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| My Head is always in the clouds. (c) R.M Brandon 2012 |
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Small Town Dying
If you watched the Super Bowl this year you might have caught an outstanding commercial by Dodge. featuring Clint Eastwood it captured the desolation felt around America in the present economy. The tag line was: Its halftime America. Unfortunately, for a small town in Southern Illinois it is a lot closer to the end of the game.
Ten years ago the major car factories in Centralia Illinois closed their doors, sending hundreds to the unemployment line. Many moved, those who remained, chose to adapt and overcome. They completed degree training in fields of employment left in this area. Mainly,the Healthcare Industry. The largest employers remaining in this area are a place called Warren G Murray Center a home for developmentally disabled, the hospital St.Mary's Good Sam, the local prison Centralia Correctional Center,various nursing homes, the school system, and three remaining factories specializing in food, plastics, and metal. This area is poor to say the least. With a population of 13,032 according to the 2010 census. The average median income is approximately $31,000. Every other house on any given street displays a for sale sign. Vacant businesses mark every city block.
The Governor of Illinois has decided it is in the best fiscal interest of the state to close Murray's Center. In an area where the hold outs have overcome, filled with rich history, and endless possibilities the mighty hand of politics has decided to challenge hundreds of families again, with unemployment. Why? Because the state has a looming deficit it is struggling to overcome. Yet the Governor's salary is $179,000 while the Lieutenant Governor is being paid $137,000. Two prior state Governors now sit behind bars on charges of corruption. The great Governor Pat Quinn has decided to fix the budget by eliminating jobs instead of wanton waste.
So the town screams for someone, somewhere to help. Not just for the families of the town, but for the resident's of the facility.What is to become of them if Murray's Center is closed? Approximately 328 people with developmental issues, unable to function in standard society will be in need of housing, food, 24 hour care. Where will they find the services they need? Do we mainstream them into Nursing Homes where the average age is above 60 when the residents of this facility are much younger? What of the education, training, and rehabilitative services they would loose? What of their quality of life?
It would be pretentious of me to suggest I have all the answers. Instead I leave you with many suggestions, and a few questions. How much money would the state save if we didn't pay our elected officials at all? To speak for the people you should be required to live like them. Governor Quinn I challenge you to work next to the people whom you would make unemployed. Look them in the eyes. Care for the people you would deprive care. Look them in the eyes. Then explain to them why you have to make no sacrifice, yet they must give everything. Open up the doors of the Gubernatorial Mansion to house the developmentally disabled.
Our taxes foot the bill there so we can just combine to save money right. Walk the streets of Southern Illinois. Then go on back up to your comfy home and sleep in your warm bed while the people you passed during the day try to figure out how to feed their children.
Do Changes need to be made? Hell Yeah! Let's start with the people who speak for us! Give us someone with a history in the medical field; they know where cuts can be handled. Give us someone who will speak because they believe not because they are being paid! Their voice will carry the loudest. Fix the problems we have by building not breaking. Spread this, let the voice of small town USA be heard!
R.M.Brandon 2012
Ten years ago the major car factories in Centralia Illinois closed their doors, sending hundreds to the unemployment line. Many moved, those who remained, chose to adapt and overcome. They completed degree training in fields of employment left in this area. Mainly,the Healthcare Industry. The largest employers remaining in this area are a place called Warren G Murray Center a home for developmentally disabled, the hospital St.Mary's Good Sam, the local prison Centralia Correctional Center,various nursing homes, the school system, and three remaining factories specializing in food, plastics, and metal. This area is poor to say the least. With a population of 13,032 according to the 2010 census. The average median income is approximately $31,000. Every other house on any given street displays a for sale sign. Vacant businesses mark every city block.
The Governor of Illinois has decided it is in the best fiscal interest of the state to close Murray's Center. In an area where the hold outs have overcome, filled with rich history, and endless possibilities the mighty hand of politics has decided to challenge hundreds of families again, with unemployment. Why? Because the state has a looming deficit it is struggling to overcome. Yet the Governor's salary is $179,000 while the Lieutenant Governor is being paid $137,000. Two prior state Governors now sit behind bars on charges of corruption. The great Governor Pat Quinn has decided to fix the budget by eliminating jobs instead of wanton waste.
