Now I'm starting to get mad

Bear with me, this rant may not be completely coherent, but it's necessary for me.

I'm not coaching wrestling this year, but I still follow the team where I teach. And one of the kids I really liked coaching missed weight certifications on Saturday. I'll spare you the details, but it's the process where the Bayside Conference sets the minimum weight class for each wrestler. You can't go below that weight during the season for safety reasons. And the kid missed it, which means he can't wrestle until he gets it done at the make-up session in two weeks, and will miss the first match.

I was prepared to hunt him down in the hallways today and ask why he didn't show up for such an important team event. How could he let the team down like that? But before I found him, I found out why he wasn't there.

Seems he was in Baltimore, visiting family. Well, there are 51 other weekends a year to visit family, right? Why this one, and why not tell anyone?

He was in Baltimore because his mom didn't know where else to go. His mom, a single mother with two kids, a job, and a small (less than 1,000 sq.ft.) house she's attempting to buy, couldn't make the electrical bill. And Delmarva Power shut her off.

I'm not mad at Delmarva Power, although I certainly wish they'd be a bit more understanding.

I'm mad we are living in a country where a mother with school-age children does everything she can right - gets a job, keeps her kids in school, moves into a small (and I mean SMALL) house so she can keep a roof over their heads, and yet we can't build an economy where she can afford to keep the lights on.

Seems she used the last little bit of money they had to go to Baltimore because her sister offered to feed the kids and send some food back with them. So, the wrestler will miss this first match. But suddenly, that doesn't seem like the problem it did just 48 hours ago. And I'm not sure if he knows where he will be sleeping the rest of the week.

And I fear it's just going to get worse before it gets better.

Can we just inaugurate Obama now and let him get to work already?