/win-a-vasectomy-from-peta.aspx.

Since the best way to prevent animal companions from having unwanted litters is to spay and neuter them, a kind PETA member offered to cover the cost of a vasectomy for one compassionate man who wants to get himself “snipped” just like his furry friend. While humans can manage their reproductive urges and make informed choices, dogs and cats can’t—we must take responsibility for them. In addition, men are often particularly reluctant to neuter male dogs—a ridiculous hesitation given that Fido won’t notice the change and will be healthier for it.

We know that this offer might raise a few eyebrows, but it will also raise awareness by generating the kind of media coverage of the cat and dog overpopulation crisis that money could never buy. Please know that in addition to our more outrageous actions, PETA also educates the public about the need to spay and neuter through pamphlets, billboards, letters to the editor, ads, articles, public demonstrations, and humane education in schools. We also put our words into action: PETA’s three mobile spay-and-neuter clinics have performed tens of thousands of low-cost and free sterilizations in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Since starting our first mobile clinic in 2001, we have sterilized more than 67,000 animals, including 10,500 in 2010 alone.

As you know, PETA works very hard to prevent the births of puppies and kittens that will end up abandoned in animal shelters or struggling to survive on the streets. Breeding, both purposeful and accidental, is responsible for the euthanasia of millions of these loving companions each year. Sterilization is both the easiest and the most effective means available of ensuring animals’ happiness and safety. Male animals who have been neutered are far less likely to roam far from home or fight. Neutering greatly diminishes and possibly eliminates reproductive urges (which are not the same in dogs as they are in humans). In addition, these animals will never get testicular cancer and run less risk of contracting prostate disease. Female animals who have been spayed avoid the trauma of giving birth and will no longer go into heat.

 

Consider the fate of the millions of unwanted animals whose parents were never spayed and neutered. Born into a hostile world, they are caged among strangers at animal shelters or, worse, abandoned on the sides of roads. They are run over by cars and attacked by other animals. They are infected with painful, contagious, and deadly diseases. Those unlucky enough to run into cruel humans are often drowned, beaten with baseball bats, suffocated in plastic bags, stabbed, shot, starved, set on fire, used as bait, and tortured in countless other ways. And the saddest tragedy of all is that before they meet some gruesome death, they reproduce, and the cycle of animal suffering continues.

 

If you live in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina and would like to have a dog, cat, or rabbit sterilized, please call PETA at 757-622-7382 to make an appointment with our mobile clinics.

A national organization, SPAY/USA, also helps guardians of animal companions who need assistance with the cost of spaying and neutering. You can contact SPAY/USA at the following website and toll-free number:

SPAY/USA

http://www.spayusa.org/

1-800-248-SPAY (7729)

Municipalities across the United States are addressing the animal overpopulation crisis aggressively by passing strong spay-and-neuter laws for all animals. Failure to comply with these laws entails hefty breeder’s fees, even in cases where animals are not being actively bred. Not surprisingly, areas with strong spay-and-neuter laws have seen significant reductions in the numbers of animals brought to their animal shelters and subsequently euthanized. But until all cities have adopted similar laws, animals will continue to breed at uncontrollable rates. 

If there is not already a spay-and-neuter ordinance in your state, city, or county, please write to or call your local- and state-level elected officials (for example, mayors, city councilmembers, state representatives, and state senators) urging them to introduce this important legislation. To send a pre-written letter to your state’s governor, please go to https://secure.PETA.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2875. To find contact information for your state-level elected officials, please go to http://www2.PETA.org/site/PageServer?pagename=legislator_lookup. For tips on writing to legislators, please go to http://www.PETA.org/action/activism-guide/passing-legislation.aspx. To see examples of existing spay-and-neuter legislation, please go to http://www.spayusa.org/main_directory/05-laws_and_legislation/index.asp.

To learn more about issues that affect animal companions, please visit http://www.PETA.org/issues/companion-animals/default.aspx. To make a donation in support of PETA’s campaigns to stop the animal overpopulation crisis, please go to http://www.PETA.org/donate.

Thank you again for contacting us and for the opportunity to share our thoughts. I apologize again if the contest has offended you as it was not the intent.

Sincerely,

HollyAnne Dame

Membership Correspondent

PETA Foundation

757.962.8246

HollyAnneD@petaf.org 

I do believe that animals should be sterilized to prevent over population.  Any animal that I've ever had the pleasure to own has been fixed.  I am a responsible pet owner.  


Holly clarified that the contest was meant for those that are fertile with her: "Please know that there are many people who wish to be sterilized—it’s those people that we’re aiming to reach."  Fine let them enter the contest but don't connect to it to those of us that are trying to conceive.

