Vicarious Lives....

Life....on the outskirts of Society. Living life on the seams around the periphery of humanity when you're forced to live every moment of your life on the streets. Watching other people live their lives.... while we are cast to the wayside, not allowed to be involved in life itself....only permitted to watch from the sidelines, as a bystander but not an actual participant. Moments you envy as you experience life through the lens of others' endeavors, activities and involvement. I often wonder what it would be like, what it would feel like to be accepted and welcome in this thing called life. Be a real participant... instead of an audience member that is not allowed to BE. How do you make sense of life.... when you are not allowed to truly live? Is there a rhyme or reason for being other than just being present, where your

presence is not welcome?

Life takes on such a harsh new reality when you live outside,

without the warm, luxury that a home provides.

The textures, the meaning, the contexts.... so very different.

Having to live your life under the shadows of society, living on the underside of humanity.

Being forced on the streets means an endless life of degradation, inequality and inhumane treatment from those who have that very special luxury called a home...

For the most part, when those who have that luxury called a home find they are dealing with "One of those people" (as those of us on the streets are more often than not referred to in the nicest of terms), their attitudes shift 360˚ and become a re-enactment of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- their ugliness pours out uncontrollably. Bringing forth nasty remarks, ignorant, rude, hateful attitudes and violent behaviors -- and they see 'us' as the CraZy ones…

Immigrants are seen as first-class citizens in comparison and given all the bells and whistles, including FULL benefits of housing, warm clothing, Hot-meals, medical and dental coverage, in addition to receiving free money every month just for being an illegal. Yet for those of us who desperately NEED these 'so-called' benefits are not even given the time of day, much less, even acknowledged -- that is, unless you count being brutally de-humanized in the most unimaginable ways as being "acknowledged".

The mentally 'challenged' ones are treated like royalty and given Carte-Blanche.

When you find yourself on the brutal streets, you soon realize you've been given a LIFE SENTENCE-- and that is the stigma of being on the streets. Your life all but ends and is immediately replaced by ever-increasing violent assaults against your person, both physically as well as through their verbiage -- continually directed toward you day-in, day-out.

Secondary Lives... Secondhand Living

Life....

What truly comes to mind when the word Life is mentioned?

Everyone has a different interpretation of the word. Some seem to have

all the tools and manuals for Life.. but to those cast to the wayside of Life....of Humanity, Life becomes a Foreign Language with no interpreter to make sense of any of it. No instructions to be found anywhere…

~ Secondhand Living, Second Edition of Life...~

Life on the Streets... Means;

Living on the periphery of human existence by

Living off and through the cast-offs, throw aways, hand me downs….

Living through the threads of other people's lives, at times, through the barest of threads.

Living in the shadows of other people's lives….. in the shadows of humanity.

Living life second hand, sometimes several generations down. Existing around the edges and periphery of life, society…. But not allowed to be part of it. Even then, barely tolerated. And Even less so when physically challenged and you don't move in the perceived manner set forth by society of what they consider “real” and "acceptable".

Not welcome as part of humanity, of society, but rather almost tolerated. And all the private details of your life, every facet of your existence, from where and when you sleep, use the restroom, bathe, brush your teeth, change clothes, is put up on the public screen for everyone to see, view, comment on, and disregard.

Being on the streets does change you, and not always in the best of ways… you find yourself becoming more hardened on the inside, closing yourself off further and further.

Doing your best to keep distance from people now, actually dreading having to be anywhere

where people are no matter where this may be; the library,

grocery store, retail store, parks…..because of how you are treated and the cruel comments directly

targeted right at you.

You become more withdrawn from life and stay clear of people.

Becoming more and more a piece of the landscape, blending

further with the environment.

~ The Secondhand Life…. Secondhand Living ~

Living on the periphery of humanity, society…..

Discarded lives, tossed to the wayside more like garbage to dispose of, rather than

treated as the living, feeling, breathing beings we actually are, just

because of a change in circumstance.

Having to live your life on the streets changes a person, especially

in the way you are treated by others, and takes a tremendous toll on your life...mentally, physically. Your health is compromised every moment… being exposed to absolutely everything.

Life becomes… mundane and obsolete.

