Out of the 65 years in this world I spent 54 of them working my ass off
I paid my income tax, property taxes, permits, tickets, registration and licenses; but most of all, I paid into the Social Security fund so that I would have additional funds to carry on with my life as a senior. I only wanted to have that Social Security pension as a compliment to my 401K and my pension.
I was frugal, I didn’t fritter away my money. I always put some money away for a rainy day. I wasn’t counting on a flood of major proportions however. I even went through a messy divorce and still came out of it with an excellent credit score. Oh, sure, I could have taken more trips, flown first class, stayed at better hotels and eaten at fancy restaurants. But I didn’t.
I cleaned floors and toilets, I cleaned bed pans at a hospital and even worked for a funeral home picking up dead bodies. I was able to struggle through and got a college education. My children never went without food or a roof over their heads and they both got a good education.
Yes, I did get married…in those days society told us that being gay was an aberration, a perversion and religion told us it was an abomination; so in my denial, I did what every self-respecting gay man in those days had to do. I got married and had a family. However, that wasn’t enough, that didn’t satisfy society nor did it satisfy me. My marriage lasted 24 years and it could have ended easily after the third or fourth year but I stuck with it for the sake of my daughters.
Today, I find myself an old man, no longer in demand. I couldn’t get a job even if I was to work for minimum wage if my life depended on it…and sometimes it does. I ask myself why did the company I worked for sent my job to Pakistan? I also ask myself and kick myself for having invested my pension in a relatively safe investment as I didn’t have a say where the company I worked for chose the investments. Once my unemployment benefits ran out, I cashed in my 401K and it is now gone. Yes, I don’t feel guilty about collecting unemployment benefits as some Republican-Teahadist would like me to feel.
But most importantly, my pension existed…the money was there; my employer matched dollar for dollar what I put in…and some Wall Street Yahoo now has it after their Ponzi schemes and speculative operations brought the Stock Market to a crash and the economy of this nation and the world spinning into a crisis.
So, don’t tell me to feel guilty because I won’t…don’t bother to invite me to your church because I won’t go and most of all, don’t ever ask me to vote for a Republican as long as I live.
0 comments:
Post a Comment