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Dear Wall Street,

I would like to request a few things back. My money would be a great place to start. I don’t even mean my investments that I lost, but the taxes I paid you after you lost my investments. I would also like to regain a sense of security that scum bags don’t succeed in the world because good-hearted people always win. I would like that back with interest of course. I would like my subway system running “normally” again and I would like the golden surcharge for stepping into a cab to be taken away. I would like my faith in humanity and my general belief in karma to be restored but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

I think that the fact such big bonuses are being distributed, or are even in question, is a pretty obvious sign that there is no remorse for any of the irresponsible actions taken in the past decade and that Wall Street has not only lost touch with “Main Street,” but with an entire sense of reality. Humbleness and a sense of humility has long been gone in the big banks. Integrity has been replaced with selfishness and sense of arrogance and entitlement that is shameful and flat out disgusting. Whether we are technically in a recession anymore or not does not change the fact that thousands of people are still without jobs, or have lost their homes and millions of Americans are in a debt where they can not foresee a way out. All of this is due to the greed and the actions of the same people who are now reaping the benefits of a recovering financial market while the “little” people are left to suffer. No one asked us if we wanted our tax money to go to rescue banks that were “too big to fail” (I laugh because they DID fail and we bailed them out). The government did not step in and give me or my parents the thousands of dollars we had lost with our investments. Investing is a risk with no guarantee. It is legalized gambling. Wall street opposes a new tax that would cost them a few million dollars a year out of the billions of dollars they bring in. Well here is what I say to that: If you want the government to stay out of your business, stay out of theirs. People criticize Obama for trying to regulate Wall Street. They claim that is inherently against capitalism and free markets. Maybe it is. But if we were purely capitalists, we would have let those banks fail. Some operations succeed and some fail. I understand why banks that have repaid their government bail out loans with interest are bitter that they are making up for the funds lost by companies that did not repay their TARP loans. However, the government took a gamble on all of those companies that it has to save. There was no guarantee that Goldman Sachs would rebound so quickly or so lucratively- they could have just as easily failed. And it is for that reason that those banks are responsible for helping the companies like AIG that haven’t rebounded. The government gambled with the people’s money and they deserve it back- no matter who has already repaid their fair share.

I am willing to give Wall Street their bonuses- when they actually deserve them. I ask you Wall Street- where is my bonus? Where is my bailout? Where is the money I lent you (with interest of course), because I sure as hell don’t have it. I am ashamed that people in this country, although few in number, could be so ruthless and selfish. The level of ignorance that they have displayed in thinking that they deserve a bonus more than the national salary average, especially considering they led the country, and the world, into a global recession, is beyond pitiful. Politicians keep claiming we have entered an “age of accountability”, but somehow, I feel that the regular people are the only ones being held accountable.

Well thank god they found Mark Sanford. I was so worried about him. The real mystery remains though- why do I care that this guy had an affair with a woman in Argentina? I am not his wife. I am not his mistress. He is not even my governor. I don’t know why he felt the need to apologize to the entire country about his behavior- he should probably just apologize to his wife. And if you’re going to smash your political career, take some advice from Eliot Spitzer and go down dirty.

Don’t we have more important things to worry about like Iran? North Korea? ……..Bueller? Bueller?

