A Response, in Part, to the First Lady, Michelle Obama

A response to part of the First Lady Michelle Obama's DNC Speech. Here is the relevant part of her speech.

"So when it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad and like his grandmother.

He's thinking about the pride that comes from a hard day's work.

That's why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help women get equal pay for equal work.

That's why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet.

That's how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to creating jobs again – jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs right here in the United States of America."

Mrs. Obama,

I have great liking and respect for yourself, your husband, and the values you have set for your family, from what I can tell of it by the media coverage. While I don't agree on every issue, I find President Obama to be a far better choice as president, in my view, than other alternatives. Do you understand what it is really like for the working class people of today, rather than of your parents and his grandparents days, how out of reach those dreams seem?

You speak of "the pride that comes from a hard day's work." which is a real and admirable thing, but I cannot help but wonder if you know of the despair? Of sitting down after a long, exhausting day at work, and knowing that the income produced by the work you have done is not enough to take care of your family, that no matter how many hours you manage to scrape up at work, if you were to work until your body simply broke down, it would not be enough? Then trying not to cry about it where your children can see?

To pray that the baby doesn't use too many diapers so that you can keep that $20 to pay the rent with before you have to spend it to buy another pack? To cry because you dropped the gallon of milk, and food stamps do not come in for another few days? Do you know what it is like for those of us who live in the trenches of working class poverty, trying to claw our way out? Do you understand our struggle?

You went on to say in your speech,

"They simply believed in that fundamental American promise that, even if you don't start out with much, if you work hard and do what you're supposed to do, then you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids."

And "I see the concern in his eyes...and I hear the determination in his voice as he tells me, "You won't believe what these folks are going through, Michelle…it's not right. We've got to keep working to fix this. We've got so much more to do."

This paints an image of a compassionate, caring president, of a man who actually wants to make sure Americans do not suffer. I cannot help but wonder, as much as the later statements would seem to indicate it, if yourself and the President really understand how out of reach these goals seem to many impoverished Americans? How it feels like the harder we work to try to get ahead, the further behind we become? How many of us are disheartened and disillusioned that the government cares for us at all, or is really smiling and lying while handing corporate America bail outs and buddy deals that screw us over further?

We can take out student loans and debt, even at low interest rates, but the scary reality is that many do not have jobs and graduate with loan payments they cannot afford to make. The reality is even if you find a low paying job these days, they demand erratic schedules non conducive to family life or taking college classes, if you attempt work and school, and often offer no benefits or insurance not worth buying,  along with too few hours to live off of along with a schedule that makes finding a second job a Herculean task. 

I guess what I am really asking, Madame First Lady, is what is the real plan to fix this? When will the President get hard and fast with Congress, and be honest with the American people? We have seen him reach across the aisle again and again to get smacked down, and keep smiling and dealing with it in an attempt to be the bigger man and maintain civility, but there comes a point when civility must give way to an open declaration of hostility, and honest condemnation of an opponents dirty and underhanded tactics. If re-elected, will the President call upon our Congressional leaders to be honest, and call them out, publicly, in the media, maybe in the form of daily Internet updates, for their obstructionism and refusal to do what is in the best interests of the the American People? 

I full acknowledge that part of my family's financial troubles are result of our own mistakes and miscalculations. When things were good, we thought they would stay that way, and did not plan accordingly. When things got hard, we thought that the difficulties could not stay that way for long. 14 months of unemployment changed that view, and now three years of struggling to get back onto our feet, back to where we were, and the results of our scrambling simply to survive crippling us as we need a chance and opportunity to get ahead. We started our family young, without finishing our educations first, assuming that it was something we could do at our current income level, before that vanished. 
We do not share the only blame for our hardships though. A system that has set us up to fail, with no jobs providing hours or pay enough for a living income, a "Safety net" system that punishes our efforts to get ahead by dumping us back in the dirt, and simple bad luck, have done much to hurt our personal recovery efforts. We watch as those who run the companies we work for demand more and more of us for less and less, while our efforts bring them greater income and ourselves simply greater heart aches. We have done so as the threat of being unemployed is both subtly and openly held over our heads. We watch as laws are passed to limit our personal freedoms, but the laws that attempt to limit the freedoms of corporations to treat us as refuse and replaceable parts are castrated and turned to so much page filler. We have come to the realization that a large part of our income disparity is the result of lack of government limits and controls on Big Business, the result of deregulation. The government has gone after information peddlers and illegal distributors of songs and programs, but let the corporate thieves who ruined our economy and continue to rape and plunder what little is left to middle and working class Americans, run free with a slap on the wrist and/or small (to them) fee, if anything at all? Does the President promise to fix this, to work on it to the best of his ability?

