Face of America
We all know at this moment the government is shut down. We all hear and follow in some way. We may be blaming one party or the other. We may watch the President speak and scratch our heads about the words being used. For many it is not impacting them in any way (even though it really impacts all of us). On a personal level, the government problems may not have any bearing on you or your family.
Our household is impacted. Along with thousands of other essential employees. Essential... that means my husband goes to work and protects your freedoms. He is non-military but his role is important. Essential... he does the same thing he has done every day for the last 15 years. He defends American liberties and freedoms from really bad individuals and groups. Essential. Essential employees defend our borders, protect us from drugs, cartels, sexual predators, guns... They do a service to all of us. And yet during the shut down he, along with those thousands of essential employees, will not be paid. Oh of course they will be paid eventually.... we hope... And in that regard we are better off than the non-essential employees. Those folks were sent home for the duration of the shut down and will not be paid. I can not imagine the desperate feeling some of them are experiencing.
Monday is 'payday'. We had to prepare for the worst case. The worst case is there will be no resolution to this mess and we will not see a paycheck on Monday.
Sure I would love to say we have 4-6 months salary in savings for the emergency. We don't. We have a small savings but not enough to cover this major development. We had to plan for the worst. We have cried and yelled in anger and frustration about what we have to do. We are scared and afraid and stressed.
The things we could cancel and save the money on immediately, we have done so. Ashamed at our lack of savings, we asked for help financially to make sure the automatic payments were covered. We have cash so we can buy milk and essential food items in the next 2 weeks for our little boy. I've listed things on craigslist. We have bought a 2 week safety net. We don't know what we will do if this lasts another pay period. I will get another job at night to help supplement our lack of income but even that won't cover our expenses.
The fact is, thousands of people are going to be financially strapped in the next weeks if there is not some resolution. We are not alone in this. We are not the only essential employee who doesn't have enough in savings to cover the worst case. I assure you we will work toward that now!
The face of this crisis are the people you see every day. The people you are friends with. Your neighbor. The ones you follow on facebook. They are real people with real bills and real lives. They are the silent defenders of our nation. The ones who protect and serve. And there are a lot of them. We cheer for and thank our military but there are thousands of other federal employees making sure we are safe.... cheer for them. They are all the face of this crisis. And some how, just like us, they are figuring out how to manage for the next 2 weeks. We can't think past that right now. We are all going to do the best we can to make it work.
At the end of the day, after we brainstorm about what we can do to make sure our mortgage, car, heat & water get paid we quietly talk about politics. We support the party that shut it down. We support the resolve they have in making a stand and standing for something. It may not be the solution to the problem but standing for what you believe in and hoping to make it better is what we all want to teach our children. So while this is not a political commentary, I will vote Republican again.
Our household is impacted. Along with thousands of other essential employees. Essential... that means my husband goes to work and protects your freedoms. He is non-military but his role is important. Essential... he does the same thing he has done every day for the last 15 years. He defends American liberties and freedoms from really bad individuals and groups. Essential. Essential employees defend our borders, protect us from drugs, cartels, sexual predators, guns... They do a service to all of us. And yet during the shut down he, along with those thousands of essential employees, will not be paid. Oh of course they will be paid eventually.... we hope... And in that regard we are better off than the non-essential employees. Those folks were sent home for the duration of the shut down and will not be paid. I can not imagine the desperate feeling some of them are experiencing.
Monday is 'payday'. We had to prepare for the worst case. The worst case is there will be no resolution to this mess and we will not see a paycheck on Monday.
Sure I would love to say we have 4-6 months salary in savings for the emergency. We don't. We have a small savings but not enough to cover this major development. We had to plan for the worst. We have cried and yelled in anger and frustration about what we have to do. We are scared and afraid and stressed.
The things we could cancel and save the money on immediately, we have done so. Ashamed at our lack of savings, we asked for help financially to make sure the automatic payments were covered. We have cash so we can buy milk and essential food items in the next 2 weeks for our little boy. I've listed things on craigslist. We have bought a 2 week safety net. We don't know what we will do if this lasts another pay period. I will get another job at night to help supplement our lack of income but even that won't cover our expenses.
The fact is, thousands of people are going to be financially strapped in the next weeks if there is not some resolution. We are not alone in this. We are not the only essential employee who doesn't have enough in savings to cover the worst case. I assure you we will work toward that now!
The face of this crisis are the people you see every day. The people you are friends with. Your neighbor. The ones you follow on facebook. They are real people with real bills and real lives. They are the silent defenders of our nation. The ones who protect and serve. And there are a lot of them. We cheer for and thank our military but there are thousands of other federal employees making sure we are safe.... cheer for them. They are all the face of this crisis. And some how, just like us, they are figuring out how to manage for the next 2 weeks. We can't think past that right now. We are all going to do the best we can to make it work.
At the end of the day, after we brainstorm about what we can do to make sure our mortgage, car, heat & water get paid we quietly talk about politics. We support the party that shut it down. We support the resolve they have in making a stand and standing for something. It may not be the solution to the problem but standing for what you believe in and hoping to make it better is what we all want to teach our children. So while this is not a political commentary, I will vote Republican again.
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