UPDATED 10/9/15
Lea's Story Original Post
This pic is of a piece of paper Lea had
typed for her, which explains the crux of her story.
She had a
daughter (now grown to adulthood) who grew up with some people, the
Skinners in Chico, California. These people sued Lea for back child
support and the court fixed it as $500 per month which she could not
afford. Lea is mentally and linguistically dyslexic. She can drive
a vehicle but can't get her thoughts in order or write anything
coherent. Besides this, her right shoulder was badly injured and
re-injured by police who threw her out of a public building where she
went to get help, so now she can only write with her left hand and
she's right handed. The only thing she could do was sell olive oil
at a flea market / farmers' market.
There are lots of people
out there like Lea whom society would like to ignore because our
mainstream media focus -including on the internet- is on the
successful and rich not the poor and barely making it. So since she
could not pay the required child support, the court took her
drivers' license away! Does this make any sense? Of course not.
So where does she live with the seasons changing and in need of
warmth? In an abandoned school bus! Oh, it can still run maybe, but
who knows? Where? In Oregon somewhere near Eugene.
Has she
been able to resolve this? Not for at least 8 years! She has been
without a drivers license for 4 of those years. She has asked the
Skinners to withdraw their suit, but for whatever reasons, they have
decided not to do so. Obviously, she needs her drivers' license back.
How can anyone be expected to make any kind of back payments when
they are nearly 65 and not capable of holding the simplest regular
job and now are not able to drive? The system has clearly failed
people like Lea and now society at large is led to believe that the
Leas of this world should just ... go off somewhere and die quietly and
not bother anyone else, etc. ... unless of course they are able to do
the impossible, pay what they cannot even earn. How many people are
eventually going to end up just like Lea?
If one were established, people
like Lea could get help in a real alternative money system. How
would Lea's life be different if she could survive without their
money? She would get a subsistence that her friends and neighbours
in Oregon deemed appropriate for her and she could live somewhere
other than out of an abandoned bus. We know that Lea is actually
lucky. Other people caught in the system may be homeless living
under bridges, hungry living out of restaurant or grocery store
dumpsters (if they haven't deliberately poisoned them with bleach,
etc.) and of course they are unemployable in today's globalist
nightmare.
But our concern is with Lea. The Skinners should
know better and must withdraw their suit. Lea should be given her
drivers' license back right now! She is probably entitled to many
state and federal grants in aid, but guess what folks, she is
basically too proud and self reliant to want any of that from them!
How many out there are like her? All they have left is their self-respect. But she needs the help or she'll
just ... die. Is that the message? If you have nothing left but
your self respect, are you to fork over even that to a state so that
you must live at their mercy for the rest of your life? It certainly looks
like it. Is that freedom? Is that dignified? Do those who actually
work for their living actually live lives of freedom or dignity?
Just what is this country (or any of the advanced nations on earth)
based on anyway? We know: They're based on money loaned at interest, the
interest having never been created, and yet people live passively
with this con game and some even do well at it; those who accept the
cons and are better at conning others than most. Rewarded for
conning others makes more money than just buying and selling olive
oil at some flea market / farmers' market. A system designed and
built by racketeers that has taken over the entire financial world
has no concern for a poor woman like Lea.
At this point we are calling on all and
anyone concerned (especially in Oregon and Northern California) to take up Lea's Story and spread it all over the
internet, into any and every alternative news channel available until
Lea gets her license back and is able to get this case dropped. She
deserves that much. Anyone wishing to try and make contact with Lea
can do so through me.
David Burton
venlead2013@aol.com
PS from Lea: "Two days before the deadline to have my vehicle moved, it all fell
apart. Well by Saturday night (only one day after the deadline) I
scrambled and got it moved into Eugene to a safe but temporary spot. Boy
oh boy what stress can do -- I slept all day Sunday! Having no drivers
license just makes life ridiculous what is the point."
[10/9/15: Well, I
really relate to Lea's story, Two weeks after I had been in the
hospital with a blood transfusion of 5 units of blood, I had an
internal bleeding problem that was not diagnosed for years. I was
just out of a week long stay at the hospital, where I was given an
endoscopy and also had to swallow a huge pill with a camera that took
pictures as it went down called a capsolosopy. I was very weak.
This had been my second one of these pill swallowing deals and my 6th
time for a blood transfusion. Extreme anaemia was common for me
then. I had white skin, no energy, lack of breath because oxygen is
carried in the blood. I felt like I would fall over, pass out or
just have a heart attack, I spent most of my time in bed. I was
not able to work. I prayed for relief. The month previously, I had
sold my gold wedding ring to a pawn shop for rent, and I did some
ebay, and as a substitute teacher I had to leave a post due to this
deep illness. I was barely dragging myself around, my meals were
cans of food I'd gotten at the local free food center for the poor.