Life....Delegated Elsewhere

Life… Delegated Elsewhere

Living on the streets, you find nothing you do matters (not in the truest sense, anyway)… 

when you go out of your way to help others, in whatever capacity that may be, or taking a breath… 

or not, does not matter. I guess I was always fooling myself thinking otherwise. 

Your life means absolutely nothing when you are delegated to live your 

life on the streets, regardless of how you came to be out here. 

Your every move, your every breath….suspect. 

Your life is delegated elsewhere, just not where it actually matters. Living…. 

What does this truly mean when you merely exist along the seams of humanity, 

but not allowed to be part of it...but always a part from it? Is that what living is 

supposed to be about? You really begin to wonder why you bother to keep 

moving forward, why continue to breathe when Life is Delegated elsewhere. 

Having nothing to look forward to but endless days of more of the 

same….each one repeating like a carbon copy of each one before, and every one thereafter.

When you have no one to share your day with, to share how things are going…. 

Someone to just care, life is truly meaningless. Sure, I volunteer where I can, as often as I can…. 

Which helps to keep me connected and involved, at 

least on some level, but does not fill the empty void left in your heart for a life, 

or rather a mere existence, that is simply not welcome in society.

Aside from the cops, my companions that are always with me, every day, every moment….

 Are notebooks, books, and an array of animals and insects. 

These are what keep me company, day-in, day-out. Meditating in the 

mornings to balance my day and heart with the chaos ahead...

clear out the debris of others’ hurtful words and 

actions toward me. Helps brace for the coming onslaught that is never-ending.

Life becomes rote…. Days repeating and left on auto-pilot as they become routine. 

Each like a carbon copy of the ones before and each one thereafter.

 Living becomes an afterthought while life itself becomes more about survival 

than actual living. And the thing is, as life settles in….it becomes “normal”. 

You actually get used to living, or rather merely existing on the streets,

 living along the edges and perimeter of humanity.

 You find yourself amazed at the speed of which you become “used” to what life brings your way. 

It becomes so common place, you no longer notice it happening, 

or that others don’t experience it similarly. Though I absolutely 

hate being forced to live on the streets, being denied my basic rights, like being

 able to eat real meals, or having a home, or having ready access to showers and hot water…. 

It has become so common place, you quickly adapt to it, 

and life becomes “normal”.

The heat is one of the hardest things and most challenging to deal with on the streets…

.Being outside all day, every day, is like being stuffed in an oven left on high all day. 

You have no access to showers, only the public sinks at the 

park or library, and sometimes grocery stores. 

The rare few places that offered “showers” were nothing but a cruel joke at our expense. 

Giving you a maximum of 5 minutes, total. They did not give you time to clean the gunk and 

debris from all the ones that used it prior, and being physically challenged, 

I was not able to even fully undress before they came pounding on the door 

telling me my time was up….

 My time was up before I ever got the chance to do anything. 

Aside from having no access to showers in the heat, the heat itself is an additional 

weight pressed down on you, which makes it much more challenging to get around, 

breathing is harder and the extensive fluid build up and excessive swelling 

through my knees, legs, ankles and feet that has been my constant companion for 

the better part of my life now, is made much worse in the heat, 

and makes moving beyond challenging.

So where do you go when you have no place to go… unwelcome wherever you are?


 Life….Delegated Elsewhere.

Citizens of Life ~ Residents of Nowhere...

Citizens of Life...

~ Residents of Nowhere~

by Renee Bowen

Regardless of your citizenship 'status', when you are forced

to live your life on the brutal streets, your citizenship is revoked,

as you are not considered or counted anymore

as a living, breathing, feeling being... but rather discarded waste to be

eliminated with the garbage. Citizenship no longer holds any meaning,

much less our very basic, essential rights--

Because we are residents of everywhere and nowhereville,

citizenship just becomes another useless word, describing nothing,

and meaning less. Yet, we are forced

 to “prove” our citizenship with each passing moment.

The cops insisting your illegal just for being present.

Doing absolutely nothing wrong, minding our own business,

 not hurting anyone, not breaking any laws, but immediately have the cops

in your face demanding your personal information, and why you are where you are.

What is with the constant harassment? And the only reason being

because you don't have that precious luxury of having a solid roof over

your head referred to as a home-- a true residence.

