60 Minutes

I just watched 60 Minutes this morning.  I always tape it (although the football schedule sometimes interferes with that -- did I mention that I hate football? and all other televised sports except ice skating?).   Last evening's episode was a sort of wake-up call.  Interviews with homeless families.  I think they were all in central FL, and resulting from the housing construction crash 2 years ago.  They interviewed some young kids around 7 to maybe 13.  It was sad of course, but also thought provoking.  I have lost my job (Jan 2010), and money is tight.  I'm using my IRA's since my unemployment ran out. But I am lucky and in a few months I will be able to collect my pension and next year my social security. If this had happened to me while my daughter was very young I'm not sure how I would have handled it.  I was divorced when she was 6 yr old and my ex was not regular with child support and the alimony wasn't enough for gas for a week.  I had just finished nursing school and found a job and an apartment near my mother.  She was a big help and in the end I helped her too with my father (he had Alzheimer's disease) and later took care of her as she aged.  She died in Feb 2010 just after I lost my job and income.  I'm not glad that I lost my job, but glad that it didn't happen any sooner.  I would have liked the 2-3 more years at a decent salery to improve my retirement income, but still I should be ok. Right now things are tight, and I won't be able to travel the way I dreamed I might , but I am not living in my car, I have more than adequate food, a cell phone, computer and internet service and a car I drive rather than live in.  Watching that program though was hard and sad.  Situations like that cause the little kids to grow up so much faster than they should have to. We all think the government should take care of things like that, but many state and local governments are nearly bankrupt too.  Somewhere in my heart I think that greed is what got us into this situation, everyone's and I know that I'm part of that too.  Oprah's programs were such an inspiration to so many and I think she's continuing that into her network, although I haven't watched it a lot.