I could hardly
shift my truck into gear and drive, and could not walk far, I lacked
strength. Finally at night, late, around 9:30 pm, my landlord knocks
on the door of my run down apartment behind a restaurant with a 3
day decease order, for me to get out in 3 days or he had the right to
have policeman drag my stuff out and put it in the street. I called
on friends to help me get my stuff into a storage unit where it
remained for over a year. This meant that I was stuck with the few
clothes I had with me and the rest were lost in storage.
I found enough
money through odd jobs like pet sitting to pay for my storage rent.
I lived in my truck, and at friends' houses, moving from place to
place until some friends took pity on me and lent me their extra room
until I could figure out my problem, which were far beyond, my
ability to predict. I was a walking dead, lying down, and barely
making a dent on the day. Sometimes I would feel better, I would go
about finding ways to bring in money, play my violin for tips,
collect cans, take some of my things to flea markets, and maybe sell
something on ebay here and there.
I was 59 years
old when I finally applied for Social Security Disability and it took
9 months of waiting going through hoops and also being taken to the
hospital for 2 more blood transfusions during that 8 month stay with
my friends. Once while in the hospital the 6th time for another
transfusion, the doctor told me that soon my body would begin to
reject blood I'd been given and that would probably end this. I
believe that it was already beginning to happen as each time I got a
transfusion it was longer and longer of a time that I would feel like
myself again, my own system was too strained for building red blood
cells and my very bone marrow would ache it was so painful, something
no one could understand how badly I ached, it hurt to be this ill. I
took vitamins and iron tablets, but something inside was really
wrong. I had 2 while staying with my friends. I can't imagine what
might have happened to me if I had to live in my truck during those
months.
Finally, because
of surrendering to my situation, many of us deny that we have fallen
so far, Pride is often part of why people get into such disparate
situations. asking for Social Security Disability and excepting my
position of neediness was difficult. I had after all worked hard
for a Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership, so why
couldn't I think my way out of homelessness? And now how would I
ever pay my education loans? I was stressed about it all. How
would I pay for anything? Due to friendships, where I was very
blessed and the Grace of God, I survived this.
I was given
disability, and I was given Medicare, and once that was in place they
found that I had an esophageal hiatal hernia where my stomach was
lodged behind my heart, gaping open. It caused great acid erosion,
ulcers and every time I moved, bent over, picked up anything, or
exercised, I would bleed internally. This happened to me between the
years 2007 thru 2013, when I finally had robotic surgery and they
pulled the stomach back to were it belongs. They also took out my
gull bladder then. I don't earn much with SSD but enough to just
make it through, I also earn money by pet sitting and buying and
selling antiques and collectibles, I also make tip money from playing
my violin as well and being a penny pincher.
Because of all
that, I am in debt up to my ears. Like Lea, I couldn't be without a
car or a drivers license. I used my credit to get a huge car loan so
I can drive a nice car. Before that, I was driving a dangerous van
that leaked gas and made me sick every time I drove it. I also know
if I needed to, I could live out of my car, which was another reason
I bought it. The huge amount of money I spent on a credit card to
keep that terrible van running! It seemed so dangerous and I felt
that buying a used car on credit made sense, as I needed to save
money on gasoline, and not get stuck somewhere. How in the world I
had all this credit I don't really know, it seems clearly a direct
answer to prayer, at least I could have my van fixed, unlike Lea.
I want to say
that my circumstances might have been far worse if not for good
friendships and people who cared about me. My sisters and brother
were also very helpful in taking care of me during those really bad
times.
After my stomach
surgery had healed, my doctor informed me that I needed another major
surgery, that would be difficult, for I had a pre-cancerous condition
so absolutely it was needed. It's been two years now since my EHH
surgery and a year since my cervical precancerous surgery. I am now
fairly healthy but am working as much as possible to get my bills in
order, make more money, lose the huge weight gain from these years of
illness, my twisted aching and painful back from scoliosis slows my
pace. But I am so grateful to live in a small studio cabin in the
woods.
There are many
more people out there like Lea, who for some reason or other have
lost their position in the world or were never smart enough to make
the grade. There are many who choose to live on the streets. There
are many who, due to drugs and alcohol and other bad choices, are
living in their cars or under bridges or away in the woods. With the
mass of Baby Boomers retiring, there will be many more stories about
people who just never worked enough or didn't make any plans for
their elder years, or who lost everything too late to rebuild, people
whom the general public will have to help, deal with or ignore. I
hope that you will not judge everyone you see. Many have had
hardships that you might never had endured. Most don't want pity,
they just need your mercy, a small act of kindness.
Most of us want
to make our own way in the world, some of us just have such big
obstacles.]