Where are you supposed to go, when you have absolutely

no place to go, no place to just BE?

And the thing is what the cops do to us out here is, in fact, what is illegal. 

 What they do to us is unconstitutional in every regard, yet we're the ones paying

the price for the most widely accepted form of harassment and illegal practices

 as this is not only readily condoned, but heavily enforced.

Infringing on our very basic right-- the very rights we are supposed

to be guaranteed-- stripped away and taken from us--

circumstances that were imposed and forced upon us, creates this

 horrible shift in society--- as soon as your living status changes from

home/apartment dwellers to that of the open skies,

the living, breathing, being of our presence cease to exist, then treated in the

worst possible ways...

 addressed like we are trash cast along someone's path--

yet the only thing that has changed about us, the people we are,

have always been is our resident status.

So what gives anyone the right to treat us with such contempt and taking

away our rights from us?? Only because our living arrangements have changed??

The most widely accepted and condoned treatment toward us is the most inhumane!

They say we are “Created Equal”….

Where exactly would this be? Other than just mere words filling

empty space? If we are created equal, where is the equality?

If we were created equal, communication would prevail instead of endless wars and

perpetual violence, and massacres in the name of “solving” issues-- by eliminating people,

and in fact, anything and everything that breathes would not be a way of life..

If we were created equal, the rich wouldn’t be given precedence and Carte Blanche while

disregarding the rest of us. If we were truly equal, segregation would not exist,

nor would racism, or any form of division among people and Citizens of Life ~ Residents of Nowhere...discrimination would long since be a thing of the past, in every regard,

no matter what your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and the male gender would not

be paid more for the same work that females do for less.

If we were created equal, destruction wouldn’t control our lives,

our privacy would still be intact… being a number or credit score

wouldn’t ruin or run our lives, especially when the

information is flat out wrong, when your information stolen,

then you are judged and condemned by and through the actions of others,

 regardless of whether the information they are viewing is true or not.

  Being refused services based on what type of person they see you as,

is not being treated as equal  If we were truly created as equals,

life would not be so grossly out of balance.

Living in Limbo....

Living in Limbo….

Life was not meant to be lived on the streets, on the sidelines as a bystander…. It was not meant to be drudgery, something to avoid and be disheartened with. But hope no longer resides on my heart, faith nonexistent….Love, have no idea what that even is. Maybe it's the disgust that comes across people’s faces when my circumstances or my very presence, really, become known, or perhaps it’s on the rude remarks and cruel comments directed at me every moment of the day, wherever people are present, or in the mockery of my movements, proceeded and then followed by laughter as people find the way I move hilarious as hell. Laughing out loud, or pretending to cough while trying not to choke from laughing while making fun of me…. Is that what love is??? I’ve come to truly dread being anywhere where people are anymore. I was born with a life sentence, given before I was even present in life, present before birth, and a lifetime physical sentence through the actions of others resulting in the way I move, or how I breathe. But the hardest to deal with are the rude ignorant remarks and cruel actions and behaviours of others at my expense. Being on the receiving end of the worst of humanity, makes me truly dread and come to hate having to go or be where anyone is. I no longer try reaching out to connect with others, what is the point?? When you are not seen for who you are, but rather how you look, the way you move (or don't, as the case may be), or judged by your circumstance.... but not the person you are. Not in how your heart may beat, what brings excitement to your eyes.... to your life. Not in your beliefs, not in your friendship, not in causes that mean something to you, not your skills, your humanity....nothing of substance. The only thing people choose to see is how you move and what your circumstance is, nothing more. You are not viewed or treated as a living, feeling being, but well below that of a human being.

I used to really love giving to others. Because I wanted to and it made me feel good, that is until my gifts were rejected, refused, and fully discarded because of my circumstance. And the ones I have given gifts to that they refused demanded to know "Where did you get this?", "How did you come by this?", "I can't take anything from you?". "You're nothing but a passenger, and I don't associate with passengers." Nothing I have given has been accepted, no matter what I have given.... not even my friendship has been welcome or accepted....just thrown in the trash. So I no longer try connecting with others.

