Dear President Obama,
It is now 2016. The next election is just a few days away, and your final term in office will conclude soon as well. In 2008, I had a dream. I dreamt I was in the Rose Garden having a conversation with you when you reached inside your coat pocket and gave me your cell phone telling me to call you. I started to call you, but then I realized I had your cell phone. So, how could I possibly call you if I had your phone? I called the switchboard instead, and then I woke up.
I woke up in 2008 to a life on the streets of Athens, GA. This is ironic since I never imagined myself living on the streets, homeless, unemployed and somewhat hopeless; and after growing up on the Golf course in a middle class American lifestyle. After three years on the streets, I finally got a job in 2011 where I remained until 2014. Then, I became homeless again after serving six months in jail. In the time since then, I have had three different government issued phones regardless of who actually started the program, you are the one most frequently referenced in association with the program, and it was certainly during your terms in office that the program gained traction.
My time on the streets has taught me several things. Never take for granted the things you have. They could all disappear in an instant. So, when the free market seemed to have the cards stacked against me, I became a recipient of a government issued phone. I have yet to find a girlfriend by having this benefit, but I did find another job, and that's what I wanted to tell you.
While the Affordable Care Act is hardly the single-payer system you aimed for in your original campaign, you are credited with it, commonly known as Obamacare. While conservatives, of whom I was born, complain about the ACA on the surface, they are probably laughing all the way to the bank as many profit by the insurance industry. So, the facade of disagreement does not fool me. If they were honest, they would applaud the ACA, except that it is a mandate to buy something. In this case, health insurance. Thank goodness there wasn't a mandate for everyone to buy a cell phone. If so, I might not have gotten the job I recently got.
I tell people all the time regarding different things, it's all in the way that you use it. Like guns, guns don't kill people; people do. Cell phones won't get you a job either, but if you use it properly one can. Or, it could just find you your next hook up. In my case, I went for the job.
While I am still homeless and I stay in the shelter for my third year straight, I wanted to offer my applause for the government issued cell phone program. It's all in the way you use it. Like guns, like alcohol, like drugs even... like social media, like your car, like life itself. Should we mandate life? That's impossible. It is our gift, just like a government issued cell phone, except as human beings we are the users of tools. In this case, the cell phone being the tool I used to secure this new job.
While I don't make the money I used to, I'm making more than I was just a short time ago, which wasn't a penny. So, I hope this comes as a welcomed announcement. I did not vote for you, and for that matter I didn't even vote. I am quite skeptical of our political system, finding it mired in compromise and a high level of bullsh*t, believing often the framers actually meant, We The People who wrote these documents, instead of the masses it is framed to represent. However, the cell phone program breathes new life into the idea that taxpayer dollars can actually lift people up, but it's in the way that we use them.
With our freedom is included the human capacity for irresponsible behavior, but at least we are given a shot with a program like this. These days, if you don't have a cell phone, you're behind the eight ball. If you're without a car, you're really behind the eight ball. Do you think you could come up with a program that gives cars to the people trying to climb this modern ladder? I doubt that very seriously, but perhaps a cell phone will get someone a job that will eventually lead to enough income to get a car for one's self. It is a good program, and I know it is abused by recipients, but that's the risk we take in offering programs like this. Just as food stamps are abused by being sold, cell phones can also be abused, but I just wanted you to know, "this guy" used it for what the purpose it was intended.
Lifeline might not consider me a great customer because I've never purchased additional minutes. That's because I seldom use it unless it's something important and not for chit-chat. Therefore, I've never run out of minutes, I don't think, except maybe once, and that was one day before getting a refreshed set of minutes. This country still does offer opportunities and while they might go squandered by many that's not the fault of the program. It's the fault of the recipients.
I've spent enough time in jail to know that when one does wrong the entire group is punished. As unfair, and unjust as that may be (and it is) it is the way it works. So, if this program does disappear, then I'm glad it was there when it was. I really couldn't have gotten things done without it, kinda like that cell phone you lent me in that dream. It didn't exist, and I never got through to you, but the receptionist thought it was funny!
