There’s More To Life Than The Health Care Bill!!

Well, we are down to the wire on the health care fiasco. Like it or not, a decision is likely to come in the next couple of days. The voices of the people have become too confusing and our representatives have once again decided to ignore us. They have also ignored the fact that the only thing that needed reform was the cost of health care. There was no need to redo the entire system, we only have to control, lawsuits, prescription costs and provide additional competition, in the form of the ability to get insurance in other states.

But I didn’t come to talk about health care, although you still have time to contact your representatives and tell them how you feel. I want to talk about the second most important issue today, that’s right, Home Insurance.

Why do we pay home insurance for 17 years and then the first time we make a claim our rates go up. Well, actually it was the second time, but the point is, why?  Both claims were for under $2,000 and I will pay for them in only four years because my premiums went up by $700 a year.  Now I can’t even search for new insurance because every company I talk to stops the discussion after asking how many claims I’ve had in the last three years. I guess two is the magic number.

It’s not like they did any work. All they did was send an independent adjuster here, who was in the neighborhood anyway (according to him). He wrote down a bunch of numbers and sent them to the insurance company, who sent me a check. I had to do all the work to correct the damage. Who pays for my time?

I think this sucks!! I wonder if they will lower my rates after I’ve paid back the money they paid me for the claims? I think not!! In fact, it’s almost guaranteed that my rates will continue to go up every couple of years. So after we finish talking about health care reform, we can jump on the housing insurance industry. Then we can go after car insurance, because I have a beef with them too, but we’ll save that for another post.

Waiting To Hear From You!!

It’s getting to be too long between posts. That’s because I’m working two jobs and don’t have the time to sit and write like I want to. When I do write, I’m writing about the things that interest me and affect my life. I love writing my blog and maintaining all of my websites but it all seems one sided.

Many of you have sent me emails and called me to ask how you can leave a comment on my site. I guess I haven’t explained it right because I haven’t seen a comment for some time. I’d love to hear what you have to say, good or bad. I don’t want to continue to write if no one is interested in what I’m saying. If you leave a comment I’ll know where I stand and others will be able to read your comments and voice their opinion as well. I only ask that you keep any discussions at an adult level with no name calling , cussing or any of those other high school antics. Everyone, including you, is entitled to their opinion and like it  or not this is America and you should respect an individuals right to free speech.

I have the option of disapproving comments and keeping them off of my site. However, if I deem a comment unsuitable for my blog, I will clean it up and let you all know what has been said.

So, to leave a comment you simply look to the right of the title of my post. There you will see what looks like a small piece of paper with a stick pin holding it. On the piece of paper there will be a number indicating how many comments have been left for that post. It will start at “0″ and go up as comments are added. Click on whatever number is there and it will take you to the comment form. Now, depending on your browser, screen size and length of my post, you may have to scroll down to see the form.If you happen to notice that the little piece of paper has disappeared and you do not see the form, then you have scroll down.

If you are getting notifications of new posts via email, you cannot leave a comment until you go to my site at www.TellMeAboutThat.com.  If you’d like to be notified of new posts by email, you have to sign up for notifications on the right side of my blog page under “Subscribe to my Blog”. You may have to scroll down to see it.

You can also go back and comment on previous postings by looking under “Post Categories”, also on the right. If you click on a category you will see all of the previous posts pertaining to that subject. You can then select the one(s) you want to read and then post a comment if you desire.

So, I’m waiting to hear from you. Tell me what you like or don’t like or give me ideas about what you would like to see. Just remember there is only one of me and I can’t keep everybody happy.

Don’t Judge The Disabled By What You See or Hear!!

As many of you know I work with S.C. Vocational Rehabilitation. My job is to contact companies in a five county area and talk to them about our services and hopefully find work for our disabled clients. What many people don’t know is that we handle over 150 different disabilities including diabetes, obesity, cardiac patients, stroke victims, learning disabilities and social disabilities. Many of our clients were not born with their disabilities but rather developed disabilities over time. That means that some of them have college degrees in different areas and many have worked in production, manufacturing and various other fields. With that said, most of our clients have difficulty finding and maintaining employment because of their disabilities or, more often, because of employers lack of understanding of their disabilities.

Recently I’ve had the pleasure of working with a family who didn’t even see the disabilities, but were more interested in the skills our clients possessed. I met Tyrone Wilson shortly after he and his family opened a garage out on Peach Orchard Drive in Sumter. It’s right behind the base and you can’t miss the bright yellow building. I was out on one of my drives knocking on the doors of local businesses when I noticed that a formerly closed garage was up and running.

I made an appointment for the following week and presented our programs to Tyrone. After I was finished he told me he needed a mechanic as soon as I could get him one. That was in early January. So far, we have provided two mechanics and two car detailers for his operation at Wilson’s Auto Repair and Car-Wash.

Between providing the first and second mechanic I had the opportunity to meet Dionne (Dee) Wilson, Tyrone’s wife. Together they are opening a high end coffee shop out on US 378, called Moca Soul Café. Dee told me that they were interested in our agency helping them to find a Barista to help out in the café. We provided three candidates and the Wilson’s selected one ,who will start on March 1, 2010. Oh!! I almost forgot, Dee also does hair. You can get information on her skills and contact information  at www.hairstylist4hire.webs.com or click the link to the right.

So altogether, they have given employment opportunities to five (5) clients and not once did they ask about the clients particular disability.  Additionally, by using our clients they have the opportunity to get tax credits for hiring the disabled and we help them to pay the wages for a specified trial period. This gives them the chance to get to know our clients and their abilities before committing to hiring them permanently.

We need more people like this. They chose not to judge our clients but instead decided to give them a chance, where others wouldn’t.  With 14% of South Carolinians being disabled and more than 1,000 of them on our caseloads in Sumter and Camden, we need a lot more employers to look beyond the disability and see the person beneath. Are you judging people with disabilities because of what you have heard or how they look? If you are, then knock it off and give them a chance!!