This is my first diary, I guess for a while I felt like I had a lot to say but I never really knew exactly what to talk about. The Daily KOS has so many great articles and diaries that it can be overwhelming at times. Do you talk about the Debt Ceiling, or about voter suppression? So many topics these days that it can be almost a system shock if you aren't careful.
Since I am at times a very vocal and outspoken liberal on Twitter, it seems that I never really needed to write anything longer on here. Today, I am going to change that. I am not going to write the typical outspoken tongue lashing you see here. I really wanted to take the time to introduce myself to anyone who might read this.
I am generally not a forthcoming person when I talk about myself. In general, I take a low-key approach to introductions. My name though is Jeffrey Fitch, some call me Jeff, others Jeffrey, and still others call me Fitch. I am one of the many people who suffer from what is commonly known as Adult Attention Deficit Disorder.
For most of my life I have tried to deal with this issue as best as I can, but this year I knew that I needed to change – I needed to take the time to see a doctor and get the proper help I needed. Last year, I got hired at a major hospital in the Twin Cities (St. Paul – Minneapolis). I consider myself to be one of the lucky few who has actually benefited over the last few years. At my job I have what one might consider a decent wage, and the benefits are actually very nice.
So, I am now on some medication to help me focus and things are going well. I am enrolled in a nursing program and I plan to make a nice living. My fiancee is about to finish her Masters degree. We are closing on a house soon as well. So, I can say that overall, things have been much better for me than for most people.
Now, as I said, I count myself amongst the lucky ones in this economy. We are by no means rich. We both understand that we have to play by our employers' rules in order to survive. They say jump we say, on one foot or two? We don't spend excessively, but we don't live a life of solitary confinement either. We are just perfectly average citizens. Our goal in life is to raise a family, own a house, a be happy.
It is easy to get swept away though right now with the national rhetoric of the moment. I am far more aware of the happenings politically in the world than she is. She is more aware of the news side of things. It is a good balance, one that gives us something to talk about.
I didn't come here to simply write an introduction though. As nice as it is, to just talk, I need to just get something off my chest. In the world of U.S. Politics we are often bombarded with several different angles all at once. It is important to remember – as a liberal, a democrat, a conservative, a republican, a green party member, a libertarian, an independent, a tea party member, or whatever you consider your particular your job is never to jump to conclusions.
The media plays us everyday. They control what we hear, what they want us to think, and how they want us to act. On twitter, I am (as I said previously) a very outspoken person. The reality is though, I do my best to look at all the information. It is hard when it isn't transparent though, you never see all the sides of anything. All you can do is look, study, and analyze what is put in front of you.
There are so many resources for finding the information, we need to utilize them more. It was once said that “facts have a liberal bias.” The truth is this, facts don't have a bias, they have a reality. As a party, the Democrats have none a poor job promoting facts over feelings. We allow people to repeat things enough that they become a mantra. Things like “job creator” get repeated so much that people start to actually believe them. In reality most of the people credited with the title are the people responsible for sending many of our people to the unemployment lines and our jobs overseas.
We have Republican governors, like Scott Walker, doing double talk and hand springs when talking about “jobs being created.”
Read: http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/...
The headline reads, “JUNE JOBS, UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS ANNOUNCED FOR STATE
Gain of 12,900 private-sector jobs is largest one-month gain since September 2003”
Yet, the reality of the matter is this: Unemployment went from 7.4% in May 2011, to 7.6% in June. If you read the data Wisconsin lost 6,000 people from their labor force, and 12,500 jobs. If they gained 12,900 private-sector jobs, and still lost 12,500. They lost a total of around 25,400 jobs before counting those new jobs. What does the new jobs entail? From what we can gather by looking at the news release, we see construction gained 1,600 – typical for the summer months when most construction actually occurs. Educational services jumped 1,600 – a strange number given the time of year, and probably not accounting for the number lost to firings and retirements.
The point of this is that, unless we are willing to look at all the data, to scrutinize and to call into question what we see, the media wins. The media will tell us exactly what to think, and news outlets that pander to corporations (like Fox) will be allowed to keep reeducating the American population.
I want to leave you with a video before I go. I think it is appropriate given the events happening around the debt ceiling.
You can also follow my more insane rantings on Twitter