Author: Michele Minehart (Page 299 of 311)

i watched a tidbit of the president’s address last night about the stimulus package. eh. i have a little trouble believing that what got us into this mess (overspending) can get us out… but i suppose something has to be done? all the while i was fighting my own battle which is reflective of why we’re in such a mess.

i’m a bank of america customer and they don’t care. about anything. about me, about what they’ve promised, about business. they don’t need me and the people who answer the phones could care less about the injustice – they’ll go pick up their kids at 5:00, make dinner and watch The Office. the people who should care (the ones making money off the business) , don’t, because they don’t know i exist. thus the problem.

i hung up the phone from the credit card people more than once feeling very small and insignificant. why? because to them, i am.

my husband hates when i say things like this, but our business is too big. i work for a company that used to be small and flat. we did amazing things, got great reviews from our clients and our employees were very happy. add a few levels to an org chart and it wrecks havoc for everybody but the 10 at the top. the same can be true for any organization.

if there’s one thing i’ve learned from my stint working within recruiting and HR, it’s the fact that our country employs a lot of people to do nothing. people employed just to watch people work. for instance, i’m working on a project, doing all kinds of grunt labor online so another guy can present it. he’s supposed to be “recruiting”. he’s not. he’s taking the list of people that i have found, researched, and presented to him in a nice neat excel spreadsheet and he’s calling them. he’s not recruiting, he’s a recording. but if you were to compare paychecks you’d see that he should be doing even more work.

pay people more money to do less. that seems to be the business philosophy of the day. give someone the title of “vice president” and a raise and you can surely bet that they’ll spend their day in “meetings” doing nothing of significance for their business or their world.

if all the large corporations were to slash even just their top 10% wage earners by even 20%… well, i don’t do math well, but i have a feeling that it would be enough that several of the bottom rung people would get to keep their jobs. and the people at the top would still be rich.

this, my friends, is why i say that we are not a “christian nation”. we may have lots of people who go to christian churches that live in our country, but our basic operating principles are not wholly christian. i can’t recall a single story told about or by Jesus that ended with “so, save yourself, take care of yourself, and let everyone else worry about themselves.” when faced with people on the down-and-out, i can’t recall a single time that Jesus said, “well, we live in a free enterprise society! pull yourself up by your little bootstraps!”

no, i’m not suggesting that socialism is the answer. but i am saying that we ought to be careful about what we proclaim. we live in a society that habitually treats people as small and insignificant and makes money doing so. i’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus had in mind for “kingdom come.”

to end the note on the positive, i will say that i found justice: when BOA decided that they didn’t want to give me my rewards points anymore (even after promising me them on the phone), they let their gatekeepers keep telling me no, and what else can you do? well, i’ll tell you. i emailed the haunchos at Norwegian cruise line (where i was to spend the points). When BOA doesn’t give me points, i don’t cruise, and thus i don’t buy expensive fruity drinks and other things that make NCL money. So i emailed any overpaid VP with “customer service” in the title and had a phone call within the hour. today i received an email saying i’ll get my voucher in the mail within 7-10 business days (observation: anytime you ask BOA for anything, it’ll take 7-10 business days). now, i’ll believe it when i see it, but i can’t tell you how much relief it brought that someone finally gave me a voice. let justice roll down (and send me on a cruise).

nothing like titling a post from a david crowder song (even better yet – whole album).

Thursday we went to toledo to begin the process of fitting H with hearing aids. He was very good when they made the earmolds, and we absolutely love our new audiologist (but sad that dr. Z can’t keep us. darn distance!). interesting enough, the audiologist, Patti, had a daughter with a severe hearing loss, which made it much easier to ask questions. she has a fabulous “bedside manner” to start with, she has a way of making no quesiton seem stupid but no concern or fear unmanagable.

this to be said because wednesday night was a bit difficult. a word to the wise: if your kid, or anyone you love, has some sort of special circumstance – don’t do too much googling on the subject. talk to someone directly. i was completely overwhelmed with IEPs, sign language options, special schools, the whole gammet of what other folks have dealt with. but after thursday i realized that their story might not be OUR story. there will always be similarities and i think it’s human nature to try to find similarities when dealing with the unknown, but that doesn’t mean God is writing the same story for each person with a hearing loss (or any new obstacle that gets thrown in the way).

its a bit challenging to deal with all the what-ifs & wills: what life will be like, will kids make fun of him, will he feel constrained, will we do everything right to make sure he develops like he should, will others just pity him and not allow him the beauty of overcoming challenges… there’s a whole list. then there’s the ongoing battle of realism vs. optimism. you want to be like “it’ll be fine” but you also have to see that day-to-day life will be different than expected.

the audiologist first won me over when she was able to think financially for us (aka, know when your warrenties are about to run out), but she held my heart in her hand when she explained what we’re looking at: “you’re all set to go to france. you pack your bag, learn the language, read the reviews and make an itenrary. then you get off the plane and find that you’re in spain. it’s a new language and a new surrounding. it’s not france, but it’s a great adventure.”

Disclaimer:
I am not pro-choice. I am not pro-life. I don’t think either of these views offer a viable long-term solution because I don’t believe that either of these views are asking the right questions.
So in a blog about abortion, i state my view is: abortion is the effect, not the cause of systemic evils in our world. Abortion is the result of other things going wrong. I don’t think there’s a question if it’s right or not (though there will be a minority that says it is ok… but i don’t think that’s my reading audience, if i were to ever have one. that’s a whole other ethical argument. i think the majority of people on all ends would say putting an end to life is not good). Another disclaimer: it is my understanding that a large majority of aboritons involve younger, single women, often times minorities and a large percentage of them live within poverty levels. the minority of women who are of means and just decide “not to have this one” are outside the bounds of this view. i have other issues about that.

So here’s my complaint: Stop complaining about new policy. I think that i’m safe in saying that, over time, it has never been proven that policy will change people and the way they live their life. It won’t. Go all the way back and we find Jesus facing the same problem – Laws won’t change people. People change people. (insert song by Derek Webb here. really. go find it on itunes. “A new law.”)

I don’t like that my tax dollars will support a decision that i don’t think is best for all parties involved. but complaining and pointing fingers isn’t a solution either. it’s been my view since a very involved christian ethics class 2 years ago that if i’m not willing to go the road for her, i don’t think i can make decisions for another woman (or person). if i hate abortion that much, i need to put more than just my vote to work.

if it’s a flag i’m going to wave, then by golly-yup, thems fightin’ words- by golly my life had better reflect it. I’d better be out there helping the women who are faced with such an awful decision. I’d better be willing to say, “i’ll do whatever i can to make life work so that you can have this baby”.

so, with a new president and possibly new policy in place, there is some anger. maybe even fear. lots of call to prayer. recently I’ve decided that one purpose of prayer is to invite us to participate in what God is doing on earth. So, make that your prayer. As Ghandi said (i think it was Ghandi?) – Be the change you wish to see in this world.

Stop counting on policy to make a difference – use your life to make a difference.

Disclaimer: i need to get to work, so i can’t proof read this to see if it even makes sense. but i feel better. 🙂