I really need some comments on this, it affects you!

I need your help in framing a comment on the 2010 Federal Budget and how it impacts all of us. Please read the post and give me your thoughts.

I was born in 1957, the fourth child of my parents. We lived in a small one thousand foot frame house that was warm because of the love in the home and cold because of the relentless pressure of life on us all. My father didn't graduate from high school but he was a self taught carpenter, mechanic and the original do it yourself guy. He enlisted in the Navy a long side of my 4 uncles and fought in the Pacific against an enemy that was sworn to destroy our country. Thank you lord for bringing them home safely when others did not.

My mother finished high school and was proud to have tested at two years college. She worked at retail stores until my father had a heart attack at age 42. He drove a truck those years; never home, but always a good provider. His heart attack caused him to be permanently disabled. He tried to work security and even had a paper route to provide for his family but was forced to discontinue working when a second and third attack put him and our family in dire straits. My mother took a job at the local factory to help with the bills, always able to make Sunday meals after church special.

We children all went to school, sometimes riding the public bus at 10 cents a ride, to riding our bikes to school or walking the two miles or so. We never caused any problems, just had a lot of fun with all the kids in the neighborhood. We stayed with a friend of my mothers when we were young and went to church more than one time a week. I probably was the lucky one; I had great sisters and a awesome big brother, got to go to the Salvation Army Boys Club after school each day. In the summer, we had a city pool to go to. We all went there, learned to swim and dive for a quarter and stayed out of trouble. As I got older I played sports year round. My brother was in high school and later college- on academic scholarship because we didn't have any money. My sisters both got married early, and started working on families. I remained in school and lived with my mother.

My parents had divorced a few years earlier. The strain of his disability, time, and falling out of love might have been the cause. My mother continued to work full time to support me and gave continued support to my sisters and brothers when they needed to come home for a few months or needed just a shoulder to cry on. I made the varsity in high school and my coach told me to buy new expensive basketball shoes. I told he we didn't have any money to buy shoes and he told me to find a way. I went home and told mom, literally the biggest event in my life at that time and she found a way to get the shoes. Instead of credit cards or assistance, my mother brought homework from a local plant and we would put together boxes of hinges for 20 bucks a thousand. It became our way of spending time together and paying for the occasional pizza or sports item. She also confided in me that my birth was not planned, that my parents had decided on having only 3 children because of the pressures our family was facing.

After high school I went to college on a combination of scholarships, Pell grants and student loans. Graduated, got a job, and we will talk about the rest in another post.

So tell me, how did I make it to that point?