I guess it is an apology but, they aren't going to remove the contest or the honoring part of those of us that are infertile.  As a matter of fact they are happy we are infertile and will continue to use our plight to promote their cause.  I feel so used by PETA.


Take a look at Keiko's blog post today at Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed  to see how PETA responded to her email.  I'd hardly call them sorry in the least.


I have an idea, if PETA is so set upon preventing more babies being born to this planet let the sterilization begin with all that work for PETA.  Maybe if their reproductive rights were threatened they'd be a bit more understanding of those of us that are battling infertility.  Somehow I doubt  they'd care. 

Win A Vasectomy From PETA!

"Now, one lucky man can be reproduction-free, free of charge, just like his pooch or feline friend. In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week (April 24 to 30), PETA will give one free vasectomy to a man who has recently had his companion cat or dog neutered. Don't worry boys—you'll still be able to enjoy sex. But your neutered dog will be less likely to face the health and behavioral problems that unneutered dogs experience." 

I think that Keiko says it best in her blog posting today.  I highly suggest that my readers take a trip over to her blog Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed and see what she has to say.  She has posted ways in which we can respond best to PETA about how upset we are with their contest.


If you aren't up to reading Keiko's blog then hop on to your email and express your outrage to Ingrid Newkirk, PETA President at  ingridn@peta.org .  I'm sure she'd love to hear what you have to say about the matter.



This really bothers me.  Why?  Well I don't think that PETA really understands what the National Infertility Awareness Week is actually about.  It isn't about getting your pet spayed or neutered.  It isn't about getting your human sterilized.  Its about folks just like me that suffer from infertility.   I'm outraged that PETA could be so insensitive to folks like me.  I love my animals just as much as the next person. 


PETA just doesn't get it.  They are basically celebrating the fact that I can't have a child.  They want to promote the fact that we infertile folks can't have children and want other people to get sterilized too.  Why?  How is it honoring Infertility Awareness by paying for another human's sterilization procedure?  Now if it had been a vasectomy reversal surgery contest I could see that would be honoring infertility.  Or perhaps paying for some couples IVF treatments for a cycle would be honoring Infertility Awareness Week.   But offering a contest win of sterilization in honor of those that are infertile is like handing a knife to suicidal person and cheering them on to slit their wrists.  Its Just Wrong!

I'm really too angry to think coherently.  How would you like an organization telling you that they are glad you can't have children?  How is their contest supporting a cure for infertility?  ITS NOT!

52 weeks in the year and PETA had to chose the week that is about Infertility Awareness,someone didn't do their homework before hitting the press.

Rain

Steady drizzle, icy fingers, hot breath on my neck.  Wet wooly creatures gnaw,  grasping golden globs.  Chirp, caw-caw, chirp.  Thrum, beep-beep, whoosh.  Sensation overload.

Ever notice how the rain intensifies the sensations?  Take a good long listen next time it rains.  Whether it be the metronome of rain drops or the sounds of traffic and small critters the sounds are louder, stronger, wanting to be heard.  The sounds aren't the only things intensified.

Feelings are stronger.  Depressive, joyous, sexual are all more pronounced.  The needs, the wants the general restlessness.  Enclosed in my bubble I can observe the world working around me.  The animals scurry for food, choking down vast amounts in their mouth pouches to eat at a later date.  People hurry from one building to another as if the rain were some sort of torture device and they its victims.

The need for warmth, to soothe those icy digits wrapping around a hot mug of choice beverage.  Be it summer, winter or fall I've noticed the citizens of this world go for the hot beverage when it rains.  It could be a sweltering 90 F and they would still go for the hot beverage.  Is it because the hot beverage will actually cool the body?  It does.  But do they realize this or is it a deeper instinct?  Needs must be met whether we realize it or not.

Needs drive the soul.  Our souls must feed off what we put into it whether it be knowledge or food, we feed our souls.  Stop and think. 

Take a moment out of your scurrying from the wetness to stand still in the rain and feel the goodness that is nature.  Think of why it rains.  What is accomplished when it rains?  The Earth is cleaned.  Nature feeds off the rain and thus feeds us.

Feed your sensations.  Feel the rain as is dribbles down your face to dampen your chest. Feel the slickness of the rain as it washes the dirt and oil from your arms to drip to the ground from your fingertips.  Lick a raindrop from your lover's lips.  Feel how much more sensual a kiss can be.  Make love in the gentle rain.

Whoosh, whir-whir, thunk.
Rat-a-tat-tat,
Beep, Beep, Beep.

Vehicles pass by my window, the range is hot and construction continues; all in the rain.  There is life.  It wants to be heard.

