American Life as Portrayed on TV

So, wow. We've been here for about 10 weeks and good gravy! Life's

changed a lot here in the last 8 years. I keep hearing about how all these

jobs are being created and how unemployment is going down by 3% here

and 4% there and I'm not seeing who's getting employed. Because, uh...

it's not me. I wonder where the news anchors get their statistics. And I

wonder why the government seems to be content with continuing to

encourage the creation of these minimum-wage to $8.00 an hour jobs

when seemingly NO ONE can survive without public assistance if they

have a family on less than $3000 a month. I'm not talking about living

extravagantly. The only "extras" I'm talking about are internet service

(say $35/month) and flat rate basic unlimited texting and calling cell

phone service instead of installing a phone in the house (for 2 phones $80/

month.) The rest is rent or mortgage, utilities, car payment plus insurance

and at the end of the day, how do you feed the kids? It's scary to me that

Americans still think that they're "living the American dream." I'm not

knocking America. I have lived all over the world and I don't want to be

anywhere but here, really. BUT I seriously consider our "American dream"

to be more of a nightmare. I have to caution my kids not to jump out of

the swings on the playground because we don't have health insurance.

They don't actually get this. But the threat of having Mommy give them

their potentially needed stitches with the wound held over the bathtub so

they don't drip on the bathroom rug instead of going to a lovely, clean

incredibly expensive emergency room usually has them at least slowing

down a bit before springing across the sky to tuck and roll through the

wood chips seemingly unhurt. And I still suck in my breath and clutch my

heart (and wallet) in fear each time.

We get ads in the mail and the free newspaper daily offering "great deals"

on some U-shaped thingy for 319 channels of cable t.v. in HD. What the

....? WHY do I want to see ANYTHING on television in High Definition?

Do I really want to make myself feel better because people in Hollywood

have blackheads like me? I KNOW this. But do I really want to SEE their

blackheads so...up close and personal? Absolutely not.

And maybe it's just me, but have the number of late-night pharmaceutical

ads increased dramatically in the last 8 years? When I left only Bob Dole

was spouting publicly his "erectile dysfunction" issues. (Bob, I hate to tell

you but there's nothing "dysfunctional" about fewer erections when you're

in your 70's. At your age, I would find a four hour erection resembling a

chin-up bar "dysfunctional.") Now, the ads are during prime time and we've

got people practicing conversations with their doctors while walking downtown

about how they're going to bring up the subject. If you judge by the t.v., it's

such a normal occurrence that NO ONE should be embarrassed. I've seen

commercials for Viagra, Cialis, and now ExtenZe??? And I'm certain it's

no accident that the favored "celebrity" spokesperson is a guy named Jimmy

Johnson. How do I answer my 9 year old's questions about why these old

people keep going from painting their house or doing the laundry into a bath

tub naked in the woods?

Then the whole "depression hurts" thing. There are more medication commer-

cials that seemingly are the "answer" to what people have basically done to

themselves by taking advantage of our "land of opportunity." While I don't

disagree that there are a lot of opportunities to be had here in the U.S., I don't

think people are giving themselves an opportunity to actually enjoy any of the

opportunities that they have. Perhaps I'm cynical. But you know, I'm not the

one taking depression medication because I'm living beyond my means, with

erectile dysfunction and extremely high cholesterol due to being depressed

about my erectile dysfunction and eating greasy expensive fast food that I

can't actually afford.

Seems to me, if we look back to the way things were even 30 years ago, and we

have dinner around the table, whole, not pre-packaged, processed food cooked

by mom (or dad), and then play a board game together or read or watch Free-

to-Air television as a family, the number of pharmaceutical company ads, fast

food ads, stress levels, erectile dysfunction issues and perhaps even cost of living

could go down. Because those services would not be needed as much and people

would be just a little happier. Maybe I'm a little this side of Pollyanna.