Sammelsurium or simply "Stuff" Volume 9

In the past week we have been in an RV park in Toronto and two in Upstate New York. All three of these places have beautiful park-like grounds, but that's where the "beautiful" ends. I have seriously never been in filthier bathrooms in my life - no details to spare the squeamish. Add to that the fact that in Toronto the laundry room appliances were so filthy you couldn't set your clothes top of them, no exaggeration. When I complained I was told that the scheduled renovation hadn't taken place as scheduled - so this is an excuse not to maintain what you have? A better one would have been laziness and lack of interest by the employees as the RV-ers are a captive audience.

I had regularly heard about the people who claim President Obama is a Muslim, that Muslims in general are violent terrorists, that President Obama isn't a citizen, that gay preople aren't the same as the rest of us and somehow evil etc., but I had never met one. Well, imagine my surprise when I came face to face with a person such as this in a spa in Toronto. The spa owner innocently - or so I thought - asked if I like President Obama and I said I did. She them said "You know, he's a Muslim". I said that actually he is a Christian, not that there is anything wrong with being a Muslim. Wrong answer as she just wouldn't let up so I stopped responding. Then she started on the topic of gays. Again I said I have no problem with gays, in fact the opposite is true. Well again the verbal version of water tortue ensued. I again didn't engage and was happy when the appointment was over. As a paying customer, it's hard for me to see how this behavior equals a successful business strategy - I felt slimed. Another example of people not having a filter and failing to acknowledge social etiquette boundaries. During our travels through the US National Parks not to mention the small tourist towns along the way, we have been surprised to find young adults from all over the world working at Parks concessions, in small grocery stores, in bars etc. These people are from Moldavia, the Ukraine, Bulgaria - the list goes on. When I asked a bartender (an American) in Keystone, SD why there are so many foreigners working in these jobs, he said Americans are lazy and won't take just any job. Now that seems to be a pretty simplistic explanation to me, but I wonder if this is true or on the other side, if Americans have access to these seasonal jobs. One reads so many things about illegals taking jobs from Americans (something I believe to be false, most of these people work for far less than the minimum wage not to mention no benefits) but these people I've mentioned are here legally, many employed by the US government. It would be interesting to understand more about this. There has been a lot written about "Obamacare" and how it should be repealed. Well people who think it should be repealed need to take a drive through small town America. In every town we have visited, there has been a fundraiser for someone with breast cancer, liver disease - whatever - that does not have health insurance or the savings to cover their medical care. It isn't possible to have enough bake sales, silent auctions, bbq's to cover health care costs for the uninsured. It's time to dump the sound byte talking points and embrace reality.