The real purpose of this is to ask, I guess, do you really understand how bad things are for those of us down here in the working class trenches, struggling to survive on what little we can get, both in pay and hours to work? How hopeless it all seems? And as the window to his mind, as his partner and help mate, can you really assure us that if re-elected, the President would remember us, and turn to help us, not corporate America, in his next term?

Why I am Pro-Choice

Originally posted on Cafemom, then LiveJournal, then Facebook. Facebook date February 26, 2011.

I wrote this several years ago, some of you may have seen it. I could probably put it more eloquently now, but I figured I'd just post it and re-edit it later, before the blog I have it on gets rid of it as being too old a post.

After sitting quietly and simply responding to the abortion debate that is raging here on Cafe Mom, I realized that I and many of my Pro-Choice compatriots spend more time responding to the bashing of organizations like Planned Parenthood and the act of abortion in general than we do spreading our message. I wondered if we should take a more proactive stance on being pro choice, but realized that would be counter productive to our message. The reason for this is clear, we're pro choice, and that means that we feel free to allow others to make their own choice, granted that they allow us to make our own. When we find ourselves embroiled in debates about abortion, it isn't because we are in favor of abortion or favor "not taking responsibility for ones actions," or even worse "getting rid of the little buggers" as one pro-lifer recently accused me of. It is because we do not want to see people bamboozled and mislead by false and biased information. We don't want anyone taking away our or other women's choice in the matter, and feel that allowing biased information with an obvious agenda to be put about without challenge is wrong. We feel that every person has the right to make an informed decision based on their own opinions from information that is truthfully presented to them.

But why am I personally pro choice? What made me decide to let others do as they will?  Part of it is logic. Will outlawing abortions stop them? No. The proof is behind us, in our own history when abortions were preformed in back alleys and cheap motel rooms, under horrendous conditions and without proper medical care or emotional consideration for the women having them. Even when they were illegal, they were done. The proof is with us now in South America, were abortion is illegal in most nations and yet an estimated 50,000 women a year die of complications from illegal abortions. If 50,000 die from illegal abortions, how many have them and yet live? Is there really any way to stop a woman from aborting a child she does not want to carry, if she is truly determined to abort? No, nothing short of locking her in a room or strapping her to a bed for her entire pregnancy.  

So when I made the decision to be pro choice, I made the decision to fight for the rights of other women who decide to have abortions to do so with medical care and support, with as little risks to their lives and safety as possible, weather or not I agree with their decision. Personally, I have several moral and ethical issues with abortion, but to quote a friend "the decision to terminate a pregnancy is between that woman, her doctor, and her God." It is not my place to judge her, or tell her how to live her life. If God has a problem with that, he and I will discuss it on the day of my judgement. Personally, I believe that any child God wants to be on this earth will be here regardless or not of if his mother has an abortion. I don't believe everything in life is predestined, but I think in the end, the will of God will prevail.

But it goes deeper than that. Reading responses on an abortion debate, it really struck me that when I think of a woman having an abortion, I think of the woman who is scared and sad, who knows she cannot care for a child but could not bear to give up a child that grew in her body for ten months, and knowing that, felt that abortion was the best option. I think of the woman who has a family that is already complete and decides that having another, who was unplanned and unexpected, would do more harm than good. I think of the woman who screwed up once, and now has to make a painful choice over weather or not having a child will ruin her life, or if having an abortion will. I'm more concerned with the living than those who have yet to live outside the womb. I care more about the life of a woman who has an established history and life than a child who is not yet fully formed. I care more about the QUALITY of the lives already on this earth than the QUANTITY.