Keeping to myself, more and more often. And then become immersed in Nature and her Beautiful gifts all around. Her beautiful feathered, furry, and winged creatures are my confidants, in the truest sense. They keep me going when life is too raw and ugly to endure, which is more often than not the case. Dragonflies and hummingbirds bring magic to my days.... alighting on me, time and again. Hummingbirds always draw my attention, and when they are really wanting to connect, they come over and hover just above my head when I am either meditating, reading and or writing, they wait for me to acknowledge the motor sound of their wings, and then when I look up to see them, they lower to face me directly, eye to eye. Once they have my attention, that is the time they take to rest on my knee, or the back of a hand..... or the closest branch near me, and begin their songs. It lifts my heart like nothing else. And when Dragonflies want my attention, they fly around my head, zipping past my vision, until I follow them with my eyes.... then alighting on my knee or forearm.  Butterflies landing on the tip of my nose, or sitting lightly on my finger-- The magic never fades, no matter how many times it occurs. But it is breathtaking every time and lets me know my presence matters, at least to a select few, if not actual people. Though, their friendship is what pulls me through, and means the world to me.

Animals and nature have always accepted me, welcomed me into their space..... always. Rarely, if ever, has that happened with people. What does this say about me?? But man's best friend has never been man..... but animal, and more precisely, dogs. Because animals see and feel the real person, they don't care what you do, where you live, how you move..... they accept you as you are. There is no pretense, there are no masks that have to be worn..... just being you. Perhaps that is why the majority of people who criticize my very presence, and insist on their being "so much help" available to people on the streets (which is an erroneous assumption that is not the least bit true or accurate when you don't fit the "part") that I must be out here by choice, would never be able to last a single night on the streets, much less the nearly 2 solid decades I have been forced to. Animals scatter in their presence, wanting nothing to do with them. I have survived out here for so long because of the connections I have with animals, something I have never had with people. People don't accept you for who you are, and they never will. With people, you always have to wear facades and masks that are not real in order to be "accepted", but that is not acceptance. And when you don't move in a predictable and acceptable manner, their cruelty knows no end. People can learn so much from animals in how to treat each other, but their greatest teachers are ignored or hunted for sport. That is why animals, for the most part, do not generally hang around people. They know when people mean harm and when they do not.

I didn't choose this life that I was sentenced to, nor the harsh treatment from humanity.... just for being who I am and moving in a way they don't like, and forced into a circumstance not of my choosing, while getting endless doors slammed in my face from places that are supposed to offer help and assistance. So why do people choose to make my life a nightmare that I cannot wake from??? Does tearing someone else to shreds make them feel better about who they are???? When all they are really doing is putting themselves in a much lower light that is not at all flattering. Whatever happened to the Golden Rule....Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You.

America.....the Home of the Homeless

Forgotten on the Streets

Forgotten; that’s what happens to you when you are forced on to the streets, having to live your life by mere existence, while everyone else disregards you as a person in every sense of the word. Forgotten, mistreated, brushed off, ridiculed, criticized and ignored. Facing this every moment you find yourself in the presence of others. Taking its toll battering your soul, your sense of Self, which is diminished more and more the longer you are forced to stay out here, becomes nothing but a ghost that you can no longer feel the very essence of but glimpsing only in partial shadow from the corner of your vision, that disappears and vanishes if you look directly at it. Your word, your integrity, your very character always questioned and condemned without the roof to validate your existence in the very literal sense.

Time takes on a whole new meaning when you live on the streets, stretching out longer, becoming endless as days blend into weeks that turn into months and transform into years. Seasons blending into one long winter/summer, but the nights are an endless winter, feeling like you’re stuck in a perpetual deep freeze, regardless of the actual temperatures outside. Time slips away faster at times, while other times it seems to drag out and stretch forever-- Shadows giving up their secrets as the sun creeps into the sky higher and higher, then begin their whispering as the sun journeys below the ground, starting the cycle all over again.  

The physical challenges of living life on the streets are too numerous to list, and when you have to contend with endless physical pain every moment of your life... from the actions of others, makes that pull and draw of life that most feel, nonexistent in mine.  I have never once felt that love affair that most have with life.  Never once felt the joy it is supposed to bring.  