There has been so much in the news lately related to health care.  Since it is the field that I most likely want to build my career around, I think a lot about the situation we are faced with. Private insurance is great for doctors- they actually get paid and can perform the best diagnostic tests and can use the best medical equipment to treat their patients. Unfortunately, someone has to take care of the poor people, and they are often the ones with the worst medical conditions. Due to their poor diets or lifestyle choices, or their lack of general care on a regular basis, these people usually seek medical treatment when they are on the brink of a medical disaster.  With the cost of malpractice rising by the day, and the amount that doctors are paid by government run health care programs staying stagnant, or decreasing, it is no wonder that no one wants to treat people without insurance. It is not all people at the bottom of society’s ladder that find themselves without health insurance.  Middle class families with good jobs find themselves without health benefits if their employer doesn’t help subsidize plans or if they can’t afford to pay out of pocket for a private plan which can cost more than $10,000 for a family of four. I believe we should find a way to get everyone decent healthcare. It would avert a lot of the money that we pump into the system that basically keeps the severely ill alive when if they had better care all along, they wouldn’t end up near death every six months. The ER  has replaced the role of primary care physicians and it is draining our system and our doctors. It has been the case for a while now, that America does not produce enough doctors to sustain its population. The reason we haven’t suffered to this point, is that we have allowed a large influx of foreign doctors to fill the gaps.  However, it is often the case that doctors trained abroad are treated as if their training is not as good as American bred doctors and they are often placed in lower ranked hospitals- often public hospitals. So here is the catch, we do not want to produce more American doctors because it is a) expensive but more importantly, it allows us to use foreign doctors to fill the positions that American doctors don’t want to take. Doctors at public hospitals are often paid less and work more. More of their patients are uninsured and more of their patients are severely ill because they can not afford primary care. A lot of foreign doctors from the Philippines or India for example, still make more money as a doctor in the United States than they could abroad, and that is why, we haven’t heard them complain that much. Obama’s plan for health care calls for more primary care physicians, which is a great idea, except that he also came to the realization that there are not enough doctors to fulfill his plan. No one wants to go into primary care- it’s not rewarding.

There have been several proposals of different ways to raise the billions of dollars needed just to keep Medicaid and Medicare alive through the decade.  Proposals include the soda tax, the alcoholic beverage tax, taxing people who get health insurance from their employers, etc. These are not real plans. First off, the soda tax is ridiculous. While I am all about combating obesity and diabetes, taxing soda is ridiculous. I drink soda sometimes and I weigh 100 pounds. If you charged my 25 cents more to buy the soda, I still would, and so would the lady who weighs 400 pounds. I think health insurance should be like car insurance. Everyone has to take responsibility for themselves. It is not soda that is bad for you. It is the AMOUNT of soda that you drink which is something only you can control. The same goes for alcohol. Both of these things in moderation are not bad. SO lets say you have health insurance- just like care insurance you would start with a rate that fits your age category and personal history/experience. It is your decision how you are going to treat your body, and like a vehicle, the more you break it, the higher your insurance goes. I am not talking about breaking bones and being careless, or getting a disease you can’t control like cancer(unless it’s lung cancer). But I am talking about making the conscious decision to smoke, or do drugs, or be an alcoholic, or eat McDonald’s everyday with a large soda and never exercise. Those are things in your control and they hurt your body.You can’t hide the damage you are doing to your body for long and people who don’t take care of themselves should have to contribute more to the health care system than people who do. On the other hand, if someone with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes decides to change his or her life style and eat better and exercise, they should be rewarded for that. If people don’t have to take individual responsibility for their own actions, they tend not to care, even if it’s about their own health.

We spend BILLIONS of dollars each year treating people from smoking related illnesses, heart disease, and complications from diabetes type II. Smoking is the number one cause of death from a preventable disease in the United States and yet no one has suggested to tax smokers more. Yes, cigarettes cost almost $10 in NY, but they cost about $3 everywhere else.  Why? Because our government doesn’t really care. They rather appease tobacco lobbyists than do what is best for their citizens AND for their health care system. And if our government doesn’t really care about the health of it’s citizens, it will continue to avoid training more doctors and providing people of lower economic status with inferior care.

Taxing people who receive health benefits from their jobs doesn’t really make anything better either. I receive almost $10,000 in health benefits from my job, but if I had to pay taxes on that money, I would just take it as income instead of health benefits. A lot of healthy people in their 20’s and 30’s would do the same. So then you would have even more people who are uninsured, and those are the people you want to be insured since young people don’t go to the doctor often and they balance out the illnesses of the elderly. In order for everyone to have health insurance, everyone needs to be involved- the young, the old, the sick, the healthy. The young will pay for the elderly and the extremely sick now, but one day, when they have children, or later one when they are old, they will receive the care they deserve. And for those republicans who think that government should just stay out of it- I urge you to go to the doctor or pick up a prescription and not use your insurance card, just to get a glimpse of how much things actually cost.