When Pro-lifers think of a woman having an abortion, they think of a selfish woman who went out and slept around without protection, doesn't want to handle it, and sees abortion as an easy option, maybe even something they've done before. This is a fallacy, it is not a decision that any woman comes to lightly. They see a woman that they villainize, who is everything they hate. A woman who values her freedom and her lifestyle more than human life. They don't see the women I see, they see this woman, and to them she is pretty much every woman who has an abortion. When you bring up rape and incest victims, they pull out examples of women who were raped or became pregnant from incest and kept the child as proof that it is possible. This sets a dangerous precedent, the same way the canonization of women who fought and were killed rather than be raped did, telling victims that it was their own fault if they were raped, they should have rather died than suffer it. It victimizes these women yet again by casting them as villains who are at fault instead of innocents facing a terrible decision.

There are other reasons too, that lead me to be pro choice. I don't feel qualified to tell other women what to do with their lives, their bodies, and their children. If I start telling women they HAVE to have the children they conceive, then I am telling them what to do in their lives, and I don't want others doing that to me. Who am I to dictate how to live to others? I feel people who do are self serving and think they are better than others. Self righteous.  Legislating away a woman's right to choose weather or not to have an abortion also legislates away her rights to have a pregnancy. It sets a precedent that others can control what happens to a woman's body. It tells women that they don't know whats best for them, so the government will step in and take charge. These are women, many times adults or on the cusp of, who have minds of their own. They aren't drug addicts taking mind altering substances or mentally unstable, they are pregnant, and facing a difficult decision.

This is a dangerous precedent, because in the beginning, it's "You have to birth every child you conceive." then it's"We get to decide how many kids you can have," then then it's "We get to decide who gets to conceive." Yes, this is a slippery slope argument, but it's already happening with the limitation of family size in China. It could scarily happen here. I hear people say all the time, "Oh, they have HOW many kids? Someone should stop them!" or "They should never have been allowed to breed, there should be a test you have to take to be a parent." Often times their meaning is well, but when they start discussing making it a law, it becomes dangerous. It becomes an infringement on my personal rights, my right to live my life without interference and without hurting anyone else. It becomes a danger to the children of people who would otherwise be deemed, for economic, lifestyle, moral or other reasons, "unfit" to have children.

Often times as a pro choicer I find myself refuting attacks made on Planned Parenthood and other organizations that offer abortion services and the morning after pill. I find myself contradicting obviously biased information and often times personal attacks that I support "baby killing" as well as "hating babies" or "hating God". These are direct quotations. My goal isn't to stir up arguments, but to stop the spread of false information. One of the main arguments I run into against Planned Parenthood is that some offices have been known to "push" abortion as a choice. I haven't heard the tapes made by the people who infiltrate PP for this purpose, but I know that there is good and bad, right and wrong, in any organization. Some PP offices may have counselors or doctors who seem to push abortion, which is wrong, but saying ALL PP offices should be shut down because of it when they offer many other worthwhile services is the same as saying that some churches have been the location of children being molested, so all churches should be shut down. It's ignorant and wrong. These offices need to be reformed, the counselors retrained, but not all of what PP does is abortions. Lots of Pro Lifers want to claim PP is all about abortions and only abortions, when that is obviously not true.

I'm pro choice for many reasons. The choice for me so far has been no. If I were to become pregnant with a child who would have serious health problems or not survive birth, that could change. Birth defects run in my family on both sides, though thank goodness Jericho's side is clear and free. My mother had as sister still born with Spinal bifida. Another aunt and my own brother bare the tell tale patch of hair thick at the base of their spines, a mark of how close they came to having Spina bifida themselves. If I were to become pregnant and it endanger my life, I cannot say what we would choose. Would it be worth it to me to potentially leave my SO without a wife, my son without a mother, and my family without a sister and daughter, to bring a child who might never know me into the world? The idea of having an abortion makes me weep, but would it be fair to them to risk taking away someone they love because it would hurt me so much to make the choice?