The empty gnawing through your stomach becomes your constant companion, growing heavier and more intense when all you have is water to drink, making the pain and pangs of an empty stomach much more pronounced. The connection with people becoming null and void and you can feel yourself slipping further and deeper into the bottomless pit, the vortex, of humanity’s waste --

One of the things you learn to do quickly, or be completely devoured, is growing extra thick skin to deal with life on the streets. You have to really learn to let it all go, which is very challenging, especially when the actions and behavior and attitudes coming your way all the time and from all directions is directed right at you.  Especially more so when not only are you homeless, but female and physically challenged, to boot, and move in a way that people don't like.  Sometimes it takes hold of your heart and squeezes like an iron vise, made immeasurably worse when it’s done by someone you care so much for.

I am so completely angry at this point in time.  Having spent nearly 2 solid decades forced to be on the streets, because the screwed up system in place to "help", has only compounded the problems, insisting you have to fill their requirements before assistance is given, and claim I do not qualify because I "do not meet the requirements".   I am so angry of having to contend with the absolute worst of humanity, of society, of this screwed up system that is ineffective, at best.  When you are forced to live your life outside interminably, you not only witness the perpetual underside of humanity, but fully experience it in every regard.  The gross mal-treatment, verbal abuse and physical assaults that are so common place against the homeless that no one notices how wrong it is and why the extreme violent misconduct of actions and behaviours toward those of us on the streets are condoned, and more often than not, actually encouraged..  Full fury and contempt directed at those of us on the streets just for the mere existence of our presence.  Wondering if this is why I was born-- Just to experience the ugliness of humanity in all its many forms.  Being treated so horribly.  What is the point then?  I am fed up with being denied my existence, unable to truly live, but denied access to life.  When your life is only (barely) permitted to be present around the periphery of life, but not allowed to be part of it, where is the meaning..... purpose?  Life on the streets is difficult enough to have to go through, but being cast to the wayside at every moment.  Where do you go when your not welcome where you are?  No matter where you are?  Is this what life is supposed to be about?  

When night time falls, our lives- for those of us on the bare streets, are all but forgotten as everyone who has that precious commodity called a home, scurries into its warm embrace; enveloping them as they step inside. Our lives discarded as they gather around the dining room or kitchen tables to enjoy a nice hot meal, sharing stories from their passing day, then curling into the warm folds of their comfortable beds, wrapping them in billowy comfort from head to foot, their heads cushioned in the clouds of pillows’ softness.

Simple luxuries so easily and readily taken for granted until that luxury is taken away and it becomes a rare and treasured gift, a special privilege, if and when, it is afforded to you. Like a real meal, ready access to a restroom, a bed....Hot running water: priceless jewels...

People insisting you’re not doing enough, not trying hard enough or you would have a roof over head and money coming in. This is only the case when you’re a drug addict or alcoholic, an illegal immigrant, or their brand of CrAzy, THEN, and ONLY then are you given anything in the way of housing and income, and very luxurious accommodations, at that!

No matter what you say, where you have gone, what you do, how many doors you get repeatedly slammed shut in your face-- they don’t want to hear this, much less even acknowledge it. They still INSIST I’m not DOING enough, just NOT trying hard enough. When you don't fit their Myopic minded views of how you are supposed to present yourself, what you are supposed to be doing and how you look when you are homeless, your life is cast off -- forgotten and erased.  A role that has never fit.

I invite them to follow me around for a day, a week, a month, or the endless years, and I’ll show them what I have to deal with and contend with daily. But, of course, they always refuse—Because then they would see the truth for themselves; and it’s much easier to judge and condemn for something they know nothing about and understand even less, than it is to open their eyes to the truth! So the blame is always put on me, it's my fault I'm out here, it's my fault I'm not receiving any assistance, it's my fault I don't have a home and a solid job, and so forth.  OK, I take full responsibility, but that certainly does not change anything when you are continually and repeatedly denied your very existence and told over and over that "you don't qualify".  Then please tell me how to qualify and get the help and assistance that I have been readily refused for nearly 2 solid decades of being forced to live on the streets.  The attitudes toward me really wear you out having to deal with people's ugliness day-in, day-out.

