Hi Art,

Eric went and picked up some sleeping meds from a friend of mine who is also struggling under a mountain of health issues. Yesterday was touch and go....the lack of sleep for this past month was almost beyond what I could bare and trying too hard to help relatives and friends with their health issues. Eric's brother Steve is in the hospital (he had a heart attack last month and has a blocked artery) and needs heart surgery, but Kaiser is telling him to wait a year for the surgery...he may die because of Kaiser's "advice" and since I have dealt with Kaiser and their incompetence before, this news came as a real shocker to me last night because if I were Steve, I would demand the surgery now.

But I am not Steve and I can't get Kristin/Jesus to get a pap smear after 3 years of trying (her Mom had cancer which puts Kristin at high risk) and I can't quit smoking myself and my other friend Michelle doesn't have health insurance (her parents are multi-millionaires) and Michelle's cholesterol level is off the charts at over 600....she was the one who had the sleep meds that actually did work (I slept 5 hrs...record for the last month)...

MM has been going to the same doc for 20 yrs and his doctoring has caused her cholesterol to climb even higher than before. I begged her to get a second opinion and find another doc to treat her and even had one that I could highly recommend but to no avail because she is stubborn and loyal just like my Mom to her current doc even at the expense of her health and life.

This sad tale of health issues for the non-insured or under-insured is so mind-numbing SAD that while all of this was going on, I received yet another email from OBAMA and Co. regarding the election and asking again for another donation.

I was so tired and so sad and so fed up that I wrote back one line:
"I am sorry but right now I am so mad at America I am trying my best not to hate this country."

So life in the USA is not what it may appear to be to the outside world...life in the US is now nothing more than one struggle after another (for middle class).

If you are indigent, you are lucky because you can qualify for SSI, Medicaid, food stamps, a ton of social welfare programs.

I never thought I would take the American flag off of my flag holder (as I did yesterday) and throw it like a javelin in the air to watch it fall to the ground. I even considered burning it....or urinating on it, both actions that Joe did in my house after returning from Iraq. At the time, I thought he had lost his mind, but now I COMPLETELY understand how he felt back then.

Betrayed............by his own country.