I work with a guy who I really like. He is a kind hearted, funny and decently smart guy who I have known for almost two years. Aside from his relative immaturity, since he is 30 years old and only talks about how wasted he got in college and never mentions what he will do with his life, I truly find to be a good guy. But we had a conversation last week that completely changed my view on him. We basically argued about what it meant to live in a free country. His version of free country entailed fat people continuing to eat whatever and however much they want, crack being legal for all crackheads to enjoy, few laws of any kind including basic safety laws like wearing a seat belt and more that I don’t want to even get into. His basic  idea was that if he wants to eat unhealthily, and not where a seat belt when he drives then that is his problem, and hurts him and no one else. I tried to explain to him the concept that we live in a society and humans can actually not function alone without the help of others, but the idea of social responsibility went right over his head.

But what really changed the way I look at him are his opinions on guns. I have always known that he is a hunter and owns shooting rifles. He lives in upstate New York and his family owns a hunting camp, and for that I do not, nor have I ever judged him. But I recently found out that he also owns a pistol and carries it almost everywhere, aside from when he is coming to work. I asked him if he felt threatened and why he felt the need to carry a pistol everywhere? He said the same thing everyone else says- for protection. Yet he doesn’t want laws that would make it harder for mentally unstable people ot get guns. If you had to go through an extensive series of background checks and mental status history, maybe fewer crazy people would have guns and we wouldn’t need a gun for protection. The fact is, you have to be mentally unstable to shoot another human who is not harming you. No one normal can do that.  However, my co-worker just seemed to say that bad people were going to get guns no matter what so there was no point in not being prepared. People completely misinterpret the meaning of the second ammendment and what it means to be a free country. If we were free in the sense that most people think, then crack would be legal, and crazy people could have guns and I could kill whoever I wanted during my road rage episodes and I would not go to jail. But there are laws, and most of the time there is a good reason.

In the last month alone, I can think of three major serial killings that have killed more than twenty people. There was Michael McLendon in Alabama who killed his mom, aunt and uncle, neighbors and then random strangers in Alabama. There was Robert Stewart who decided to take out his anger on people 78 to 98 years old in a nursing home in North Carolina. And then most recently there was Jiverly Wong, who fired at least 98 shots and killed 13 people in Binghamton last week. Now maybe you could say that if you were in one of these situations and you had a gun then you could protect yourself better. Expect, I am pretty sure that if you whipped out a gun in front of one of these three men, you would have been the first to die. Wouldn’t it just be easier if these killers didn’t have guns in the first place? Or if someone had done a background check on any of them? Hunters don’t understand that gun control laws are not meant to prevent them from hunting. Sarah Palin, eat your heart out. But guns are not meant for anything less than a dense forest. They are not meant for big cities and they are not meant for small cities like Wilmington, NC or Coffee County Alabama (I am not making that name up). We do live in a free country but that doesn’t mean we are free to do whatever we want, and it is really time for people to start understanding that. It is almost the 10th anniversary of Columbine and the second anniversary of Virginia Tech. No one should have to fear going to school and no one should feel the need to carry a gun to the supermarket to protect themselves.  But until people understand that the second amendment does not give everyone the right to  walk around with a pistol in their pocket, we will not be free- because we will always be worried that the next psycho is just around the corner.

