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Instant Sean – Page 5 – Speaking truth, the written word & some sarcasm. Not available in stores…

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  • Sorry Facebook, I vote no.

    Sorry Facebook, I vote no.

    Today I was asked why my FB photo wasn’t of the French flag, didn’t I care?

    I care about the following:
    my family, friends, community, state, country and planet.
    I care that there are too many sick babies, homeless vets, hungry families, uncured diseases, crumbling infrastructure, and other outrages.

    I don’t care following people who are about:
    Hate, racism, bullying, religious discrimination, anger, stupidity, following others instead of leading, among a list growing every day.

    America is the greatest land on this planet because we are allowed to have disagreements. If your focus is to be a narrow, unyielding sheep that follows the hate speech of the day, by some person who cares about telling half truths to whip their side of the aisle in a frenzy, then please unfriend me now.

    I have 564 friends as of today. Friends, stop being sheep. Have the strength to love others and work together. Do not fall into the trap of “the dark side.”

    Let us see how many cowards, bullies, intimidators, haters, prejudiced, racist and angry people I lose because I will not bow down to them or their anger. By the way, I really won’t miss them.

    I do not believe the way this country became so great was because we were divisive but because we were so inclusive.

    “Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
    – Emma Lazarus

    So I love you France, I just don’t need a Facebook button to show it.

  • Thanks Grandpa!

    Thanks Grandpa!

    Yesterday I talked about miracles and inaction. It reminds me of a story my late grandfather once told me:

    A very good man walked the earth, he took care of the sick and poor, giving to others more than he gave himself. Every night he would pray, “Dear God, I follow your son, I do good deeds, how many more people could I help if I won the lottery.”

    Every drawing he would never win. This continued for years until the man was on his deathbed. As his family and friends surrounded his hospice bed, the man looked to the sky, clouds covering the last sunset he would ever be able to see and he spoke.

    “Dear God I followed your son, I did good deeds, could you see all the people who surround me for my kindness & generosity. Why wouldn’t you ever let me win the lottery.”

    The skies cleared and the most beautiful sunset shown for the man as the Lord replied.

    “My child, I am proud of everything that you have done, but why couldn’t you ever meet me halfway and buy a ticket?”

    Miracles only happen through action not through inaction. Good intentions have the same results as inaction. Don’t blame others for your own failures. ‪#‎Encourage‬

  • I’ve been to many Home Depots

    I’ve been to many Home Depots

    aispeakjive

     

    But yet to find one person who speaks Jive.

  • Remembering and never forgetting.

    Remembering and never forgetting.

    I always repost this on September 11th so I will never forget.

     

    Today is a day which we should all remember and NEVER FORGET.

    I remember Stan Castles calling me and telling me that a plane had hit the WTC. He wanted to know if we should go to the live ABC news feed.

    I turned on the TV and with horror saw the second plane hit.

    “DUMP THE MORNING SHOW AND GO TO NEWS TILL FURTHER NOTICE, I’M ON MY WAY!”

    The horror had sunk in.

    I called my mom as I dressed and was told with horror.

    “There are two of ours Sean.”

    I called my dad as I got to work and scooped the major media in reporting the two American Airlines flight numbers that I was given.

    It was a sinking feeling that I will never forget.

    Then it hit me.

    Angela, Shelby and my unborn son was supposed to be on a flight that morning.

    I tried to get through to them. No answer, and my terror increased. I was nowhere near New York and my heart had sunk.

    What if they had captured an airliner with my family on it?

    What were the last things I told Angela and Shelby?

    We had planned a big outdoor concert that weekend and I knew it was going to be a complete failure. Everyone was staying at home and everyone was fearing Anthrax among other “Weapons of Mass Destruction”.

    I couldn’t sleep. I finally got a hold of my family and prayed that I could see them again.

    I set the sprinklers on and watched the sky where planes had roamed and families flew and fell asleep on my back porch and to wake at 6 in the morning to Instant Tragedy. Lake Donahue in my backyard.

    I got up turned off the water and went to work as the grass dried.

    Nothing would be the same ever again.

    The Sunday that Angela and Shelby returned was wonderful for me. I hugged them and listened to how Shelby was a terror and how terrorists made her life miserable and how pregnant she was,(which she was 6 months preggers and waddling away).