The Pain Of Loving A Soldier

I love my soldier, my J, my husband.  There are days I wish I could just wrap him in bubble wrap and keep him hidden from the world.  I know I cannot do this much as I really desire to protect him from all dangers.
With love comes pain. Pain of worry, pain of longing, pain of waiting with no answers in sight.

There are days in our marriage where all I can do is worry.  I know he's been trained to fight and to survive.  He is good at what he's trained to do.  I know that he will always do his best so that he can come home to me alive.  He wants to grow old along with me.

There are days though that one can't rely upon the skills that their soldier were taught.  There are instances where things are totally out of our and their control.  Fate can be one angry bitch or she can be as soft and gentle as a summer's breeze.

I had my scare this morning.  There was a muck up of epic proportions, well at least I consider it was epic, this morning.  I got a call that my soldier never showed up and was missing.  How is that for a wake up?  Yes, I was awake as much as needs be when knee deep in seven loads of laundry.  My heart went to my throat as I answered the questions asked of me.  I had no clue where he was if he wasn't where he was supposed to be.  My blood pressure began to rise and I knew I couldn't panic, yet.

How could they lose a man?  Who was the idiot out there that didn't notice he showed up?  I spent two hours stressed out wondering if I should call the hospital because my J couldn't be reached.  What if he was dead?  Its all I could think of.  I felt my life crumble.  The pain gripped my gut.  I hate the "what ifs" that are always a part of life when one is married to a soldier.

J was there.  He had showed up on time to relieve the other person.  It was the other person on the two man team that didn't show up when the appointed time arrived.  Why did the person being relieved report that my soldier didn't showed up?  Are they getting that sloppy?

Believe me right now I'd like nothing better than to find the person that started this whole mess and give them a piece of my mind for giving me a fright.  But I know that I'm not allowed to do that.  I have to suck up the fear.  I have to suck up the anger that is always felt when it turns out they messed up.

It could have been a lot worse.  But now I wonder about next time.  He's survived a deployment.  What's to say the next one won't claim him?  Its something we aren't allowed to talk about.  Its something we'd all rather not think about.  Its one of those things that when the time comes to deal with it it gets dealt with and hopefully without losing one's sanity.

I know that J will come back to me after each assignment, each shift, each deployment as long as fate allows.  I have to keep that hope that he and I will enjoy our rocking chair years together. 

No Heat

Dear Equity,
I'm beginning to not like your housing units.  It seems as though each month I've had some sort of repair done to my housing unit.  If you are going to charge us the full amount of our BAH each month I'd like a unit in better repair.  Much as I love the 15 feet of fenced in back yard and the fact that I don't share walls with another tenant I don't like the following problems:

Hot water heater that has to be repaired five times before it is replaced.

Gas oven with built in stove top that has to be repaired four times before you decide its too old to repair and replace it finally.

Rotted master bedroom window frame of which you decided to replace only the apron on and not the rotted wood underneath it.  Then it continues to leak and some how its my fault.

Kitchen plumbing that is repaired five times in the very first year of my residence and it still doesn't work properly.

Bathroom plumbing issues that call for multiple repairs. I can only hope they will stay repaired this time with the hole in the foundation that you jack hammered and didn't fill correctly.

The sliding glass door that you have come out on numerous occasions to fix  and it still doesn't latch properly.  Mind you a nice metal bar, preventing the door from opening from the outside, has been installed by me as I'm not a fool to let burglars into my house that easily.

Finally, today I called you because I had no heat.  I've called you before because my condensation pump was making funny noises.  But you said nothing was wrong with it and you couldn't hear it.  Today it had to be replaced. 

I'm waiting for the refrigerator to fail.  I've had you out here before to listen to the god awful noise it makes.  Is that going to take forever for you to realize that it is going downhill fast? 

I'm not a fool.   I asked numerous people who remember when the Army owned its own housing units; things were better with the housing units when the Army still owned the buildings.  I don't like how you cut corners on jobs.  I don't like how your employees tell me that its job security when I have to call them out multiple times.  Oh they also laugh when they tell me its job security.  I don't find it funny at all.  I find it annoying.

Those little perks that your housing areas gives away free and that hardly anyone picks up because they are informed too late, aren't going to make the residents happy.  We would like timely, efficient, and clean service repairs.  I don't like finding debris in my sink basins, toilet bowl, floor surface and walls where your techs thought they cleaned up but didn't.  Debris shows quite well on light surfaces.

Hire someone that knows what they are doing.  Hire someone to clean up after the tech if the tech is sloppy.  Hire someone that is willing to go that extra mile to make sure we are happy with the repair.  After all we are the ones that in the end, with our rent, make sure you have that money to pay your employees.

Sincerely,
An Unhappy Tenant