So the town screams for someone, somewhere to help. Not just for the families of the town, but for the resident's of the facility.What is to become of them if Murray's Center is closed? Approximately 328 people with developmental issues, unable to function in standard society will be in need of housing, food, 24 hour care. Where will they find the services they need? Do we mainstream them into Nursing Homes where the average age is above 60 when the residents of this facility are much younger? What of the education, training, and rehabilitative services they would loose? What of their quality of life?
It would be pretentious of me to suggest I have all the answers. Instead I leave you with many suggestions, and a few questions. How much money would the state save if we didn't pay our elected officials at all? To speak for the people you should be required to live like them. Governor Quinn I challenge you to work next to the people whom you would make unemployed. Look them in the eyes. Care for the people you would deprive care. Look them in the eyes. Then explain to them why you have to make no sacrifice, yet they must give everything. Open up the doors of the Gubernatorial Mansion to house the developmentally disabled.
Our taxes foot the bill there so we can just combine to save money right. Walk the streets of Southern Illinois. Then go on back up to your comfy home and sleep in your warm bed while the people you passed during the day try to figure out how to feed their children.
Do Changes need to be made? Hell Yeah! Let's start with the people who speak for us! Give us someone with a history in the medical field; they know where cuts can be handled. Give us someone who will speak because they believe not because they are being paid! Their voice will carry the loudest. Fix the problems we have by building not breaking. Spread this, let the voice of small town USA be heard!
R.M.Brandon 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Life is Like a new cell Phone
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| MY STRESS RELIEVERS |
NEXT POST FREE SHORT STORY!!!!!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Inner Dreamer
Dreams. We all have one. Maybe you can’t think of it right away, but if you close your eyes and talk to your younger self you’ll remember it.
It feels like yesterday. Eyes closed, laying on my back, a blanket of green fresh grass beneath me, tickling my summer skin. Above me, the clear blue sky was filled with puffy white clouds. I’d lay there for hours watching the myriad of shapes drift past. Dragons, bunnies, dolphins, turtles, genies, angels. Each shape unlocked a mysterious world in my young imagination. The depths of the ocean beckoned to be explored. A plan formulated in the blind innocence of youth. I would become an oceanographer, traveling the depths of world like Jacques Cousteau. In my extensive travels, I would write about everything I saw. Expanding into archeology, and of course dabbling in the fine arts along the way.
Needless to say, that hasn’t happened yet. Yes I said yet. Watching my prodigies grow, I’ve discovered, that dreamer is still very much alive and kicking in the back of my feet planted firmly on the ground adult mind. Then I wander through my daily grind. Observing the generations now past in their “Golden” years. I still see their inner dreamers. That wild eyed child stuck in a withering body, begging for one last, grand adventure. So I seek the improbable. Not impossible. Improbable.
Nothing in life is impossible, a lot is improbable. Luck, stubborn ignorance, and sheer will power can over come the odds. I happen to posses all of the above. (Yeah I was laughing when I wrote that) But it’s true. If a person is never told what they are supposed to be the only limits they posses are those they impose upon themselves. One of my favorite lines is “Can’t is an imaginary word” .
It is simply a limitation imposed out of convenience or sometimes laziness. Sure there are a lot of things a person will never be, but if you want it bad enough, you will find a way to make it work. And the point of this little rant?
Tell me what you dream of. When you close your eyes and let that inner child out, what does it tell you to do?
2012 is going to be the year my dreams started to come true. What about you? Have you thought about it? Tell you what, I’ll share a few of mine with you. My dreams have changed a little with age. I realized somewhere along the way I probably wouldn’t invent a dolphin suit so I could swim next to them but…you never know. The list for 2012 ……
1.) The release of Witan Vid Book 1 The Green Man’s Curse.
This one is actually closing in!!!! March 2012 and secretly I’m both excited and terrified.
2.) Fly to Mexico, buy a big floppy hat , and explore some ancient ruins
Passport orderedJ
3.) Surrender to the irresponsible side and actually gamble for one weekend in Vegas, watch Cirque Du Soile live, and hit every ride on the Stratosphere.
I will post pics when I get there.
4.) Publish one complete book of poetry, prose, and lyrics.
On my pile of in progress.
5.) Finish and submit two screen plays.
On the Pile.
6.) Enter my Photography in a contest.
Need to borrow a pair of Cahonas for this one. Anyone willing to help the cowardly?
