Equality should mean Equal

Equality is something that every minority strives for in the United States, but very few ever achieve. Even when the status of a people is considered "Equal," they often receive a limited equality where they have equal rights, but they are not treated equally.

As a good example of the above "limited equality," we can take a look at women in the United States. Women should be paid equally for the same jobs that men are typically paid more for. However, while wanting to be equal, some women will reject equality and play the "I am a woman" card when it comes to getting in trouble, or when it comes to going on a date. There is little to no areas where a man of any color can announce "I am a man so I deserve better," nor can he open his shirt a little in order to make things happen in his favor.

Another example comes starkly apparent when it comes to sports. Teenage sports is the biggest topic as gender mixed sports are becoming more apparent. It made the national news and inspired other girls to try out for Football when one teenage girl was pointed out as being a better kicker than the boys, and as such made the boys team as their kicker. After the initial story came out, at least three other stories launched where girls were trying out for, and making the boys football team. Fast forward six months, and the headlines show a single boy, smaller in size, strength, and weight than the majority of a girls Lacrosse league being kicked off the girls team because his scoring percentage was higher than any girl in the rest of the league. His advantage had nothing to do with size, weight, or strength, his only advantage was he had played Lacrosse since he was a young boy. His only advantage was experience, something any group of minority status people will tell you, should be a reason that they be treated equally and not be rejected.

Equality means to be regarded with the same "quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability." (Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/equality). If this phrase works to the advantage of one, it must work to the advantage of everyone, regardless of their sex, size, intelligence, beliefs, and character.

In regards to the world as a whole, everyone is made of the same materials in varying amounts, the only difference is in how we look at each other. As a world of people, we should all be treated equally, held to the same regard, and suffer the same consequences. No one should be held above any other, nor should anyone have to want for something because it is being kept away from them by a certain few.

Helping those who can Help Themselves

This subject is one that is a tender one for me to negotiate. Being a Disabled Veteran, I receive a monthly stipend as well as my heath care taken care of. The amount I receive is reviewed every couple of years to look for improvement, or worsening. I am currently rated at 80% Disabled. I often feel I do not warrant the amount of attention I receive from the Government, but I also have phases where I feel it is not enough. The difference in these two feelings is in how I am doing mentally, physically, and emotionally, which for me seams to change on a dime and with little warning. So that anyone who may read this can know where I am coming from today, I am of neither mind, which is why I chose to write this article at this time.

I mentioned part of the problem when I wrote about unemployment. Being on unemployment requires the person to "actively look" and report on places that applications have been turned in. The same person is also required to follow up on any possible job leads and is forbidden to reject a job offer. This system is incredibly easy to navigate around if the person does not wish to work or does not like a job that they would be able to do. I cannot speak for every state, but I know that Nevada only requires 3 job applications a week. There are more than enough jobs in the newspaper and at job sites like Monster.com to get past this part easily. The next stage is an interview, at which, should you have no desire to take the job, you can sabotage the interview to guarantee you fail in getting a job offer. In most cases, the reason to fail an interview is due to economics. Person X is making Y amount on unemployment. The job person X applied for is paying amount Z, which is slightly higher than amount Y, but requires travel to and from work. Work = traveling to and from the location "A" as well as "B" amount of hours per week. Suddenly, the unemployment amount "Y" looks a lot more lucrative than everything that is entailed to do job "Z". Sorry about all of the variables, I used to be a math geek as well. To simplify:

Y > or = Z - [(A * 2) + B]

What it works out to is people who "fail" job interviews because the pay is not enough to make a difference. If it were to clear it up even more, think of unemployment as paying you minimum wage for doing very little every week. You are asked to interview for a job that pays minimum wage or just above but you figured you will have to drive 40 miles a week along with having to work 8 hour days. Would you make the jump to make less money and still have to work?

What I would propose is to make unemployment a set amount just below minimum wage instead of basing it off of your previous pay. The amount will be enough to sustain you in whats important (food, "modest shelter," and clothing) but still be a strong motivational factor for people to actively want another job. A job in which making minimum wage would still grant them a larger income than unemployment.

From there, it would come down to people swallowing their pride enough to do what NEEDS to be done. We live in a different time now. We are incredibly wasteful of everything including space. If your living room is large enough to house a small family, you have too much space.

If a person can maintain a "rich" lifestyle than I congratulate you on being one of the lucky ones. However, if your world is crashing in around you and find that you owe more money to people than you can make in a year, it is time to start downsizing. You would be surprised what you can live without, and how far serving the proper portions of food will shrink a grocery bill. As a family that used to spend 600 to 800 a month on food, I spent 200 dollars at the beginning of the month on groceries and have only had to go back for milk once. We could easily make it to the third week of the month on my initial buy. How wasteful were we before? I look at and tell my wife: "I told you so." to which I still have not gotten a: "Your right dear." When the world downsizes around you, you need to downsize with it to survive. 

I hope that someone finds this to be a good idea and puts it into implementation.

Where to start?

I would not presume to believe that everyone will read this blog anymore than I could hope for everyone to take something from it. The simple answer to the question: "Where to start?" is to participate. As a people, we have grown complacent in our duty to ourselves. That may sound entirely complicated and I apologize, but when we participate, we are not doing so for a country, we are not doing so for a state, we do so for what is important to us. As an example, and I beg you to read past one word in this statement as my beliefs and values are different today, I initially registered to vote 4 years ago and at the time I registered as a Republican. I have found that I am no more a Republican than a Democrat and that devoting ones self to a party is a blind way of handling business. Today, I listen to everyone, research what they say to find truth or lies, and then make an informed decision for myself on the topics that are important to me. As a quick example, some of the topics important to me as a Veteran, a husband, and a father are:

• Education
• Women's equality (my wife has been the provider for our family for some time)
• Family Values
• Looking out for our own (own being those within our borders)
• Economic stability

Those are just a few topics important to me. Some of them are conservative, some of them are liberal, either way its what I look for in everything that comes out of Washington. Some topics that really make my blood boil have to do with helping under-privileged people in other countries while ignoring our own.

• Homelessness
• If we have a million empty houses in the United States, we have more than enough Homeless people and families who just need a little help to get restarted.
• Hungry
• We send millions of tons of food to other countries to feed the hungry people in "Politically Sensitive" areas. In the mean time, our own hungry people eat broth in dirty bowls and drink what looks like coffee from used Styrofoam cups.
• Jobless
• Our own citizens will not work at jobs that pay less than minimum wage to work because unemployment makes it easier to be unemployed.

Each of these topics will get their own blog post at some point. We as a people, have a responsibility to our neighbors inside our country more than those an ocean away. But in that last sentence, I must also remember that I cannot, and will not tell anyone what to think and do, it is up to them to find their own answers. To be a leader, you must first understand that those following, usually do so blindly. I ask anyone that follows this blog, please do so, but educate yourself outside of my postings as well. Make your own decisions in the end.