Here in America

No lie, the phone starts ringing at just after 8 a.m. and doesn't stop until well after 9 p.m. They're dunning phone calls and we've told these creditors our story over and over and over. They still call every single day and it's really worn us down. Some of the creditors are really nice and others are really nasty. Still, how many times do we have to tell our story before they finally get it? The story doesn't change from one day to the next: we're sorry, we have no money, TB's been out of work since September, we've run through all our savings trying to stay current and now that moeny is gone, no, we don't know when we're going to get any more money, no we don't want to postdate a check for next week or ext month, why would we do that when we don't know when we're going to get any money?

Lately we figured a way to duck the calls of the creditors. We turned the volume down as low as it can go. We've assigned a tune to the phone numbers of people we want to talk to so that when we hear it, we pick up. Otherwise, we just leave the phone. I think it's frustrating them because they've begun to leave computer-voiced messages and to send us letters "we've been unable to reach you..." We get a small bit of satisfaction from that.

On the upside, the house passed a bill that might help us out of the mess we're in--at least where the house is concerned. I don't want to get my hopes up. The Senate has to vote on it, the President has to sign it and then I will call our mortgage company to see if they'd be willing to refinance our loan under the terms of the new bill.

The other day I read an article that saddened and angered me. The focus of the story was that as people become homeless or are faced with homelessness, they become determined to vote so that their voices are heard. These are the facts that upset me:

The U.S. government estimates that more than 400,000 people around the country sleep in homeless shelters each night, with many more on the streets, under bridges and in parked cars. Advocacy groups say that some 3.5 million Americans will find themselves homeless at some point in a year.

As home foreclosures passed the 2 million mark last year, organizations offering emergency accommodation say they are fielding more calls from families facing homelessness as they struggle to keep up with mortgages, rent and bills.

I saw news stories on Sixty Minutes and on another program about organizations that sponsor a two day medical-and-dental clinic for people who have no insurance. It was appalling to see the hundreds and hundreds of people who lined up early hoping not to be turned away.

This should not be happening in America. I feel that these are possibilities that TB and I and my family are looking at soon if we don't get the help we need.

Getting back to homeless voters, they want to make their voices heard but it's not easy.

Many may have no permanent address from which to register. Others have lost track of the identification documents that they need in order to obtain voter cards, such as Social Security cards and birth certificates.

The whole article is here.

The Sixty Minutes article on Remote Area Medical (RAM) is here.

How many of us are just a paycheck or two away from disaster?