Sincerely,
Gabe Newman
It is now 2016. The next election is just a few days away, and your final term in office will conclude soon as well. In 2008, I had a dream. I dreamt I was in the Rose Garden having a conversation with you when you reached inside your coat pocket and gave me your cell phone telling me to call you. I started to call you, but then I realized I had your cell phone. So, how could I possibly call you if I had your phone? I called the switchboard instead, and then I woke up.
I woke up in 2008 to a life on the streets of Athens, GA. This is ironic since I never imagined myself living on the streets, homeless, unemployed and somewhat hopeless; and after growing up on the Golf course in a middle class American lifestyle. After three years on the streets, I finally got a job in 2011 where I remained until 2014. Then, I became homeless again after serving six months in jail. In the time since then, I have had three different government issued phones regardless of who actually started the program, you are the one most frequently referenced in association with the program, and it was certainly during your terms in office that the program gained traction.
My time on the streets has taught me several things. Never take for granted the things you have. They could all disappear in an instant. So, when the free market seemed to have the cards stacked against me, I became a recipient of a government issued phone. I have yet to find a girlfriend by having this benefit, but I did find another job, and that's what I wanted to tell you.
While the Affordable Care Act is hardly the single-payer system you aimed for in your original campaign, you are credited with it, commonly known as Obamacare. While conservatives, of whom I was born, complain about the ACA on the surface, they are probably laughing all the way to the bank as many profit by the insurance industry. So, the facade of disagreement does not fool me. If they were honest, they would applaud the ACA, except that it is a mandate to buy something. In this case, health insurance. Thank goodness there wasn't a mandate for everyone to buy a cell phone. If so, I might not have gotten the job I recently got.
I tell people all the time regarding different things, it's all in the way that you use it. Like guns, guns don't kill people; people do. Cell phones won't get you a job either, but if you use it properly one can. Or, it could just find you your next hook up. In my case, I went for the job.
While I am still homeless and I stay in the shelter for my third year straight, I wanted to offer my applause for the government issued cell phone program. It's all in the way you use it. Like guns, like alcohol, like drugs even... like social media, like your car, like life itself. Should we mandate life? That's impossible. It is our gift, just like a government issued cell phone, except as human beings we are the users of tools. In this case, the cell phone being the tool I used to secure this new job.
While I don't make the money I used to, I'm making more than I was just a short time ago, which wasn't a penny. So, I hope this comes as a welcomed announcement. I did not vote for you, and for that matter I didn't even vote. I am quite skeptical of our political system, finding it mired in compromise and a high level of bullsh*t, believing often the framers actually meant, We The People who wrote these documents, instead of the masses it is framed to represent. However, the cell phone program breathes new life into the idea that taxpayer dollars can actually lift people up, but it's in the way that we use them.
With our freedom is included the human capacity for irresponsible behavior, but at least we are given a shot with a program like this. These days, if you don't have a cell phone, you're behind the eight ball. If you're without a car, you're really behind the eight ball. Do you think you could come up with a program that gives cars to the people trying to climb this modern ladder? I doubt that very seriously, but perhaps a cell phone will get someone a job that will eventually lead to enough income to get a car for one's self. It is a good program, and I know it is abused by recipients, but that's the risk we take in offering programs like this. Just as food stamps are abused by being sold, cell phones can also be abused, but I just wanted you to know, "this guy" used it for what the purpose it was intended.
Lifeline might not consider me a great customer because I've never purchased additional minutes. That's because I seldom use it unless it's something important and not for chit-chat. Therefore, I've never run out of minutes, I don't think, except maybe once, and that was one day before getting a refreshed set of minutes. This country still does offer opportunities and while they might go squandered by many that's not the fault of the program. It's the fault of the recipients.
I've spent enough time in jail to know that when one does wrong the entire group is punished. As unfair, and unjust as that may be (and it is) it is the way it works. So, if this program does disappear, then I'm glad it was there when it was. I really couldn't have gotten things done without it, kinda like that cell phone you lent me in that dream. It didn't exist, and I never got through to you, but the receptionist thought it was funny!
Sincerely,
Gabe Newman
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