I have to hand it to the MTA, I didn’t think they could get any worse but somehow their new proposal to close their $1.2 billion budget proves to outshine all of their other brilliant ideas. The MTA used to threaten that they were going to add tolls to the East Side Bridges and add a payroll tax to avoid having to raise fares by 23%. The new revised plan, adds tolls to the East Side Bridges, raises the tolls on the bridges and tunnels that already exist, raises the fare by 23%, cuts service and 1,100 jobs.  That’s a raw deal if I have ever seen one. It’s almost worse than investment bankers taking home million dollar bonuses after tanking the economy.  The MTA claims that all of these measures together will help close their budget gap within the year but what I want to know is if that happens(which we all know that it won’t), is the MTA going to lower the fares back down and take away the tolls on the bridges? Are they going to rehire all of the people they are about to fire? They may never get the same kind of revenue from taxes that they used to, and even if they do, it’s going to be a while.  So I ask you MTA, what is  your long term plan for funding- just keep sticking tolls everywhere? Maybe you should charge a toll to walk across avenues, or different neighborhoods. That seems about as fair as anything else.

Maybe it is because I missed my  yoga class this week, which typically restores my faith in other people and gives me a more “enlightened” and positive view on the world. Or maybe this week has just been disappointing. Governor Patterson continues to disappoint me  with his ideas for the MTA overhaul and all I can think about is where is Mayor Bloomberg in all of this? He knows way more about the MTA than Patterson does and I don’t hear him say much about it.

Then there is Pope Benedict, who makes a trip to Africa to tell people that condoms are not the answer to AIDS. Is he serious? More than 22 million people in Sub Saharan Africa have HIV, and a major leader in the world is trying to convince them that abstinence, not condoms, is the answer. Well unfortunately, Pope Benedict, AIDS or no AIDS, people are going to have sex. Even if people wait until they are married to have sex, they will still pass along the HIV virus if they have it. Millions of children are orphans at young ages because both of their parents die. If your whole family  is dead wouldn’t you want to reproduce and have a family again?  Should we tattoo HIV + on people with the disease so people know who they can and can’t marry? Instead of teaching people safe ways to have sex and protect themselves from HIV transmission, you are basically undoing all of the progress that other people have made in teaching Africans how to protect themselves.  If you want to help the people of Africa, you should find money to provide them with the HIV drugs they need in order to survive or help promote sexual education.

And my biggest qualm this week- AIG. I’m too disgusted to really say much. But I am close to quitting my job so that I don’t have to pay taxes anymore and I can just collect money from the government. They should probably pay me a retention bonus just so that I keep working. Because, you know no one out there is as qualified as me to do my job. I will end with a quote from Jackie Calmes and Louise Story from the NYTimes:

The company paid the bonuses, including more than $1 each to 73 people, to almost all of the employees in the financial products unit responsible for creating the exotic derivatives that caused AIG’s near collapse and started the government rescue to avoid a global financial crisis.

No one could have explained it better than these two.

This is fabulous.

http://gothamist.com/2009/03/10/keep_it_going.php

Obama’s announcement yesterday that his new government plans to support human embryonic stem cell research is a huge step forward for us as a nation. HUGE. Obama’s order will allow research on already existing stem cell lines to go forward. I am hopeful that huge advances will be made since researchers everywhere will receive money from the federal stimulus package, which is an improvement from the underground funding they receive now. While Obama has to wait for Congress to overturn the Dickey-Wicker ban that prevents researchers from creating new lines of stem cells, I am still thrilled about the first step we have taken. As for whether America’s tax dollars go to funding this type of research in the future, I will say this: There are a lot of things people don’t want their taxes to pay for. But like it or not, that is how our system works. I don’t want to pay medicare and medicaid for smokers with lung disorders. I don’t want to want the majority of my tax dollars to go to a war in Iraq that never should have started in the first place (Side note: go to http://www.nationalpriorities.org/tradeoffs?location_type=1&state=36&program=577&submit_tradeoffs=from_costofwar&tradeoff_item_item=999 to find out how much you have spent on the war so far. It’s sickening.)