In the end, when I stopped and looked at my morals and what I believe, the answer to me was clear. With what I feel and believe, about myself, pregnancy, other women, about the law, and about God, supporting other women's right to chose and maintaining my own rights were the only way to go. I hope that this post will maybe make some folks stop and examine why they believe what they do, really stop and think about it. And I hope it opens a few eyes, so folks will see what a person who supports Choice really believes and why.

Wage Slaves

Originally published May4, 2011 on Facebook.

This is a work in progress that was, absurdly enough, started as we walked into Wal-mart and Subway (oh, the Irony) and typed onto my husbands cellphone while ordering dinner one night as we moved. It's still rough, but feedback would be appreciated.

Edited:

And We call it America,

Land of the free

to suffer in silence

for other mens greed.

Your labors are wasted 

Your fruits are all torn

and from your hands stolen

in richer mens scorn.

They take all your liberties

Your freedom, your dreams

and pay you a pittance

and laugh as you scream.

Your pleas are all wasted

they fall on deaf ears

to change things to help you,

would "hurt you" they fear.

Free industry must florish

no regulations to speak,

It's industries right,

the Politicos think

Mean while you wither

you suffer, scrape by, 

Big business gets bail outs

and gold parachutes to fly.

While the leaders sell votes

They raise up a toast

And drink to their masters

Those industry hosts.

Who pay for elections

and ask for the bills,

To give industry privilage

No matter whose jobs it kills.

They say not to worry,

not to make waves,

while they gorge on the blood

of the little Wage Slaves.

Who REALLY creates Jobs in America?

Reminder: The first few of these will be older posts previously published by myself on Facebook, LiveJournal, or even cafemom.

Originally posted August 12, 2011 on Facebook.


Many Americans seem to be suffering from a misconception that the Rich make jobs. The Conservative Right,  and especially the Tea Party, want to protect the rights of the rich from taxes and regulations that would require them to behave in a fiscally responsible and ethically sound business manner. They block the way for compromise to be made, and to change this, we first have to do away with this misconception.

The Rich are not job makers. Oh, they may own the companies that make new jobs, but they do not do it from the goodness of their hearts. Middle class consumers and their spending are the true job makers in America. It’s simple logic really. When Americans have jobs they have money to spend; they demand more products and services, creating a need to be filled and therefore more Jobs, further strengthening the economy. The Rich are a minority, and primarily buy luxury goods, where as the bank teller, school teacher, construction worker and fireman spend their checks at the local grocery store and gas station, helping ensure that the cashiers and stockers and other working class employees have work to do and are able to keep their jobs, receive their pay checks, and go on to spend their money in the local economy. Barring, of course, the occasional foray into buying from China via EBay.

When you have a weak middle class, you have a weak economy, costing jobs and starting a sad perpetual cycle. Helping the Rich does not create jobs or stimulate the economy, it just keeps the Rich wealthy, and makes more people poor. The evidence is clear, the economy had more growth when corporate taxes and taxes on the rich were at their highest in the 1950’s and 60’s, and when the middle and lower classes were taxed less, giving them more buying power. The people who were hurt by the stock market crash on Monday were not the ones holding 90% of our nations wealth. It may have stung, they might only be able to afford one yacht this year, but it was the upper middle class, doctors, lawyers, computer specialists, accountants and administrators (mostly white collar jobs), who lost their investments and savings. Under the current tax system, working and middle class people are divided by an arbitrary (and too low) tax divide that alienates them from their natural white collar allies. The current 250K tax cap was placed in the 70’s, and has not been raised since. Realistically, due to changes in income levels, dollar values, and economic buying power, that limit should be set somewhere over a million dollars. By keeping the working and middle class separated through tax codes from the upper middle class, the unethical among the truly wealthy are able to maintain their own power structure and lifestyle by pitting us against each other and making enemies of those who should be working together.