7.) Eat pasta in Italy of course followed by a glass of wine, float on a Gondola, visit to the Gallerria degali Uffizi, The Accademia, pretty much just explore and absorb everything!
It will happen.
8.) Take my daughter to New York and watch a real Broadway Musical .
Sometimes filling someone else’s dream is worth giving up one of your own.
9.) Buy property close to the ocean. Still trying to pick a coast, but by the end of the year……
10.) Let go of the past. Completely. We all have baggage, my load is getting lighter My goal is to carry only the positive things I’ve learned and leave all rest behind.
Well that’s what is on my agenda for this year. Who knows, maybe I’ll swap one out for something else. Or maybe I’ll accomplish everything by July and be able to tack on another ten, or twenty, or……..My inner dreamer is a very busy critter. What about yours?
R.M. Brandon 2012
It feels like yesterday. Eyes closed, laying on my back, a blanket of green fresh grass beneath me, tickling my summer skin. Above me, the clear blue sky was filled with puffy white clouds. I’d lay there for hours watching the myriad of shapes drift past. Dragons, bunnies, dolphins, turtles, genies, angels. Each shape unlocked a mysterious world in my young imagination. The depths of the ocean beckoned to be explored. A plan formulated in the blind innocence of youth. I would become an oceanographer, traveling the depths of world like Jacques Cousteau. In my extensive travels, I would write about everything I saw. Expanding into archeology, and of course dabbling in the fine arts along the way.
Needless to say, that hasn’t happened yet. Yes I said yet. Watching my prodigies grow, I’ve discovered, that dreamer is still very much alive and kicking in the back of my feet planted firmly on the ground adult mind. Then I wander through my daily grind. Observing the generations now past in their “Golden” years. I still see their inner dreamers. That wild eyed child stuck in a withering body, begging for one last, grand adventure. So I seek the improbable. Not impossible. Improbable.
Nothing in life is impossible, a lot is improbable. Luck, stubborn ignorance, and sheer will power can over come the odds. I happen to posses all of the above. (Yeah I was laughing when I wrote that) But it’s true. If a person is never told what they are supposed to be the only limits they posses are those they impose upon themselves. One of my favorite lines is “Can’t is an imaginary word” .
It is simply a limitation imposed out of convenience or sometimes laziness. Sure there are a lot of things a person will never be, but if you want it bad enough, you will find a way to make it work. And the point of this little rant?
Tell me what you dream of. When you close your eyes and let that inner child out, what does it tell you to do?
 |
| Follow your dreams |
2012 is going to be the year my dreams started to come true. What about you? Have you thought about it? Tell you what, I’ll share a few of mine with you. My dreams have changed a little with age. I realized somewhere along the way I probably wouldn’t invent a dolphin suit so I could swim next to them but…you never know. The list for 2012 ……
1.) The release of Witan Vid Book 1 The Green Man’s Curse.
This one is actually closing in!!!! March 2012 and secretly I’m both excited and terrified.
2.) Fly to Mexico, buy a big floppy hat , and explore some ancient ruins
Passport orderedJ
3.) Surrender to the irresponsible side and actually gamble for one weekend in Vegas, watch Cirque Du Soile live, and hit every ride on the Stratosphere.
I will post pics when I get there.
4.) Publish one complete book of poetry, prose, and lyrics.
On my pile of in progress.
5.) Finish and submit two screen plays.
On the Pile.
6.) Enter my Photography in a contest.
Need to borrow a pair of Cahonas for this one. Anyone willing to help the cowardly?
7.) Eat pasta in Italy of course followed by a glass of wine, float on a Gondola, visit to the Gallerria degali Uffizi, The Accademia, pretty much just explore and absorb everything!
It will happen.
8.) Take my daughter to New York and watch a real Broadway Musical .
Sometimes filling someone else’s dream is worth giving up one of your own.
9.) Buy property close to the ocean. Still trying to pick a coast, but by the end of the year……
10.) Let go of the past. Completely. We all have baggage, my load is getting lighter My goal is to carry only the positive things I’ve learned and leave all rest behind.
Well that’s what is on my agenda for this year. Who knows, maybe I’ll swap one out for something else. Or maybe I’ll accomplish everything by July and be able to tack on another ten, or twenty, or……..My inner dreamer is a very busy critter. What about yours?
R.M. Brandon 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
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