New Dentures
Donation protected
My name is Bobbi Sanchez and I am writing this to give a little background on my request for funds to get my teeth fixed. That is sort of a misnomer because what I need is tooth extraction and dentures. I have gotten ballpark estimates and probably would need around $5,000.00; perhaps at least it will pay for most of the procedure. As an army veteran, I am not eligible for dental care because I was not injured in the line of duty. I am OK with that- I don’t want benefits I haven’t earned. So how did a strong, independent, self-sufficient woman get into this mess?
I turned 43 in the year 2000. I was seven years into a new career as a technical recruiter. I represented technical companies who hired the best and brightest technical talent of the day. I began also to realize that I was being viewed in a strange light. I would love to say that ageism does not exist or that I was or am so good at what I do that it would never touch me. I was wrong on both counts. Intellectually, I know that there is always someone who is slightly better, quicker and more nimble.
Here is a snapshot of what happened. In 1996, I turned 40 and in 1998, I went to work for an Indian-owned company. The Indian people are very hard working and are very business oriented. Depending on how and where they grew up, their attitude toward women runs from being a comrade in arms to the footstool under their feet. I worked for a fellow who was more in tuned with the latter instead of the former I could be in his office in a deep discussion concerning a candidate or a job and if a man walked in-I simply disappeared. I asked the owner for a transfer and since there was nowhere to go-I ended up resigning. I was out of work for 6 months and during that time I had little to no means of support. I was evicted from my apartment and lost almost everything I owned. I interviewed at different companies and I finally landed a contract with a decent pay rate. This contract was supposed to last 6 months. I ended working for 2.5 months and due to a new buyer the company laid off the whole department that I had been hired to fill. That is 25 people, folks. This time, I was out of work for two weeks not bad at all-I began to think that I was back in the game. I stayed with that network optimization company was converted to a full-time employee only to lose my job when the bottom fell out of the telecommunications and IT technical market. The pattern continued until a dry streak in which no one was interested in my credentials. I was being stalked on the Internet.
If any of you utilize newsgroups and follow them, you know that Usenet, the successor to the Bulletin Board Servers that people would sign into and discuss a topic. That topic could be on any number of subjects and the language was not monitored. It was like the Wild West. You could “flame” someone who didn’t agree with you, or you could “troll” someone by inserting inflammatory language into a discussion in order to upset the other posters, and so on. I started posting in a newsgroup called “Soc.Support.fat-acceptance” in 2000. In this group, fat people spoke about the issues of being fat. The charter for the group indicated that since there were hundreds of groups dedicated to diets and weight loss that this group would not allow diet talk. It was to be a place where everyday issues could be addressed, such as furniture that could hold extra weight, where one could buy a car that could fit a large person comfortably, and so on. Of course, trolls infested the group and would call the regulars names and make threats of all sorts. I started posting in 2000 and my first posting was telling a troll that he should be ashamed of himself for posting such ugly things and that all people deserve respect unless they show cause as to why they didn’t deserve it. That opened the floodgates and made me a target on the Internet and in my real life. I found my phone numbers listed in sex ads. I found porn posted in my name to various farm sites in order to get involved in animal husbandry. One of these terrorists decided that since I was in the army, I was automatically a lesbian and into kinky sex, taking on all who wanted to have a go. I had my resume posting and job postings altered. Unknown to me at the time, emails were being sent out to my clients and potential employers that because I was involved in all these “illicit” activities, how could I honestly represent them.
In 2004, I identified the primary architect of the porn and bestiality campaign and because I know a bit about reading emails I outed him. He was a Unix Systems Administrator at IBM in Schaumberg, IL and he lived in Naperville. I sent copies of his handiwork to his employers and demanded they do something or I was going to get a lawyer. They launched an investigation and it was by a very narrow margin that he kept his job. He decided that because I had the audacity to not like and appreciate his handiwork, he was going to make me pay. He tried from that time until his death in 2008 to ruin my life. He continued the internet stalking, writing emails, using satellite views to keep my home under surveillance, etc. During this time, I actually had to leave my field and work in a grocery store, a call center and as a night auditor in a hotel to get by. My low point came on July 2 008 when I was served eviction papers on my current residence. What saved me and my home was being able to show that I was unable to keep jobs because of my stalker’s behavior. They stayed the eviction and I was able to raise the money for my rent…
I learned in 2008 that this man who has stalked me all these years had taken a hike out in the forest and had a fatal heart attack. I admit I took a perverse pleasure in the fact that he died a lonely death far from the people who professed to care about him.
Working my way back from being stalked, was hard but I managed to get back into my field and found a job that at least allowed me to get by. I noticed that contracts were easier to come by and the times between each was around 3-6 months. When one looks for employment one wants to put out their best foot forward. The more experience one has, it becomes imperative that one not put too much, or you get hit with being overqualified. Surely employers know that is not complementary. It is insulting because the candidate knows they are being screened out.
Working as a contractor, one rarely get any benefits. I have been working as a contractor since 2004 with only one or two full-time position in between. These positions had very little dental coverage, so I did what I could to get my teeth fixed. Even extractions are around $200 so how could I afford even a basic tooth pulling. From that time to this, as I get older, my teeth have begun to crumble. AS a result, I have several broken teeth and I know that had a serious bearing on my possibility of future employment. People with ugly teeth do not get hired, they do not win contracts. I can honestly say that because of all this, my confidence is in the toilet. I have overcome so much, but it is getting to be a monumental effort. I have useful years left, at least I think I do and I need a chance to prove it.