    I heard the pain in my fathers voice as the days past and I knew that my fathers plan of retirement would never come to early fruition. His company stock fell to worthless, with him owning shares that would be best used covering the bottom of the dog boxes.

    I saw first hand the terror that we felt and that we feared as we sat at lunch that afternoon wondering if the war had just begun.

    But I truly did not sleep until a couple of weeks later.

    There is a wonderful collection of flags that is put up by the city to memorialize the deaths on that one tragic day in America.

    It is so serene to walk down those paths of flags and realize that each one of them was a life that fell incomplete. Each flag represented a hero that tried to live the American dream.

    Each flag represented us as a country.

    Each day we move on and try to live our lives the best we can, making changes and efforts to defend our way of live, to set forth the ways that have made our country great. We send our sons and daughters to protect us as our fathers and grandfathers have protected us in the past.

    We live in a generation that truly doesn’t know what true war is all about, what pain and sacrifice is all about.

    We are the ignorant and shameless generation.

    I salute the Greatest Generation, who we are losing one by one, who fought with pride in WWII,Korea and Vietnam. I salute our current soldiers, who see such incredible sights and have been exposed to such terrible toxins.

    I pray for the families of the rescue workers who tried to save lives and now fighting for their own from the toxicity of that holy ground.

    I lived in New York, I loved the Empire State and the WTC. I have a poster in my house of New York and the proud towers will always stand in my mind.

    We have to remember. We have to be forced not to forget the mistakes that we made, and the intelligence we ignored. We have to remember that this isn’t a red state or a blue state issue, this isn’t a republican or democratic issue, this isn’t an issue for someone else.

    This is America.

    This is our country.

    This is the country we are so proud of.

    Fly your flag, wave your banners, fire off your fireworks and remember that Freedom isn’t Free.

    It takes patriots to die and patriots to be injured for Freedom to truly exist.

    God Bless America. How I truly love this land.

  • You Will Sadly Find an Emergency on Every Corner

    You Will Sadly Find an Emergency on Every Corner

    As you drive to work today, take a glance on the corners on your way.  You see the traditional fast food restaurants, you’ll see the gas stations and oil change place.

    But an ER on every corner?  It’s coming.  Emergency room facilities are popping up on street corners around the US. We already have “urgent care clinics” popping up as a convenience to us, but why?

    Our short attention span society is here and everything is an emergency:

    “Oh no, I have a nose bleed, go to a doctor, nah I need the ER!”

    “I think I have the flu, I need to go to the ER!”

    “I’m so drunk! Maybe I should go to the ER!”

    “I can’t take time out of my busy day to make a doctor’s appointment, but there’s blood in my sputum, I need the ER!”

    Perhaps on the last one you might need to be checked for TB but I digress. The nation’s emergency rooms are choked with non emergency cases every year.  A study was done by the University of Colorado School of Medicine which discussed the acuity and access of emergency departments in 2011. ¹ This study showed patients with Medicare/Medicaid used emergency departments more than those who had private insurance.  According to a 2011 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey by the CDC ² an estimated 136.3 million emergency department visits occurred to short stay and general hospitals in the US. Only 35% of these visitors had private insurance.  The rest were a combination of Medicaid/Chip/Medicare or no insurance at all.  Patients considered the emergency room as their primary care physician because hospital emergency departments are required by federal law to provide care to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.

    But emergency centers are popping up on street corners around the United States as a way of providing health care, and the inherent profits within, to the under served.

    It also allows centers to be placed in more affluent areas that for convenience and for a price, the hospital emergency department can be avoided.

    Will this trend continue?  As long as it is profitable for doctors to provide services without the bureaucracy of a hospital and they continue to be paid by Medicare / Medicaid, doctors will ring the cash register.

    I feel something coming on. (cough, cough, I’m sick.)

    ¹ Capp, Roberta, et al. “National study of health insurance type and reasons for emergency department use.” Journal of general internal medicine 29.4 (2014): 621-627.

    ² “Ambulatory Health Care Data.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 July 2014. Web. 11 Aug. 2015. <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ahcd/factsheets.htm#2011>.