The Time to Act is NOW!

Don't get confused by all the gaslighting!

I’ve just returned from a trip to Orlando with one of my sons. I’d never been to Florida before and had this trip booked and paid for before the US had their elections. I was tempted to cancel the trip to "protest,” but the cancellation would have only hurt me and my bank account as tickets to Universal Studios are non-refundable, as were my discounted plane tickets (Air Canada), and no one would have been affected by my “protest.”

Our ten days in Florida were fantastic. Now and again, we would be spotted as Canadians as my son wore a sweater with Canada on it, and I wore my Canada’s Wonderland hat everywhere. People were very nice to us, and we were nice to them. Of course, everyone’s a tourist in that town, no doubt, so likely not a reflection of reality.

However, as someone who frequently visits the States for conventions and amusement parks, I’m well aware that Canadians and Americans are pretty much cut from the same cloth. We’re all human, and we all have similar issues and concerns.

I did not once hear any bullshit about being the 51^st State.

It’s really bothering me about what is going on in both countries. However, I’m very concerned about the States. It seems like no one is trying to do anything to stop the chaos that is going on for a month now?

I didn’t vote for Musk, nor did I see his name on the ballot when I voted. I don’t understand how he can go in and act like he’s the president. And how come he can fire thousands of workers for no reason, and no one is pushing back?

Well, some are starting to push back, but there needs to be much, much more to stop this madness NOW. Maybe storm the capital and sit there until something is done?

I pay taxes to two countries as I’m a US citizen living in Canada. I want my tax dollars to go to firefighters, park rangers, air traffic controllers, medical care, getting people out of student loan debt, helping people be housed, having qualified people in charge of nuclear weapons, the banks, national security, welfare, social security, school breakfast programs, and yes, even producing Sesame Street in other countries to promote this thing called literacy.

It’s pretty amazing to me how proud some people are to be uneducated. Idiocracy wasn’t supposed to be a documentary. Trump said he loves the uneducated, and here we are. The uneducated can’t even write a Facebook post without making spelling and grammar mistakes. Some people can’t help being uneducated or illiterate, especially those who were homeschooled by people who don’t have teaching degrees or anything more than high school education or live in huge poverty and can’t get to school. Those people are rare. There are more people who are just lazy and don’t want to learn about history, science, or even how to write in basic English. Almost everyone in North America has a computer in their pocket with the ability to learn anything at anytime about anything. For most people, there are no excuses to be uneducated and illiterate.

It's so frustrating to see these uneducated people bringing back so many dread diseases because they don’t understand science or vaccinations. They just see education as a power play instead of actual health and science and that it’s a GOOD THING to eradicate diseases.

When I was a kid, we got mass vaccinations in school here in Canada. We would line up and get shots.

And we never got measles or polio or TB or any other number of dread diseases.

No one got autism or brain damage from vaccines; that’s all lies and bullshit made up by ONE asshole many years ago. But the uneducated would rather believe one asshole than hundreds of scientists and doctors who have spent their life’s work studying diseases and cures.

A few kids in my generation got measles because the vaccine was new. Some went blind, some died, some survived.

And now, because of stupid, ignorant assholes, measles are back. I saw it in my lifetime: measles destroying lives, measles completely irradicated through vaccinations, and now measles are back because of selfish idiots who hate their own children and won’t get them vaccinated even though THEY are vaccinated.

My dad’s foster brother married a woman who had polio as a child. She was in a wheelchair her entire life because the polio vaccine hadn’t been invented yet. I’d seen her shriveled legs many times and admired how she drove a car with just hand gears back in the seventies and she also birthed three sons. But if the vaccine had been around when she was a child, she would not have been disabled.

I don’t understand why the United States is so against medical care for everyone. How did you let big pharma take control of your lives and bank accounts for so many decades?

Almost every country on the planet has a humanized healthcare situation except for the United States. I’m not sure why anyone even lives there, to be honest, with such a draconian healthcare system. It’s the number one reason I’ve never moved back, and I have zero health issues. I don’t know how this has gone on so long, and people don’t riot in the streets every day until it’s fixed. Not living in the States is my protest.

In Ontario, our premier loves the Trump playbook and has spent the past few years dismantling our education system, our post-education system, and our healthcare system. He even admitted he would have voted for Trump.

Who is anyone if they are sick and uneducated?

How do you build a strong and free country if everyone is sick and stupid?

There is no excuse for there to be thousands, if not millions, of unhoused people living in tents on the streets in both countries.

The richest countries in the world have people dying in the streets for lack of housing.

SHAME!

I agree that both countries need to focus inward and deal with their issues. Fix the healthcare, let’s get some mental health care, pour money into the education systems, and make post-secondary school free or low-cost.

Why do degrees cost thousands and thousands of dollars? And who let the student loan interest multiply and get so out of control? The loan should be just the loan, not forty years of compounded interest. Like, what the hell is that about? Most jobs don’t even pay well enough to pay off the student loans, especially if you have to pay hundreds a month for health insurance that you may or may not need and that may or may not cover what you actually need it for.

I don’t understand the healthcare system in the US. I mean, I understand it, I just don’t understand how all of you let it happen that you let these businesses make your medical decisions instead of doctors. You all need to get that fixed!

There is corruption in both countries and the main one is that the rich don’t help the poor, but it’s far worse in the United States. The simplest help would be for the super-wealthy to pay proper taxes, not strip thousands of federal workers of their jobs.

So what is going to happen with all these federal workers who are now unemployed? So many of them trained to be the specialists that they are, so where do they go now after years of school and investment into their careers? Are they supposed to now go to work…picking fruit in the fields because you got rid of all the immigrant workers?

What is going on?

How is making thousands of highly educated people unemployed going to help the economy? Where are they going? Who is taking their place?

The dumbing down of the United States continues on.

This week, we have an election in Ontario. I truly hope that people will kick Ford out once and for all so we can put our education and healthcare system back together. However, the opposition is so weak, just like what happened in the States.

Why can’t we get some new strong people in power who are NOT conservative and who have the strength and compassion to make Ontario a great place for people of all walks of life, not just rich friends of Ford?

Let’s get the homeless off the streets, let’s build more rehabs and addiction centers, and let’s include mental health in our OHIP once and for all. For those who don’t know, yes, we have socialized medicine in Canada, but it does NOT include mental health, so if you’re not wealthy enough to pay $100 an hour or more for therapy, you are sol, which is most of us, which can lead to drug abuse and homelessness, a vicious cycle.

Citizens of Canada and the United States, we are all very much the same, so let’s work together and stop this 51^st state nonsense. It’s not funny, and it’s just a distraction for you Americans to laugh at while the oligarchs continue to steal your money and your rights.

Let’s keep horror as fictional entertainment, not real life.

Pay attention, and don’t be distracted by the clown show.

Write letters.

March in the streets.

Write blogs.

Show up at government offices to voice your opinions.

Whatever it takes, do it.

The time to act is NOW.