Instead of looking forward to another day, you tend to dread it's approach. Becoming discouraged from the continual ignorance, attitudes, and neglect from others, and the rejection from potential employers never giving you a chance. You wonder when things will finally change for the better. Staying positive as best you can becomes a constant challenge. But come morning, you somehow still find yourself breathing, and wondering how it's possible.

A Modest Encroachment.....

A Modest Encroachment

That's what the President says about destroying our every privacy, saying it's “to keep Americans Safe” from terrorists. Bullshit!! It is not about protecting us from anything or anyone, but rather, more about controlling and dominating every facet of our lives. This is NOT a free country. Every aspect of our lives are being controlled and manipulated by the government in the name of “safety”. Our privacy, our civil liberties, our health, our finances, who receives what kind of medical care, video monitored everywhere we go; on public transit, in the park, any and all stores (retail, grocery, warehouse, lumber yards), movie and theatre centers and complexes, sports and sporting events, storage facilities, the library, swimming pools, walking down the street... anywhere and everywhere….none of which was our permissions asked for.

Our lives have been heavily “Encroached” upon more and more by the government taking more and more control over our lives, telling us they know what's best for us. We are supposed to be a Democracy-- A Country For the People, By the People, With the people, but more than a 150 years now, somewhere along the way, the People have been pushed away, cast aside while the government takes over more and more of our lives.

The Government has grossly overstepped their bounds. And people are readily handing over their lives to our government under the guise of 'Safety'. Our Constitution has turned into just a mere piece of paper that is meaningless, as the government is writing its own agenda, regardless of what the Constitution says and what all it is supposed to stand for. The Government has greedily encroached on our lives, taking over every aspect of them.

Our rights being slaughtered wholesale all for a “security” that doesn't exist! Our lives being dictated (back) to us-- what we can and cannot do, where we can go, what we are allowed to check out at the library, who will receive medical care and for what, who gets housing... the very food we eat, our water supply, even the very air we breathe-- all government imposed, mandated, and ran highly inefficiently, at that.

Filling our lives with an overflow of dangerous drugs, harsh chemicals, genetically engineered/altered/modified organisms-- all of which are a gross endangerment to our health, and our very lives.

What have we been fighting for all these centuries??? Our Freedoms. Which are being handed over to the government, so they can invade our lives even more. That isn't “a modest encroachment”, it goes far beyond that. How far are we going to let it go? The government has long since crossed the line. You really believe they have our best interest at heart? We are just pawns in their game-- doing with us as they choose. Rest assured, they still have all their rights-- they have not suffered the indignities they are putting us through. Their lives are valued, ours treated as disposable. They receive the best medical care, while we are lottery'ed off to the lowest bidder. And even then, our right to choose is taken from us.. jumping from hoop to endless hoop. Then we are penalized and prosecuted for not having insurance, regardless of circumstance. Putting our lives in the hands of the government is just fool hardy. They are not there to take care of us. Otherwise, our lives would not be so readily discarded and cast to the way side-- the way they shed our service men and women, you honestly believe our lives actually mean something to them, actually matter? If we did, there wouldn't be the millions of homeless in the richest country in the world... all the veterans, those who were fortunate enough not to be killed, only to return here, forgotten and discarded for serving our country and protecting our supposed liberties and freedoms.

So I ask you, what are we fighting for, again? George Orwell knew what we would be facing decades into the future, yet having to publish his works under the guise of “Science Fiction”, because no one could fathom the realities of his words... yet aside from the bar codes being implanted to keep track of our every movement, though, a lot have been embedded with “information chips”, like they put in animals for tracking, the rest has long since come about and the bar codes are only a matter of time, really, taking complete and total control over our lives entirely.

Like “vaccines” they impose on us, removing our right to choose, time and again. You have no way of knowing what they are actually injecting you with. Claiming it is one thing, but look at how they use our military men and women as lab rats, forcing “inoculations” on them, only to find out much later what they were injected with was something quite different from what they claimed it it be, and the damaging effects it has wreaked after the fact.

So where are all our 'freedoms' in all this? The government isn't going to be happy until they have turned this supposed Democratic Society into nothing more than a police state and full dictatorship.

