Reply #37: Morning Marketeers.....

[AnneD]

:donut: and lurkers. I am at work today even though we are off. I have so much to do in so little a time that I came today to try to catch up. So I am taking a moment to post and I don't give a damn if they read this or not. My project-going through the kids shot records and target those that need them. My impediment-our piece of shit computer program that we have been dealing with for 5 years that can't read the data properly, drops it, mis-reads it. It wasn't a problem in the past because most Nurses threw up their hand, ignores it, or left their jobs screaming. Well, now the state is putting heat on our district and they are putting heat on us. I want to immunize those that need it but I don't want to pincushion these kids unnecessarily. The city of Houston will come out to catch us up at the end of this month so I am working hard to get as accurate a count as I can. What a fresh hell.:evilfrown:

Poverty in America. As a School Nurse in the inner city, I feel that I have more knowledge than most. I see the effects come into my clinic every day. Kids that don't have breakfast come in to the clinic from 9 on until they have the free lunch. Kids come in from 1 on with headaches because they haven't or can't get glasses because their parents are the working poor. Now we do have some angel docs that help me get glasses but they do it out of their own pockets and out of the goodness of their heart. The rest of the time I have kids that have unmet dental needs that lead to other problems (behavior,learning, etc because it is hard to focus when you are in pain).

And then I have the kids that are raising themselves because their parents are working so long and hard at a minimum slave wage job just to keep a roof over the head, a little food in the house and gas in the tank to get to work. Their doctor of choice is the local emergency room. They are angry, angry and the lash out. They are teens that see things on TV and see how some people live and they don't even come close. They see the nice shoe and clothes, but they shop at the dollar store-Wal-mart and Target are up scale to them. They have on raggedy chain supermarket that doesn't even have the same decent selection that they do at other chain stores. Their eat out choices all involve deep frying chicken or fish. We do have a few small chinese and vietnamese places that have more of a variety, but not much.

These kids know they are getting the short end of the stick. Thank God for the churches, grannies, grandpas and aunties. They are trying to hold it together but they are old and tired from a lifetime of hard work. We have developer eying the land with lust on their mind and greed in their heart. This is the last cheap property in this city and it is only a matter of time. And then where will this community, these kids go.

And this is poverty just in this area. I haven't even covered the neuvo poor middle class.

Happy hunting and watch out for the bears.