Unethical business practices on a corporate level started this fiasco, the loaning of money banks knew people could not afford to pay back, making sweetheart deals between corporations and political parties, moving jobs overseas, and caring more about corporate and stock holder profits than their employees. Corporations, especially the unethical, continue to profit from the economic recession while the rest of the country suffers. People now claim, “Oh, but the rich will make jobs.” No they won’t, not unless it will profit them, because they do not care about you and me.

They do not care about jobs, they do not care about the cycle of spending, they only care about their own wealth and power, even if it does come back to bite them in the end.  They want to protect the status quo, meaning their own control and supposed superiority, and they want MORE. More power, more control, and bigger share of everything. I don’t say all of the wealthy are like that, but a scary majority are, or they are so cowed by others in their chain of business command that they dare not step out of line. I hate to say anything as inflammatory as “Class Warfare” but that is exactly what we are seeing.

The wealthy have the capital to make risky ventures, they could do it and if a business didn’t improve properly, it really wouldn’t hurt them. But they will not, because they want to keep their power structure. What’s more, instead of hiring people to do a reasonable amount of work for a living wage, they keep demanding more and more from employees for less and less, eroding worker power and rights to fair treatment and pay with the constant threat of unemployment. This sets a dangerous precedent as workers are regulated to the role of replaceable parts if they don’t meet unreal expectations, and see more of their security, and often self worth, decline.

In the end, 90% of Americans only hold about 10% of the wealth, but it is that 10% that buys everyone’s groceries and pays the electric bill. Slowly, that 10% is trickling away, or rather up, as wages in relation to dollar value decline and corporate profits sky rocket. Americans have been reduced to debt peonage and bickering over whose fault it is, divided along political and economic lines, when the real answer is clear. The fault lies in a broken system, and without the involvement of strong working and middle classes and a fiscal and economic revolution of some sort, the only real change any of us will see is the pennies we count out to try to make ends meet.

An Introduction, or Why this blog Exists.

As my dear beleaguered husband will tell you, much of my ranting is of a political bent. When not working, getting my "nerd on," or herding my children and handling the issues and topics related to them, much of my spare time (hah!) is spent reading. A good portion of that reading time is spent on political columns and news, hence the ranting. And occasionally, rather than bend my poor husbands ear or make him sit and discuss issues with me, I'll actually write down what I am thinking and feeling.

I've long felt the need to bring all of my various rants, thoughts, and reactions to one location, in order to better organize and access them, but had not yet done so. Today I met an actual, makes his living that way, political blogger, one who has reached great fame and respect in his field, and while I have no hope of imitating him or his success, it caused me to want to re-read some of my rants and reexamine some of my thoughts. It is there that I ran into a problem though. My thoughts were in a half dozen different places and while many of my rants were notes on Facebook, the new layout made it a ten minute hunt to locate them (though for those who are more Facebook savvy, it may have taken less time). Frustration with this made me decide to go ahead and congregate my posts all in one place.

Now, I hadn't done this before for many reasons, as I had stated. One of those reasons is that I am Lazy, another was that everything was presumed safe and accessible on different places (old blogs, Facebook, etc), and a third was fear of gaining negative reactions from my friends and family, or potentially worse, no reactions at all.

The third, fear of reactions or lack there of,  is what has really kept me from this idea for at least a couple of years. After all, who will care about the political leanings, interests, or musings of a poor, sometimes college student, working class, married mother of soon to be four? Assumed ignorance on the subject, poverty, and lack of education would lead it to at best be a laughing stock. What credentials did I have to write on any of this? And then I realized, I would read a blog written by someone like me. I'd be interested in seeing what that person had to say, I cannot be a complete anomaly among my kind. I would read it especially since the middle and working classes are some of the most under represented folks in America. Everyone assumes they know what the guy who changes their oil or who works at the factory is going to think and believe. It's taken as a given that the girl who took your order at the restaurant or cashed you out at the gas station isn't too bright and therefore her views aren't really important.

The truth is, those views ARE important. The working and middle classes are a diverse group, one that is very much ignored unless it is being pandered to by those who assume to know what they believe and what they want,  Despite all this, I've decided to go ahead and go forward with this experiment. If nothing else, I'll be able to look at the evolution of my own writing style.