I was really surprised at how well Obama stood up in the debate, given that Romney rose to prominence in the first place precisely by debating other Republicans (Remember last year around this time?) I sort of expected a different sort of thing. I really believed and still believe Obama had only the truth to defend himself with and kind of expected him to get really humiliated in the debate. I wasn't expecting the two of them to have so much fun and kind of to transcend the rules and have actual exchanges with each other and talk to each other and so it was kind of fun to watch.
I think what was hard for me about the debate was the amount of obfuscation Romney was doing about Social Security and my feeling that Obama made an aside about Social Security not working exactly except for seniors and his intention to correct the problem. I'm not a lazy freeloader, but I don't work for money but do volunteer work and then collect SSI to live on. All last year I earned about half of the money I got with paid work but I also was constantly accused of not learning fast enough, always inches from being fired and eventually I decided I'd rather work someplace else, but never quite got around to getting another job after I left the first one. Paid work is tough for a lot of people, but in my case I'm always feeling incompetent and like it would be hopeless to come up with disability accommodations that would suit all the different ways that I can't do my job right. It's kind of been my plan to use this year as a time to correct some of the ways I can't fit in with most work environments, but I'm not in a mood to get booted off Social Security when as a volunteer I do a lot of things that most people are too busy working for a living to do and that arrangement would really work for me if people didn't ostracise me so much for being a freak. I facilitate a debate group at Mariposa Wellness Center (which doesn't always work as a debate group but we do get to air a lot of differences of opinion in a respectful way without challenging each other. It's hard to get people with chemical imbalances to feel like arguing is a peaceful thing.) I also work really hard with my muscles and sweat and everything one day a week at Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen though lately I haven't been showing up as often as I'd like. I'm sort of thinking next year about more exciting volunteer opportunities like ones that get me picking up trash on the beach or even getting in the way of illegal whaling vessels with Greenpeace. Forestry would be cool, too, god this is an incoherent ramble.
Anyway, a lot of people like me would just plain starve if we didn't get SSI and there are those who are even more disabled than me.I really would like to see something like a requirement that people on SSI for a mental illness find a structured activity for at least six to twenty hours a week, allowing substitutions like any kind of constructive volunteer job or else school or paid work so that people would get used to us being just as helpful as anyone else and stop shunning us all the time or treating us like we're fragile or contrariwise being downright mean. I think the lazy freeloaders will probably vote for Romney because Romney is so vague about Social Security and telling us we don't have to listen to the rest of what he's saying or that "people are smart enough to understand that" when really we already know he wants to eliminate Social Security and let people's family take care of them. Yuck. And that scares me and I wish the lazy freeloader vote would just stop being lazy and wake up and realize Obama is the only hope a lot of us are going to have against ending up starving or in internment camps or both.
I think what was hard for me about the debate was the amount of obfuscation Romney was doing about Social Security and my feeling that Obama made an aside about Social Security not working exactly except for seniors and his intention to correct the problem. I'm not a lazy freeloader, but I don't work for money but do volunteer work and then collect SSI to live on. All last year I earned about half of the money I got with paid work but I also was constantly accused of not learning fast enough, always inches from being fired and eventually I decided I'd rather work someplace else, but never quite got around to getting another job after I left the first one. Paid work is tough for a lot of people, but in my case I'm always feeling incompetent and like it would be hopeless to come up with disability accommodations that would suit all the different ways that I can't do my job right. It's kind of been my plan to use this year as a time to correct some of the ways I can't fit in with most work environments, but I'm not in a mood to get booted off Social Security when as a volunteer I do a lot of things that most people are too busy working for a living to do and that arrangement would really work for me if people didn't ostracise me so much for being a freak. I facilitate a debate group at Mariposa Wellness Center (which doesn't always work as a debate group but we do get to air a lot of differences of opinion in a respectful way without challenging each other. It's hard to get people with chemical imbalances to feel like arguing is a peaceful thing.) I also work really hard with my muscles and sweat and everything one day a week at Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen though lately I haven't been showing up as often as I'd like. I'm sort of thinking next year about more exciting volunteer opportunities like ones that get me picking up trash on the beach or even getting in the way of illegal whaling vessels with Greenpeace. Forestry would be cool, too, god this is an incoherent ramble.
Anyway, a lot of people like me would just plain starve if we didn't get SSI and there are those who are even more disabled than me.I really would like to see something like a requirement that people on SSI for a mental illness find a structured activity for at least six to twenty hours a week, allowing substitutions like any kind of constructive volunteer job or else school or paid work so that people would get used to us being just as helpful as anyone else and stop shunning us all the time or treating us like we're fragile or contrariwise being downright mean. I think the lazy freeloaders will probably vote for Romney because Romney is so vague about Social Security and telling us we don't have to listen to the rest of what he's saying or that "people are smart enough to understand that" when really we already know he wants to eliminate Social Security and let people's family take care of them. Yuck. And that scares me and I wish the lazy freeloader vote would just stop being lazy and wake up and realize Obama is the only hope a lot of us are going to have against ending up starving or in internment camps or both.
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