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MOST PEOPLE TALK BULLSHIT:
One Primate's Search For Intelligent Life
(GENESIS)
Summer of
2008
I am
almost fifty-three and it has been over twenty-six years since I
had last sold my plasma.
Twenty-six years ago I had vowed that I would never sell my
plasma again.
I was
wrong – I broke my vows.
I am
again selling plasma.
However, this time it is different.
This
time I am not selling my plasma so that I can eat. Nor am I
facing homelessness and I am not destitute. In fact, it would
not surprise me if I possess more assets than any of the people
in the turnstile process of selling their plasma.
Unlike
most Americans, I have a pension – a benefit of working in the
Federal sector.
Also,
unlike most Americans I have a home and a rental and two used
cars that are paid for.
So why
am I selling my plasma?
I am
selling it because my pension is not enough to finance my
projects.
I want
to raise money for charities – especially for returning disabled
veterans, battered women with kids, the homeless and children at
risk of abuse or neglect.
I have
a website that I developed for this purpose; I have written
books and made tee shirts to help raise money for these agendas.
It
cost a lot of money for these efforts.
So in
addition to using those strategies to raise money, I have tried
to sell my rental to give some of the proceeds to the groups I
want to help – unfortunately the housing market for sellers is
bleak.
I have
sold my beloved Harley to raise money to print and publish my
books of which I wanted to sell with the majority of the
proceeds to go to the groups I want to help.
Unexpected emergencies and bills have come up as I have been
bleeding my funds dry because of unexpected emergencies that
have come up in addition to my costly projects.
So I
sell my blood to help the Veterans coming back from Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Now my
distaste of giving blood is no longer so appalling.
Our
soldiers are giving their blood for our freedoms and the freedom
of other people.
They
are spilling their blood in fear, in hope, in uncertainty and
often they spill it till they die.
They
do this far from home, far from family, friends and emotional
support.
I am
merely selling my blood in a relatively clean, warm and safe
environment here at home.
I hate
selling my blood or plasma and yet, for my cause… for our
country’s cause I will do it gladly.
What
makes it easier to wait about the Plasma Center nowadays - is
that selling plasma is not quite as Orwellian as it use to be.
They have movies that we can watch; and no longer are bags of
our blood carted away for a long period of time; no longer does
our blood have the chance of getting too cold; no longer does it
feel like they are reinserting ice water into our veins.
I no
longer have the fear that our blood may be accidentally switched
with a wrong bag. Now our blood is circulated through a
self-contained high-tech machine that prevents such concerns.
So why
am I bothered by this new system?
Why do
I feel unease about coming here to sell blood?
Ironically,
I am bothered that it is no longer just a few of society’s
castaways that are forced to sell blood so that they may eat or
to make the rent or to pay off credit card debt or to finance
their addictions.
No, I
am sad and dismayed because nowadays more people are selling
plasma; and they are trying to avoid foreclosure, or to pay
their rent, or to eat. More people are out of work and many more
people are struggling with massive credit card debt or to keep
up with payments on their over use of minutes on their I-phone
or to purchase a new I-pod.
Perhaps what bothers me more than anything is that many of the
people I sit with as we wait often force to do so for at least
four hours before getting to lounge on a recliner for another
hour as we have our blood drained- a total of five hours a
session - twice weekly – the maximum we are allowed to sell.
For
waiting hours and submitting our bodies to mechanical leeches -
we get $65.00 total, of which we have to claim during tax time
as income.
I am
sad because if you do the math, $65.00 divide by 10 hours it
equals $6.50 per hour – a dollar-thirty less than minimum wage!
I am
bothered by the fact that most of the people I sit with do not
use the dead time to read or pay their bills or do anything
productive.
Instead, I hear most of them prattle about the most superficial
things – such as who the best UFC fighter is or what is Paris
Hilton really up to and so forth.
I know
that in some ways it is healthier mentally to respond to life’s
trials and tribulations with humor and acceptance, however,
ironically, I am dismayed that most of the people I sit with are
oddly content with their poverty. Their contentment seems to go
beyond mere acceptance of their plight. I think it appalls me
because they do not have higher standards or aspirations to rise
above simply existing.
I am
dismayed of all of this and I often think that we should all
join a blood-letters union and strike for more money – perhaps
$100.00 a week instead of $65.00.
I am
sadden by the fact that if I tried to organize such a union –
for every ones’ mutual benefit - it would likely die the first
week; even if I could demonstrate that a one week strike would
be all it took for higher wages.
It
hurts to know that this apathy and laziness and lack of
discipline are the reasons why half the people are trapped in a
position of selling plasma for money.
It
hurts when I realize that the other half or this population of
people - are simply flotsam or jetsam of a decaying social and
political system.
Finally, it is disturbing to find out from a few employees at
the plasma center that 25% of the women who apply to sell their
plasma have been found to be HIV positive and many other people
have blood borne disease that disqualify them.
I know
that all this is going to come back to roost with us in a bad
way.
Still,
as sad as I am and as disturbing as it all is, I am here once
again selling plasma to achieve my goals.
I hate
the process, yet I gladly do it for my philanthropic agendas.
It
helps to remember the heroes that sold their plasma twenty-six
years ago for those people in their lives that they loved.
They
have taught me that if you truly believe in a cause or if you
love someone that needs support – you cannot help but be
compelled to move heaven and earth for your cause or your loved
ones.
It is
what are troops are striving for.
It is
what many parents are struggling to do.
So, I
sell my plasma for the causes I love.
I hope
it pays off.
HOMEPAGE
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