Sometimes I get really tired of being typecast, pigeon holed, generalised and marginalised by the media as a caregiver. Sometimes I just want to be proud of who I am and what I do.

From time to time there is a program on our serious ABC about the tut! tut! poor disabled and how some government parties have treated them as a waste of resources, the lack of money spent on those poor carers, support packages for young caregivers etc. The pictures always show a couple of noble women who are tenderly looking after their sweet grey haired older husbands, and a teenager bravely looking after the beloved mother figure suffering from MS or some such. And at the end of the program, everyone says tut! tut! that more money should be spent on these deserving people, the cameras stop rolling the scripts are packed away and that is that till next year folks.

Do you not get hopping, screaming, crying MAD when you see these programs for I sure do. If we are all so jolly deserving where is the additional help we all so desperately need? Not in this year's budget folks. This year's budget is about more battleships, more security forces, more and better planes, and pumping up the latest fight against the latest enemy to society whether it is drug barons in Asia or terrorists in some part of the middle East.

What happened to charity beginning at home, a fair go for everyone and the government seeking to make our way of life wherever we might be at least liveable? Not to mention educating our kids, caring for our old folks who voted them in in the first place and keeping our country a place of honesty and integrity, known to keep our word, do the right and courageous thing and if we can, protect our families, our neighbourhood and those who cannot defend themselves?

Hey, I am not just venting here, I am dreaming. That one day the work we as caregivers will be put on that same pedestal that once held motherhood. That in caring for the weakened and less fortunate in our society we are raising the standard for others to follow. And they will cheer and yell BRAVO!!

A bloke called Thomas Moore once dreamed about a place called Utopia, and others down the centuries have dreamed of equality and justice for all and lost their lives in the cause. There are a lot of great and noble examples to follow. Some of them right here on Strokenet.

What we can do is only go on doing our best for those we love. Without reward, with little praise, without public recognition, not expecting even a thank you from our communities. We don't do it for any of that anyway. On the whole we simply do it because it is there to be done. And someone has to, so we takes that step forward and say:"Here I am. How can I help".

Just give us the strength dear Lord, to keep on going.

Amen.