Darke County Senior Scribes
Jammin' Me
By Mona Lease

Hi, all!! Buy this insurance! If you are happy where you are; you can stay there! Now I have health insurance with a $2,000 deductible - for one person. My new insurance does not cover half of what the new policy does. (True Darke County story).

We (the city) need to improve the street. It needs widened. We're taking some of your property for the sidewalk (oh, and you get to sweep it, wash it, shovel snow off of it, and if someone falls and breaks a bone - you get to pay for it). We (the city) are raising your water/sewage bill. We need to pay for the raise in sewage price that our disposal company increased on us. (Another true story in Darke County).

We (a bank) sold your home loan to a mortgage company - deal with them now. The new loan company says I can not pay the way I did before - for 9 years! They are demanding I open a checking account. (True Darke County story).

My health insurance company demanded my spouse get tested for the same things I get tested for on the job twice a year. Her Dr. did the tests. A third party Dr. billed for a charge for which my insurance had already paid. We had to call my Human Resources worker at the corporate office - a long distance call. We did not pay the third party biller. It's just nerve-wracking! (Another true DC story).

We (a pregnancy center) cannot tell anyone not to have sex. We can only counsel them to use birth control. (Another true DC story).

"I was raised to not get involved in anyone's business - not even family. I know my son's daughter will probably be pregnant before she graduates high school....but it's not my place to saying anything..it's her Father's. I'm not her Dad." (Another true DC story).

In all of the above cases - you will be involved...through tax dollars for sure. Tax dollars support the Welfare Program, Metropolitan Housing, Hospital Offsets, Free School Lunches, ADC - you get the idea here.

I ask myself if it would be better, in the long run, to just "get involved" and "be the bad guy." Would it be cheaper - more "cost effective" - to just make a stand? You know - to just say "This is my house. When you go to a friend's - I am meeting the friend's parents before you go anywhere with their kids. I expect a phone number where I can reach you. Should we really need to resort to giving the kiddies a cell phone with a GPS locator that tells us when the phone is out of a range that we set..or we can track on our computers? Wouldn't it be easier all the way around to just tell them "As for me and my house - we will do this or that." And ya know - the longer this goes on - I believe the following is truer and truer.

"You got me in a corner - You got me up against a wall - I got nowhere to go - I got nowhere to fall. - Take back your insurance - Baby, nothin's guaranteed. - Take back your angry slander - Take back your pension plan (GM did, by the way, for the white collar workers when they sold the pension plans to a world wide bank)....quit jammin' me - You can walk away but it's not over." Excerpt from Jammin' Me - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - 1987.

Remember the kiddies and our service people. Take good care of the furry and feathered ones out there. Be safe and healthy. See ya next time. Ever Toodles!! MONA