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Many Americans were horrified to hear an audience member cheer on death for the uninsured during the recent GOP debate. In these uncertain economic times, many people forego proper health care for themselves to ensure a better future for their families. The heckler sent chills down the spines of the self employed, under employed and unemployed. We’re discouraged at the thought of someone cheering on our demise after working so hard and sacrificing so much.

A large number of Americans do not have health insurance, are under-prepared for retirement and will depend on Social Security. Currently, about 15 percent of Americans rely on Social Security as their sole source of income, according to an article published by Marketplace , a website operated by American Public Media. This number will certainly rise as the number of aging Americans increase. At the other end of the age spectrum, the debates brought up another issue – HPV vaccinations for young women.

According to the CDC (reference 2), HPV causes cervical cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in women around the world. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States. HPV infects about half of all sexually active men and women in the United States. Currently, about 20 million Americans are infected, with about 6 million new cases each year. While a young adult can choose the vaccine until the age of 26, the vaccine will not protect her retroactively. Opting to wait until a person is sexually active is too late – once you are exposed to the virus, there is no going back. While it may be difficult to think about your daughter having sex at a young age, it is more distressful to consider what may happen to her if cancer should strike, especially if she is uninsured in a world without social health services.

If science could only develop a vaccine against politicians who try to cut social services to the needy, the world would be a better place.

Marketplace; Some Retirees Living from Social Security Check to Social Security Check; August 2010

CDC; HPV Vaccination; May 2011

Writers write. Or at least writers dream about writing. A few writers even hope to write for money some day.  Searching for work through the penny-a-word jobs on the freelancing sites are enough to discourage even the craziest of lunatics. The print publishing business as we know it is dying, unemployment has skyrocketed, and I was one of those fools looking for a writing job in the worst economy of my lifetime.

Then it happened… I got a writing job. A telecommuting writing job, with no minimum or maximum number of articles!

So how did I do it?

First, I spruced up my resume. I hadn’t dusted it off in years, and I set out to merely update it. I was surprised to discover just how awful my resume really was! It was as dry as melba toast. So I got out the red pen, and reworked the first sentence. It took the better part of an hour, but I came up with the perfect lead: “I look foward to spending my days with my fingers glued to the keyboard, providing great content for your company.”

I’m a WRITER, for crying out loud. If I can’t write one killer sentence to open my resume, I probably couldn’t write for someone else.

Next, I put all my articles online, on one web page. Granted, this was easy for me because I already own several website and know how to build them. This was helpful not only because it gave me a way to showcase all my talents, it also made it easy to provide a sample of my work that would be specific for whatever job I was applying for.

Lastly, I never lost hope. I spent weeks trudging through Craigslist posting, freelancer sites and job search portals like Monster.com.

If you are a writer searching for a job, don’t give up. I sincerely believe the American economy is getting better.  So get out there and go crazy looking for your next dream job!

WordPress is making life easy. Since dinner, I’ve added a column which displays my latest Tweets. A word cloud blew in, puddling keywords on the page.

More later!