Having Left the South, Health care at last & the underground red state refugee railroad

Hey y'all, having left the South, things have changed. Most importantly, I have health care! It's pretty good except for the long waits. I have a pinched nerve that turned out to result from two ruptured discs in my neck. The physical therapist examined me and worked me over but seemed to despair of being able to do anything at all with my neck. "There's no stretch at all," he said worriedly. He was very kind and definitely wanted to help me but could offer only ameliorative pain therapy, which made me cry, y'all. It really did. It was just so nice to be in a clean, well-appointed medical office instead of a shabby free clinic, as if one could ever get into a free clinic, and have a medical professional take care of my injury with concern and professional hands. I have to see a neurosurgeon because my neck, it is FUBAR. Every med person I see keeps asking me if I was in a car wreck. No, I was not. My friend asked me, "Do you think it could be the headbanging in high school? What about the skydiving? Any caving injuries you recall?" I have no idea. Maybe I stressed myself so hard I created a blunt force trauma musculo-skeletal injury. That is pretty impressive fucking stress, I have to say. It had been building a long, long time, and if I had stayed in South Carolina, why, I really think I would be homeless by now or maybe even dead. It was that serious, for me to get out. I am so grateful to everyone who helped make it happen.

I don't see the neurosurgeon, who will hopefully only do some sort of shot in my neck, I'm trying to not worry about that part, until the day before Thanksgiving! Quite a wait, but it is free, so I'm not complaining. I also saw my primary doc who prescribed me all the meds I'm used to having, plus prednisone that I am afraid to take because insomnia is the first listed side effect. Then I went over to my local evil corporate big-box store pharmacy and they just handed me all my meds. For free.

In South Carolina I was paying several hundred dollars a month for my medications, and that was just the psych meds. I didn't even have a primary doc and had to do a lot of footwork just to keep myself in blood pressure meds. You would think they would be handing out blood pressure medication for free in South Carolina since it is one of the fattest states and probably has lots of high blood pressure. Also, a little cheap medication now can prevent a very expensive twenty or thirty year stay in an assisted living facility after I have a stroke, not to mention the emotional cost to my friends and family, and the societal loss of the benefit I would have been to my community, had I been healthy. It's unconscionable, and I don't see how the leadership of the red states can sit in church on Sunday without squirming under the gaze of the stained-glass Christ.

Even if health care was the only benefit that would be great, but I'm also making $10.25 an hour doing basically nothing, that is, political polling surveys, which I enjoy doing anyway, if I ever get someone willing to take a survey, which very rarely happens. (Yes, we are hiring.) While listening to answering machines and beginning my spiel so people can hang up on me, I read, make notes for my book about poverty, write, write letters, text my friends and family, and do crafts. I make jewelry, prep sewing projects and now, flower crowns. I only use upcycled materials, of course. These things I will sell when I have enough to make a craft-show display. I'll probably move on to a third and fourth project, depending on how long it takes me to get a counseling job.

The great thing about not having to worry about having health insurance is that people can take any job they like and work as little as pleases them, spending time with children or aging parents or doing art or activism and still have health care, as long as they don't mind living simply. As we know, this is good for the economy (we don't really need everyone to work), and I think, good for the soul. In generally the vibe is just more positive here. People are happier. They make more at their jobs, even if the jobs suck, and they can spend more at places where other people have jobs. It's just a big job creation machine that never stops working, because the more people you have, the more stuff and food and services and day care and haircuts they need, and that just makes MORE JOBS! It's beautiful!

I have been applying for counseling jobs and going to interviews and have focused on one place in particular that serves homeless kids, and I think they will hire me, but the wheels of bureaucracy grind exceedingly slow. It's going to be great to be working with disadvantaged young people again. I can hardly wait.

I am also making friends with the homeless people I see every day, trying to understand what their lives are live and reach out to them. I see the cops hassle them, like they have anywhere to go or anything to do with their time. I see professionals walk by them like they're invisible. I sit down with them, and I become invisible too! It's a weird feeling. You should try it! Just go up to some homeless peeps, it helps if you have cigarettes to share, and ask if you can sit with them. I bet they will welcome you. Don't ask stupid questions like, "So, how did you become homeless?" Ask their name and where they're from, ask how their day is going. (I recommend you avoid the more mentally unstable ones at first.) They are regular human beings, and they need to be loved! Just like anyone else does. It's great if you donate food and clothes, or write checks or go to benefits, or volunteer. Please, though, just look a homeless brother or sister in the eye today and smile. Say, "How are you doing today?" And then listen to whatever they tell you. Then say, "I hope you have a good day. Be safe out there! See you later!" Introduce yourself, they're you're neighbors, for God's sake. Please. Just see them.