As for being a controversial issues, I think people really need to get off their high horses a little and try to think of the greater good. Almost everyone in this country has been affected by a horrible disease personally, whether they had the disease or not. Diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Cancer, spinal cord injuries, you name it and someone you know has it. It’s really time to reevalulate our values, and rally consider how much ground they hold when compared to the number of lives research and treatment in this field could save. in addition. I think people need more education about where stem cells come from. Religious conservatives hear the word embryo and they automatically say no. But why? Embryonic stem cells, which are the stem cells that yield the widest range of possibilities in terms of becoming other cells, aren’t even close to becoming a human life. They are extracted from a mass of cells called the blastocyst, which is literally just a ball of cells. If you can look at this picture and honestly tell me that extracting some cells from here is not worth saving an ailing human life, well, I think you need new glasses (or a psychiatrist).

I have no hard feelings towards people who feel so strongly against it that they choose to opt out of treatment. That is their right, just as it is their right to refuse an abortion. However, people should at least be given the option of stem cell treatment and I am really hopeful that Obama will give it to us.

I have some major qualms with the MTA. This hasn’t been so much a recent development, as a growing disdain over the last dozen years or so. I love the subway when it works. It’s quick, it’s efficient and it’s the cheapest way to get around. Sometimes you even get a new car that doesn’t smell like homeless man or break your eardrums. That is a very special day. But this is not always the case. Have you ever tried to get the G train from Queens to Williamsburg? It seems so simple but somehow two hours later you have ended up neither in Queens or Brooklyn. It runs on weekends, it only runs on weekdays, it goes backwards to go forwards, it only runs at night, it doesn’t run past 11PM, it goes local, it goes express. Huh? Well I certainly don’t know. I can’t imagine what will happen in the face of a budget cut.

I don’t agree with putting tolls on the East Side bridges to help eschew budget cuts. I agree it is not very eco-friendly for people to drive to work, but they probably have no better option.  So many sections of the outer boroughs are completely devoid of public transportation that routes to work or school could take two hours, involving any combination of buses, subways, LIRR, taxis, and ferries. Not only is it exhausting but it’s not practical to travel two hours to and from work or school everyday. Instead of taxing these people for crossing a river within their own city, I think it would be more efficient to give them another alternative.There are express buses that run from the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn, but they cost 2.5x as much as a regular fare. Can you explain the logic behind not building subway lines in the outer boroughs to save money and then providing those commuters with an alternative but charging them more for it and then wanting to charge them an additional tax when they want to drive to work? Oh the backwards musings of the MTA….There has to be a better solution than that.

On the other hand, if the senators in Albany don’t vote to help the MTA, everyone suffers. Millions of people ride the subway each day and any form of service cut or impairment in the repair and construction of the old and crumbling system quickly becomes disastrous. But what I want to know, is who is in charge of the accounting department over at the Metropolitan Transit Authority? They must have been awarded their  CPA outside a crack den in the village in the 70’s.  On November 17, 2005, Sewell Chan wrote in the NYTimes:

In February, it was $76 million. In July, it ballooned to $833 million. Yesterday, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced its third - and, it hopes, final - estimate for the size of its surplus this year: $1.044 billion…The authority does not expect its good fortune - soaring proceeds from real estate taxes and unusually low interest rates - to last. It anticipates a net deficit of $152 million in 2007, rising to $934 million in 2009, and that projection assumes fare and toll increases in both years.

It seems as though the MTA knew they would be totally bankrupt back in 2005. Were they in on something we are not, or were they going to beg for money regardless of the current housing crisis and economic collapse? Where did all of this money go? One second they have a deficit, the next they miscalculated the deficit by a couple million dollars and they have a surplus and the next year they are in a major deficit again. How do they come up with these numbers? I feel like they just watch Yolanda Vega pull the Lotto numbers and decide if they want to make it millions or billions on the plus side or in the red.

I don’t know what the answer is, but I would be pretty pissed if the monthly metro card increased to over $100. So if you have thoughts or feelings about the issue, visit http://keepnewyorkmoving.org/ and share your thoughts with Governor Patterson.