Remind me again, what exactly are we fighting for? And the government continues to state, over and over, how this is for our own protection, their “modest encroachment", into our lives. WOW. What gives them the right to do whatever they want, by whatever means they choose, no matter the consequences? And WE are the ones who pay the price for their actions. And the ones who pay the highest price are those who are homeless, the veterans who serve our country, the physically and mentally challenged, and Seniors, who are told they are “too old” to be allowed to receive the medical care they need, that the government refuses to “waste” all these resources on people they insist are not going to be alive for much longer. Says who??? Why is the government the ones who decides what quality of life they will be allowed? Refusing care to those who need it most. The government imposing highly strict and rigid age “restrictions” on who receives the care they need. Deciding who lives and who dies, and when. Yet, no matter the age of the person in government office, they are given the best care.

What gives them the right to play God in our lives, determining the quality of our lives, and whether or not we are allowed the same quality as they have? None of them are denied services due to their age. So please tell me, what are we fighting for? The more we do, the greater the encroachment of government in our lives.

Our rights to Privacy, and giving our consent to decide whether we want our photo taken or videoed have been taken from us by everyone toting the newest phones-- taking photos and videos of everyone and anything without our consent. That's one of the most disheartening things about it-- it's bad enough to be laughed at and made fun of in person, when you are physically or mentally challenged and move or look in a way that is uncomfortable for others, then not only have this done, but broadcast all over the place, it turns it into something else entirely when they take out their damned phones and record/video the way you move. That way, the whole world gets to laugh at you at your expense... and none of them have a conscience about destroying someone else just for the fun of it.

They sure as hell wouldn't like people doing that to them, but have no problem doing it to someone else.  The Golden Rule long since forgotten when it doesn't suit their purpose.

The government claims that being videotaped and monitored everywhere we go, every move we make, and in all we do, “ensures our safety”. HOW??  It has never once stopped anything from happening, has never prevented anything from happening.  I have never, not once felt safe and secure, much less comfortable being spied on every moment of the day and night--  it is a constant violation of our rights-- highly invasive, very intrusive, corroding our freedoms even more. Being watched and monitored 24/7 of every moment is highly unsettling.

So what “freedoms” do we even have anymore?

The governments continuing encroachment further into our lives has eliminated whatever freedoms we, at one time, actually did have.

And because the government has become so invasive and highly intrusive into our lives, violating and invading every facet of our lives... NOTHING we do or say is private. Our every communication is censored, read, and eavesdropped on-- never once asking our permission to do so. Our rights, our freedoms, our civil liberties have been turned into confetti scattered in the wind.

What gives the government the right to tell us what quality of life we are to have, or the lack thereof, yet don't hold themselves in the same low regard. We're treated sub-standard, while they receive the Best Possible Care at Our expense.

Manipulations of Uncle Sam....

Have you ever thought about all the manipulations the government imposes on us for their purposes?? For instance, “Daylight Saving”, where they manipulate our hours and change the time for their conveniences, leaving us to pay the price of it all... imposing it earlier and earlier, then extending it further and further-- instead of allowing time as Nature intended, as God intended, it is wrenched to their purposes... screwing up our natural rhythms, turning our lives upside down. Yet, Daylight Saving doesn't 'save' anything.  And has absolutely no benefit at all.  Nothing that is artificially imposed on our lives have any benefit whatsoever. It wreaks havoc across the board. Dictating what time is and when we will experience it and how. This is just the start of things... think of all that government does to control, manipulate and more with not only our time, but our very lives.. in the truest sense. You cannot even breathe without being on constantly "monitored" ….

Choosing what they put in our food, our water, telling us only what they choose for us to hear, which rarely has any inkling to the truth of the matter, telling us they know what is “best” for us. Really?? They know what is “best” for us? That is why they have taken so much control over our lives.... taking away the very freedoms we fought for so long for, only to be dismantled and shed.

The thing is, the government is afraid of us standing up for our rights, they know what they are doing is wrong, in every sense of the word. Can you imagine what would happen if we demanded our lives back, filled with the freedoms we were supposed to have, instead of continually conceding our lives further for the deeper control of the government?

We would really be a fully functional DEMOCRACY.

A Country For the People, By the People, With the People....

But our government really wants nothing to do with the People...

Think there is something really wrong with this picture, how about you?