The haves and the have-nots...

After a conversation with my mother, it stimulated my mind and fingers to want to write. We spoke about how difficult it was for her to raise her three children and also do enriching things, such as dance class, a tutor for my brother who needed one and whatever else would be cultivating for a child's overall development. We spoke and spoke and she began crying. She began to discuss how she felt like we deserved so much more and how hard it was for her. I felt her pain and I told her that it is not her fault she sacrificed all she could, and we knew that. I am feeling some of what she felt, as I am a parent too. It is hard especially if you are doing it on your own. What makes being a parent even harder is the framework of our society. If you have a child it is almost impossible to pay rent, buy food, pay for childcare, pay for extracurricular activities, pay for clothes and that is just the bills surrounding the child, we won't even delve into the others. But really why is everything for our children so expensive? I think about summer camp, the really great camps are so expensive that I would have to live on the camp site if I wanted my child to go there. What about if your child needs extra help in a certain subject, if you live in an area where the schools aren't that great(this isn't hard to find as the schools in many American cities fail our children, especially in poor neighborhoods) how do you get the help your child needs. To even put your child in a course at many of these learning centers, once again you would be living at the site. I've seen some programs where they give out loans so that you can help your child do better in school. Is that not the craziest and saddest thing you've ever heard about.

In America it is realities such as poor neighborhoods + poor people + poor opportunities + poor education = poverty, that allow the gap between the haves and the have-nots to continually flourish. Why is it because you live in an area that is not well-to-do, you and your children suffer. It's not right. I think about many single parents that I know, including myself and how difficult it is to raise children who are equipped to deal with college and the work world. I am thankful that I am able to put my child in a catholic school, but if I had more than one child, forget about it... Why do I have to pay for a child's education, shouldn't it be a right for every child to have an equal education? As I see it America is not only telling the children, if you live in a certain area, you loose, but it also tells the parents of these children you have no money-you failed your child and you loose. When is this going to end?

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Healthy Food is a Right, right?

Ok, so we all know that to walk into any organic or wholefoods store to go shopping for a family is almost impossible if you do not make a certain amount of income. Well at least for me, the single working mom, however if you can then God bless you, but seriously shouldn't good, healthy food be a norm?

I live in one of the outer boroughs and in my neighborhood it is often I walk into any market and find garbage on the shelves or occasionally meat that is just about past expiration and fruit that has become feed for bacteria. When I say garbage not in its literal term, but garbage none the less. Food that is high in MSG, sugar and other ingredients(chemicals) I cannot pronounce. This is saddening in that people who can't necessarily afford to eat good, have to deal with what is available or affordable. I know part of the lack of nutrition is a lack of education on nutrition, I get it; but that definitely is not where it begins. In any well do to neighborhood the supermarkets look fantastic, clean and stocked with an array of products, there is garbage on the shelves also, but then there are those isles. You know those isles of newly created organic brands and the person who wants to give you a sample so that you can taste the goodness and buy and have a healthy family and... You get the point.

Why is this the case, it seems that if food comes from the Earth it should be accessible to everyone. It seems as if adding chemicals into foods would make it more expensive, I mean if you are following me wouldn't that make sense. To cultivate food in its most natural form seems well natural. Outside of the production and government regulations on food, really why is good food a privilege?

Why is our society so ass backwards? It seems like a scheme to me.... But what do I know.

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Playing God...

This is in no way to deflect from the success stories of those who have had plastic surgery. I think it is a blessing if someone has a facial deformity and the surgery has been life altering, this is the upside of the business. There is however an extremely ugly face of surgery, one that is not about helping people but all about conforming to society norms. I think in general our society has taken the plastic surgery culture to extremes. It is sad that in this era, it is all about beauty and body. It is true that body modification has been around for centuries, but not as invasive, persuasive and perverse as our current situation. It is sad when people are observing the bodies they were given as being flawed and if not flawed than it should be better. My thing is this, many of these doctors act as if you and your overall well-being lie in their hands. When did these doctors become GOD??? Yes I know the argument God; gave us the technology to do these alterations, Yes God gave these doctors the brains to operate... I do believe this, however is it just a possibility these gifts are used sometimes in error. It is too often I walk down 5th avenue and see women and now men, they look beyond artificial, borderline alien-esque. It is sad how these people have fallen victim to feelings of inadequacy. Our society inundates the minds of not just the youth, but all people with the ideals of what the body and face should look like, and if you don't look like this than there is something wrong with YOU. When is enough enough? Why would a surgeon work on a patient who is already in almost perfect shape, or work on a person whom may not be in good health, or work on someone who is still in the prime of their physical development, Why?

Society says you have to look THIS way, but when THIS way becomes like the face of today's example, then what? What do you do when your appearance is irreversible?

I think it is sad that our society has limited people by what they look like and what they can superficially offer- What are we to teach our children about beauty and SELF-WORTH. In the wake of Kanye West's mom passing away, my condolences go out to him and his family. I will be praying that he is able to come from this darkness. This situation and many others less publicized has prompted me to write....

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