Notes from a conformist...sort of... by Megan DaGata

04:24 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Comments on Making your Top Ten list of Non-Profits

What about a non-profit that has no board, no budget, benefits hundreds of thousands daily, and economic revenue for several dozen countries willing to work with a lone engineer and some very giving friends? I find it difficult to see the value in non-profits that take hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit their communities but nothing ever seems to get done. I have a friend with a non-profit, you will not hear about it much in the US. It is a non-profit that benefits everyone in the community that allows them to work there. They expect the community to do most of the work, so why wouldn't they benefit?

Another non-profit that I completely believe in is the Open Door Missions in Houston and elsewhere. The value of the program and the effects it makes on a life are only as good as the changes the person wants to make. This program is such that the only person who is going to fail is the one who doesn't want to try.

Anyway, I just wanted to know why some non-profits have budgets with millions of dollars and do nothing, while others with very little do so much?

01:38 pm | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Why this stimulus isn't going to help most of us...

Okay, I haven't posted in a long while, but what has their been to post about? The election? Sarah Palin? New tech gadgets that are old before they hit the market? I am interested in all those things, but we all have our opinions on them and I kept mine to myself.

Now I come to the topic of the stimulus because I am trying to understand. I need to understand, so I am going to rant for a moment. Like many I rent a home. I work some 40 hours a week and make payments on one vehicle. A used vehicle. I don't have a credit card to lean on or any money that I don't make in a paycheck every other week. So, I ask, how if the stimulus plan of these United States going to help me?!

From what I have been able to infer we are going to create several hundred thousand jobs, but I am already employed...for now...if our company doesn't find work that may be another story. That aside, I still don't make enough money to cover daycare for my son AND rent. Not to mention the utter lack of being able to do anything fun that doesn't include the word FREE! The area parks are doing great business. :)

We don't own a house, so we are not going to be foreclosed on...so that part of the mega stimulus is not something we can benefit from. Hell, I have never been able to buy a house, much less get behind on the payments for one.

Credit crunch? What is that when you don't have credit? I was taught to buy everything with cash and if I don't have the money I can't have what ever it is that I want to buy.

For some reason everything in this modern world revolves around the mysterious number called a credit score. So, how is this number compiled for someone who doesn't buy things they can't pay cash for?! I will tell you. They tell me I have worse than bad credit because I have never paid for anything in payments. Well, if you think about it, this country...no this planet...would not be in this current finanacial meltdown if they had paid with what they needed with CASH!

Do you realize that I can't even get satellite? I have mentioned that I don't have a credit card, so you can imagine what sort of red flag that sites to the satellite company. If I want satellite I have to give them a huge down payment?! Why? Because I don't resort to using a piece of plastic every time I want to buy something.

So, I ask the public, how is this stimulus bill going to influence me in ANY WAY?! I will still make too much to benefit from ANY subsidized programs. Whether MY rent is paid or my daycare is tired of working with me I make too much, but still not enough. This stimulus bill is going to benefit the very wealthy and the very poor. Those of us just above the bottom and just below the middle are not even a foot note! It is beyond me that everyone is gung ho for this when it is not going to help us?!

10:14 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Our leaders are failing us

I have been watching and waiting lately to see what is to become of these United States. I am both hopeful and discouraged. I am also outraged. We live in a world based on elections, opinions and public scrutiny. We our in a presidential election year, and are bearing witness to their folly. We are supposed to pick a new leader of the free world in November. Except we are no longer the leaders of the free world. By decisions and hand-shakes we have giving our greatness to everyone around us and saved little to nourish ourselves. Our government is spending billions of dollars every day in far away lands, while the entire nation pulls their belts tighter. We watch as Generals and Heroes fall because they no longer believe in honor.

This weekend I watched mouth agape as General Wesley Clark demeaned John McCain's service to the US during the Vietnam war. There is visual evidence of what he went through, and to try and discount that calls into account the general's ethics for what he considers military service. This was a man who at one point was in consideration for the office of president! Then I watch as the Obama campaign apologized yesterday. Why? What would you have to apologize for unless you somehow requested the General to say something? I am trying to resolve all this in my head because I can't understand the undermining behaviours of our political leaders.