Please share this with your network. Pass it to friends and ask them to share. If we tell enough people, maybe this wish will come true. Thanks!
I turned 43 in the year 2000. I was seven years into a new career as a technical recruiter. I represented technical companies who hired the best and brightest technical talent of the day. I began also to realize that I was being viewed in a strange light. I would love to say that ageism does not exist or that I was or am so good at what I do that it would never touch me. I was wrong on both counts. Intellectually, I know that there is always someone who is slightly better, quicker and more nimble.
Here is a snapshot of what happened. In 1996, I turned 40 and in 1998, I went to work for an Indian-owned company. The Indian people are very hard working and are very business oriented. Depending on how and where they grew up, their attitude toward women runs from being a comrade in arms to the footstool under their feet. I worked for a fellow who was more in tuned with the latter instead of the former I could be in his office in a deep discussion concerning a candidate or a job and if a man walked in-I simply disappeared. I asked the owner for a transfer and since there was nowhere to go-I ended up resigning. I was out of work for 6 months and during that time I had little to no means of support. I was evicted from my apartment and lost almost everything I owned. I interviewed at different companies and I finally landed a contract with a decent pay rate. This contract was supposed to last 6 months. I ended working for 2.5 months and due to a new buyer the company laid off the whole department that I had been hired to fill. That is 25 people, folks. This time, I was out of work for two weeks not bad at all-I began to think that I was back in the game. I stayed with that network optimization company was converted to a full-time employee only to lose my job when the bottom fell out of the telecommunications and IT technical market. The pattern continued until a dry streak in which no one was interested in my credentials. I was being stalked on the Internet.
If any of you utilize newsgroups and follow them, you know that Usenet, the successor to the Bulletin Board Servers that people would sign into and discuss a topic. That topic could be on any number of subjects and the language was not monitored. It was like the Wild West. You could “flame” someone who didn’t agree with you, or you could “troll” someone by inserting inflammatory language into a discussion in order to upset the other posters, and so on. I started posting in a newsgroup called “Soc.Support.fat-acceptance” in 2000. In this group, fat people spoke about the issues of being fat. The charter for the group indicated that since there were hundreds of groups dedicated to diets and weight loss that this group would not allow diet talk. It was to be a place where everyday issues could be addressed, such as furniture that could hold extra weight, where one could buy a car that could fit a large person comfortably, and so on. Of course, trolls infested the group and would call the regulars names and make threats of all sorts. I started posting in 2000 and my first posting was telling a troll that he should be ashamed of himself for posting such ugly things and that all people deserve respect unless they show cause as to why they didn’t deserve it. That opened the floodgates and made me a target on the Internet and in my real life. I found my phone numbers listed in sex ads. I found porn posted in my name to various farm sites in order to get involved in animal husbandry. One of these terrorists decided that since I was in the army, I was automatically a lesbian and into kinky sex, taking on all who wanted to have a go. I had my resume posting and job postings altered. Unknown to me at the time, emails were being sent out to my clients and potential employers that because I was involved in all these “illicit” activities, how could I honestly represent them.
In 2004, I identified the primary architect of the porn and bestiality campaign and because I know a bit about reading emails I outed him. He was a Unix Systems Administrator at IBM in Schaumberg, IL and he lived in Naperville. I sent copies of his handiwork to his employers and demanded they do something or I was going to get a lawyer. They launched an investigation and it was by a very narrow margin that he kept his job. He decided that because I had the audacity to not like and appreciate his handiwork, he was going to make me pay. He tried from that time until his death in 2008 to ruin my life. He continued the internet stalking, writing emails, using satellite views to keep my home under surveillance, etc. During this time, I actually had to leave my field and work in a grocery store, a call center and as a night auditor in a hotel to get by. My low point came on July 2 008 when I was served eviction papers on my current residence. What saved me and my home was being able to show that I was unable to keep jobs because of my stalker’s behavior. They stayed the eviction and I was able to raise the money for my rent…
I learned in 2008 that this man who has stalked me all these years had taken a hike out in the forest and had a fatal heart attack. I admit I took a perverse pleasure in the fact that he died a lonely death far from the people who professed to care about him.
Working my way back from being stalked, was hard but I managed to get back into my field and found a job that at least allowed me to get by. I noticed that contracts were easier to come by and the times between each was around 3-6 months. When one looks for employment one wants to put out their best foot forward. The more experience one has, it becomes imperative that one not put too much, or you get hit with being overqualified. Surely employers know that is not complementary. It is insulting because the candidate knows they are being screened out.
Working as a contractor, one rarely get any benefits. I have been working as a contractor since 2004 with only one or two full-time position in between. These positions had very little dental coverage, so I did what I could to get my teeth fixed. Even extractions are around $200 so how could I afford even a basic tooth pulling. From that time to this, as I get older, my teeth have begun to crumble. AS a result, I have several broken teeth and I know that had a serious bearing on my possibility of future employment. People with ugly teeth do not get hired, they do not win contracts. I can honestly say that because of all this, my confidence is in the toilet. I have overcome so much, but it is getting to be a monumental effort. I have useful years left, at least I think I do and I need a chance to prove it.
Please share this with your network. Pass it to friends and ask them to share. If we tell enough people, maybe this wish will come true. Thanks!
Organizer
Bobbi Sanchez
Organizer
Irving, TX