I try to be a pretty positive person. I have a lot of anger but I try to get it out through yoga, dance,  writing or some form of art because I know that all of the negative energy is really bad for you. In an attempt to diminish the level of anger in my life, I am going to consolidate everything I hate about life into a list of 10 things.

10.Things made in China: You are cheap, but it shows. I try to avoid buying you at all costs, but it is hard. Although, I have a feeling we might actually start making things in America or Europe again.

9. People who are not from NY but think they are: You are annoying. NY is a totally random city with a hodge podge of people. So clearly, most people were not born and raised there, and that is great. But if you just graduated college, have lived in Manhattan for three months, hate on outer boroughs, try to be Carrie Bradshaw, and your parents pay your rent…you are annoying. Please stop.

8. Cheaters: Men and Women- you know who you are. Don’t do it. It is hurtful and bad for your karma. You can justify it and make excuses all you want- it is still wrong. We are all animals and we have urges to stray, and that is OK. Just be honest about it.

7. People who are overly- obsessed with their pets: I love animals, especially dogs. But a dog is a dog. It doesn’t not need a stroller or a Louis Vuitton Satchel. It needs a collar, but not made of diamonds, or Tiffany silver. Small dogs under certain circumstances may need a doggie coat, but no dog under any circumstances needs booties. NEVER. EVER. Dogs need a place to sleep- they do not need a chaise lounge. They need a water dish but not made of porcelain or swarovski crystal. Dogs do not need to go to a gym, doggie spa, or doggie daycare. They do not need special doggie bakeries. Dogs should not be without a home, but neither should people. We are the only country who cares more about animals than our own people. One day, near central park, an extremely flamboyant gay guy holding a dog with a rhinestone collar, booties and a coat(on a hot summer day!!!!) got into an argument with a guy from Oregon. The guy from Oregon suggested in his super laid back tone that the other guy should “care about people man, not just his dog.” What was his response? “My dog makes more money than you.” Nice. Real nice.

6. People Who are Bad at their Jobs: Most jobs are not that intellectually demanding, but that does not mean that they are not important. Anything customer service related is hard, because let’s be honest, people are rude. But a little courtesy and effort goes a long way. People are frustrated because when they go into a store, they want a little help and attention, and more often than not, it is not received. I use the self-checkout lane at the grocery store now because the cashier is on her cellphone and it takes 3x as long  if I do it myself. I pre-order my deli meat because when I tell a person to her face I want 3/4 of a pound of ham sliced thin, I get 1/8 lb sliced thick. I literally had to interrupt a a gossip session at the counter of forever 21 last week to find out why there were five people behind the counter doing nothing and there was a line out the door. I had to tell the woman at McDonald’s yesterday that she charged me $4 more than she should have. I had to explain to the woman on the phone of Bank and America that I signed up for a rewards program, and they had sent me a confirmation, even though they had no confirmation on their end. I understand that working in retail, customer service, or the supermarket or McDonald’s is neither glamorous nor rewarding. But that doesn’t mean you have to diminish the position more by being incompetent. Every job in life is important even if it is washing toilets, working at the carwash or changing bed pans. We aren’t all movie stars or senators or CEOs, but we are all important, and people need to put a little more effort and pride into their work.

5. Lawyers Who Sue Doctors: You are ruining healthcare in America. Pharmaceutical companies, insurance giants and the government are also doing their part to ruin healthcare, but lawyers are individuals, not a group of people, who you can personally blame for what is going on. When there is a true medical malpractice, families do deserve to be compensated. But how does suing a doctor for $35 million help your child who was born prematurely? It doesn’t. Maybe $1-2 million dollars could help pay for medical expenses throughout your child’s life but mostly it hurts other people. It raises the malpractice insurance for OBGYN’s to over $300,000 a year and deters people from going into that field and actually encourages current Doctors to get out of the field. How does suing a hospital for $500,000 because you slipped and broke your arm help anything? It doesn’t. Things like that make hospitals go bankrupt and close and there are fewer places available to help people when they are sick.