YouTube link to comments: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kag0bBJVkIw

Then there is the whole scandal of Barack Obama's funding of his campaign. He is quite right that he doesn't need the federal funds to provide for his propaganda, but he should have accepted it. It is similar to a horrible wedding gift. You don't need it and don't want it, but you accept it as a token of appreciation and expectation. We provide these funds to the delegates with the expectation that they will accept our gift and listen to our voice. If a man does not accept a gift then who is to say that he will take the time to listen to our voice? 

We want a great man to become our president, but what great man is there? We are watching as these men our tearing themselves down, not by the comments and objections of others, but by there reactions and inactions. We need to get a handle on what is to become of our nation. We need to act in unison to provide for the common good. We need to bring back our innocents, our decency and our honor. We need to become the leaders that we dream.

08:00 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment

Contemplation...

I have always wondered how many people feel like I do. I feel like there is so much more I can do, should do, and would do if life and society would allow me. I feel content when I am with my husband and son, but as soon as I leave the safety of our home, I feel like I should be moving mountains to change the world. Instead I am punching a clock and punching keys, trying to win at a race that never even starts.

In my dreams I am a writer, a novelist. I write books that people want to read and in turn I help those who can't. Maybe they can't read, maybe they can't see, maybe they don't have enough food to eat, but I am there...I am helping. I am a visible presence trying in the world. I am showing my son how he can impact society. How he can help feed the poor. How he can provide hope to a man so belittled by the power of drugs with a smile and some time spent talking. I am showing him that there is more than the invisible race.

However, life and circumstance has deemed that I must work at a job that I both love and hate. I work too much and take care of others too little. My son spends more time in daycare than with his family during hours when he is not sleeping. The day starts an hour before dawn and ends an hour after dark. Constantly running, constantly yearning for something different...something more. I long to teach my son how to add, how to subtract, and how to play in the mud in an afternoon shower.

The race is starting it is time to get to work, but no one will get the prize today...no one ever does.

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Brief explanation of my personal motto

One thing that I have always done is to learn one thing from everyone that I have come into contact with, this can be something you want to learn to do, keep from doing, or just remember so that when a situation arises you have the resources available to you to handle it. I have learned from Al Gore that I may not like his politics, but I understand his urgency in creating a healthier environment for our future. I have learned from my mother that I want to be the most creative person out there, but I want to do it with a mostly clean house and a dining table that I can eat at should the thought cross my mind. I learned from the newspaper guy on the corner that if I ever need to work at a skill less job, I won’t sell newspapers in the heat of an August afternoon in Houston, Texas. I have also learned that I don’t want to be a “half-ash” employee, I want to love what I do and I want to have a passion to do it. I don’t like showing up to a job, punching a clock and only feeling like getting through the day. I want to want to be there. If you show up for a job and you aren’t passionate you aren’t going to do the best job you could. You aren’t going to want to be there. You aren’t going to do anything extraordinary. You may still do a good job, but your potential will not be met and you may miss something that will make your assets shine. Something else I have learned, from everyone I see on a day to day basis, is that you need a goal. Without a goal things get aimless and wishy-washy. If you aren't working toward something you are working toward nothing.

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Ramblings of developement

I am reading a book called Good Family by Terry Gamble and it makes me think of all the little things develop into who we become. What we do and don’t do determines our history. It determines our future and it is our present. We are a series of indeterminate events that the fates, God, or our parents out into action. We are a product of love, hate, happiness, sadness, and choice. We are alive because our mothers chose to take care of themselves once they discovered they were pregnant. How we live as children is determined by our parents. What we become as adults is determined by the choices we make. There are so many people that want to blame their parents for all that has or can go wrong in their lives, but that doesn’t do the parents justice. They did the best they could with what they knew. It is up to us as adults to determine if that is who we want to be.

I have also been reading on is the lack luster approach of my generation into the brave world of adulthood. Generation Y has a generally speaking, “Why do I have to attitude?” That pisses some of us who don’t feel that way off. You have to become adults because the generations that came before us and the ones to follow need us. The future of all of us is determined by us taking control, us doing our part, us doing what is needed to make changes happen so that we will still have a patch of green to rest our heads on. This is something that must happen. Why are there some many people waiting to see if the bottom is going to fall off before they act on their own behalf.

I have heard some people not wanting to do something out of surrendering to their situations. Not wanting to grow up because they were never taught the right ways to be an adult. Well, that may be true for millions of us but we can’t blame our predecessors. I look around and every one is blaming their parents for what they didn’t become. They are looking to blame the teachers and counselors who helped them make bad choices. They are blaming everyone around them and not accepting any responsibility for their own actions.