Red Fayettenam

It has been a difficult week.  Some watershed financial issues eked into the limelight, and I had to solve them.  My college degree from UNC-Chapel Hill is useful in these situations.  No emotion is involved except possibly anger.  Anger is a potent motivator, and it is what I have been feeling most of this week.  With the separation of of useless emotion in these situations, patience is all that is needed.  You must solve the problem.  You must go through the steps to satisfy the requirements of your task.  Again, patience is required.  You know you will succeed, but you must wait for the amendment.  Patiently we have been waiting through the ninety days of my mother's long term care insurance policy's "Elimination Period."  You must pay out of pocket for these ninety days and prove to the insurance company your claim is not fraudulent.  In many cases a hospital visit and accompanying "Rehab" will suffice for a portion of this three month period.  That was our case, but it seemed like a long haul.  Patiently we are waiting for her first monthly benefit.  She doubts my touted success with her claim, and with her traditional pessimism it has been a dark week not just for me.   I am confident we will see this money, and I need this reimbursement to pay this month's bill.  I have until the tenth.  The other issues at hand were a suspect charge showed up on our credit card statement.  I questioned this online not knowing the charge's source, and First Citizen's froze the card.  I use this card often to pay my mother's bills, so this was a headache.  It also showed me I didn't have a PIN for our bank card.  Scuffle.  Dance.  Shuck and jive.  They like to watch the white boy do the dance at her facility, and I do it often.  I kiss a lot of ass to keep her safe.  This blog entry has a deep inspiration, and it is my first experience with "Big Pharma" and insurance.  Insurance has not been problematic, but getting her med's straightened out still is a challenge.  I am too tired to go into it at the moment.  Why do I feel attacked and like my neighbors see me as a threat?  It is not a comforting feeling.  When you are "on task" and are determined to solve your problems and move forward, the world tries to knock you down.  Flying solo is the lonely situation.  To get what you want and need, you must be an asshole.  I am tiring of it, but you must look out for number one.  You must "plan your work and work your plan."  As for politics I have not been following it much.  There is a lot going on.  Capitalism has been knocked on its ass, and I am not sure if it will survive.  Many don't want it to, and simply they are Communists.  Communism is not American freedom, the one ideal most people in this world desire.  There must be a free market for Capitalism to function.  Our market is not free.  Never has it been, but it has been closer to this ideal than now.  For Capitalism to be successful it takes a tremendous amount of work.  We threw that out the window long ago in favor of cheap foreign labor.  Why not just use slaves?  Now that the two year free market assault called Covid is waning, suddenly and necessarily it becomes apparent how much work Capitalism is.  When I was talking with my mother this afternoon about the workings of her assisted living facility, several points arose.  These things are not isolated to Fayetteville and Cumberland County, but they are stark, real, and difficult for small businesses.  Why do elder care facilities have trouble with staffing?  A two bedroom apartment in Cumberland County costs upwards of $1500.00.  That is price gouging.  When I went to graduate school in Columbia, South Carolina in 1985, it was $400.00 a month.  Affordable housing has been run out of town, and this has been accomplished by the hearty and determined real estate community.  They created a bubble, and it made them a lot of money.  Houses in my neighborhood were selling for way over their realistic values, and some unsuspecting buyers were taken advantage of.  If you did want to work in Fayetteville or Cumberland County, you must commute.  There is little affordable housing left for low and middle wage workers.  There is on the other hand a plethora of expensive properties, some over a million dollars.  When I drive around I wonder to myself, "Who could afford to buy these huge houses?"  Fayetteville always has been like this, but always there has been an adept and competitive middle class.  My family fell into this category.  Gentrification has come to Fayetteville, and I have no problem with realtors claiming vagrant properties and flipping them for profit.  This is happening in the historic district of Haymount, and Ralph Huff has capitalized on this area.  Sadly New Orleans' Ninth Ward, with its fatal blow from Hurricane Katrina, was recast as lucrative resort property in the teeming minds of real estate investors.  The sadness of this gentrification is necessary culture such as iconic buildings and surrounding geography are destroyed.  This is happening in Fayetteville at an alarming rate.  The resulting urban sprawl has none of the character of it proceeding architecture.  Suffering at the hands of this phenomenon are The Haymont Grill, the former Putt Putt property on Bragg Blvd, and many others.  Especially on Raeford Rd. near Harris Teeter older structures have been razed and replaced with generic and ugly commercial buildings.  Where is their soul?  How can a low-paid CNA afford to get to work?  Fayetteville no longer is supporting its own.  Instead they are exploiting the naive minds of the military, enticing them to purchase expensive homes with VA loans sealing their fate as military lifers.  Their monthly housing stipends are an apt temptation to purchase an overpriced aging home that affords quick and easy access to the base.  Are they worth it?  It was not that long ago pre-Obama that soldiers were poor.  They have recovered, and with a quick look a civilian job openings at soon-to-be Fort Liberty, money is flowing to everyone.  There are medical jobs available that pay $300,000.00. I guess that answers my question of who could afford these luxurious homes in Fayetteville.  Fort Bragg is their cash cow.  It is not surprising why a vocal critic of inefficient Pentagon spending is not popular 'round these here parts.  The defense contractors have swept up, but that is changing since President's Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan.  When the money and poppies are not flowing, it is a far different story.  Maybe when we escape the inebriating narcotic smog of smuggled drugs, Fayetteville could level its compass.  We could and should call it the "Afghan Bubble," and now Afghan refugees are bringing polio back to America.  Inasmuch as I am not a Republican or a supporter of Donald Trump, I do believe the foreign influx into America in recent years has weakened our solidarity.  We don't know what an American looks like anymore.  In Fayetteville the population resembles circus animals rather than real men and women.  Not only that they don't know if they are men or women.  Always Fayetteville has been a challenging city, and still it is.  I don't support the telecom industry.  I don't feel a cell phone is a necessity of American or any other life.  Our land line works perfectly well.  Running the security of your home on a personal entertainment device is not wise.  Never has America been this close to Communism.  Two years of Covid forged the model.  Keep your kids at home, naive, sheltered, and ignorant.  Rely upon "The Man" for your needs aka Jeff Bezos.  Mail order your groceries.  Never leave the house.  Become addicted to many things.  It has been a successful campaign of Trump-supported Communism.  How can you deny it?  He loves Putin and Kim.  We should have listened to rather than laughed at  Donald's rhetoric.  It was too extreme to believe it could be true, but it was.  Fayetteville has become a red megalopolis of manipulative, conniving, and hungry kittens sucking on the teat of Uncle Sam.