Most doctors are not careless with their job. They do not go to work and say, “jee, I wonder who I can treat improperly today” or “I hope this baby is born with a defect.” People die, babies are born with birth defects, and genetic disorders that would have happened anyway. If it is a true case of malpractice, the doctor is responsible for making sure the family has enough money to fix it. But driving away from the hospital in a new ferrari doesn’t help anyone- not doctors, not hospitals, not patients who need medical treatment.

4. GIRLS: What is wrong with girls? I am a girl and I hate most girls I see. Good girlfriends are so hard to come by these days. Girls are fake, caddy, back-stabbing bitches. What happened to girl power? You know, standing up for your girlfriends, always being open and honest, not betraying them and stealing their boyfriends. What happened to women’s rights and equality? You don’t fight for your rights wearing slutty clothes and sleeping with everything that walks(especially when they are married). It is not a crime to go out and look fabulous–wear a short skirt and high heels, or even a low cut shirt. We have ALL been there. But there is a classy way and there is a trashy way. And the classy way does NOT include wearing leopard mini skirts in the dead of winter in NY(You know who you are NJ). It is not a crime to sleep with people, but do it in a way so that you can walk away with some respect in the morning. The movie/book ‘He’s just not that into you’ is a perfect example of just how crazy girls have become. They overanalyze EVERYTHING from how many days a guy waits to call, to what color shirt he was wearing and whether or not he smiled at minute 7 of the date. Men are like plants. Simple and predictable. If you water a plant and give it sun, it will grow. If a boy likes you and wants some sex, he will call. Enough said. My boyfriend and his friends separate girls into Babes and stupid chicks. Most fall under the latter category, and I’m sorry to say, I can’t even disagree with them.

3. Authorities who Just Don’t Give a Shit: Eliot Spitzer going after prostitution rings and renting classy hotels on the side to be with hookers…I mean, come on. Timothy Geithner you are the Secretary of the Treasury and you can’t figure out how to pay your own taxes…really? How are we supposed to have any order in society when the people making and enforcing the laws can’t even follow them? Cops regularly run through red lights, double park, jay walk, beat people without a good cause, but who do you call to report them? Their friends down at the station? Preachers who are supposed to be holy and educate our youth and look after families, are abusing little children. Teachers are going home with their underage students.

2. Bad Drivers: YOU ARE THE WORST!! Making right hand turns from the left lane, not signaling, driving slow in the left lane, breaking at green lights, stopping without warning, talking on your cellphone, driving while texting, doing your makeup, changing lanes without looking, not letting people merge into your lane…aHH. Driving is one of the most stressful things that I have to do on a daily basis because no one is awake or attentive. Do you realize you are operating a motor vehicle? This is not space out, live on another planet time. It is a time to focus and get things done. I love driving and when I come home late from work, and no one is on the road, it can be so pleasurable.

1. RUDENESS: By far my biggest pet peeve of all time. There is so much going on in the world that is bad- wars, disease, hunger, genocide, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, economic collapse, racial turmoil- a myriad of awful things that we can and can’t control, do we really need to be rude to each other on a daily basis?? Rudeness can be silent- it is as easy as not giving up your seat ot an elderly person on a bus. It can be small things that most people don’t realize are rude- like smoking around other people who may hate it, or spitting/dropping your gum on the floor, littering, walking against a red light, hitting someone with your bag and then not apologizing. These are small everyday occurences that may seem insignificant, but being bombarded with them everyday really takes a toll on me. There are more obvious signs of rudeness, like not picking up after your dog, grafitting on someone’s personal property, stealing, lying, cheating. What eally bothers me, are the everyday small gesters that show that most people have lost any form of social etiquette, manners, and respect for others. There is so much riding against us in life already, we have to help each other out, not make life unpleasant for each other.