For Me It Comes Down To This

There is plenty of finger pointing to go around.  Failed Congress, disappointment in the fact we are using drones, a House that is beyond arrogant and a Senate that can't get anything done because they would rather see the President fail than cooperate across the aisle.  Fixing the economy would have taken/is taking far longer than four years- there is somehow this notion that four years is a magical number to fully achieve what is needed. And as for campaign promises? Whatever, broken promises are rampant on both sides.

I am willing to give President Obama four more years on the economy - the mess we got in is going to takes decades to recover from and will take bi-partisanship- that means that ideologues have to let be more interested in the greater good than they are interested in their own ideology.  We have a long, long way to go.  Conservative legislators have spent a lot of time the last couple of years trying to pass legislation that undoes progress in voter's rights, civil rights and women's rights.

For me it comes down to this: Zach Wahls- a young man raised by two mothers, who spoke powerfully about the definition of family.  Some people believe that the equality train has left the station, and the the momentum can't be stopped.  Make no mistake- progress will be slowed, hearts will be broken and there will be efforts, there are efforts to change the Constitution to put into our CONSTITUTION that marriage is between one man and one woman!  Is that who you want to support? Someone who thinks that family is so narrowly defined that more than half of us are excluded? For me it comes down to that!

It comes down to women having control of their fertility, to make decisions about when we have children, and that the right to abortion should be left to a woman and her health care provider and more importantly women need access to affordable, safe birth control. For me it comes down to that.

It comes down to supporting the Violence Against Women ACT, that we respect our sisters, mothers, wives, daughter, aunts, and grandmothers enough to protect them from violence and it should include same sex marriages too. For me it is about providing a safer place in which to grow and reach your potential.  That is good for all of us, it brightens all of our futures. For me it comes down to that.

It comes down to the right to vote. I don't remember ever missing an election day- maybe the day I found out my dad had a brain tumor- I think I drove straight to my parents house, I even voted absentee on my mission.  I remember my parents voting, dad coming home and going to vote even before he ate dinner.  We VOTE! The right to vote has been hard won for some of us, I am grateful to those who fought that fight. And we have to keep fighting, voter suppression laws are being over-turned but there are more on the way.  For me it comes down to this.

I am not willing to support someone for office who wants to deny some of the people I love most the right to marry and raise a family.  I am not willing to vote for someone who doesn't trust me enough to make my own healthcare decisions. And, I won't vote for someone who wants to rig the game.  For me it comes down to this!

Wild Ride

The next four months are going to be a wild ride.  An ugly political campaign will weary this country and divide further an already divided country.

I make no apologies for being liberal.  I believe in living in a country that values what everyone brings to the table, sometime that means that some of us bring extra because someone is struggling to put food on the table, pay the rent, afford to put gas in the car to get to work. I DO NOT believe that those people are in their circumstances because they drink beer and smoke cigarettes or that they use drugs and are lazy.

I do believe that we all start out in different places and at some point everyone of us will need to turn somewhere for help.  When I needed help my parents, none too thrilled I had just become a and unwed mother, were on the road in four hours from Idaho to Texas to rescue me from an impossible situation.  A situation that I created myself, I was in over my head and scared.  My parents cared more about my safety and of Jacob than they did that I had turned away from the way they raised me.

Not everyone has such a tightly woven safety net and sometimes even if they do unforeseen circumstances require that people ask for help. I want a country that provides a safety net, a place that sees helping others as an investment in them. Providing the kind of support that helps move them toward something better.  Some people won't ask for help, that's fine participation isn't compulsory, but don't decide who and who doesn't deserve help.  Have you walked in their shoes? Faced their choices?  Frankly I don't care why someone needs help, because if I'm ever there again I would hope that someone wouldn't stand harshly in judging why I need it.

Are you confident enough of your own hard work and righteousness that you think you might never need help, or that you haven't already benefited in ways you won't acknowledge from a safety net that protects us all?

I am so disappointed that Mitt Romney has chosen the path of least resistance in vilifying the poor.  His attacks about "welfare reform" being undone are outright lies and with little research anyone who wants to know the truth can fund it, but it is a convenient political target and we should expect more from any political candidate.  I cringe watching both side pillory  each other, it almost makes one too cynical to vote. ALMOST!

Ramblings of a mad woman, and I don't mean pissed

Okay, maybe a little pissed.  I am on a posting hiatus on facebook, mostly because I'm having a hard time figuring out how we move past where we're at and I feel like I'm just too deep in my own head to not take things so personally when people respond to what I post.

I have a hard time understanding how those in power, Christians, the rich, the straight feel so picked on these days, when in recent US history have the seats of power not been held by straight, white, rich, christian men? And, when did Christianity become about vilifying poor people?  If,  a nation, a people, whatever, are willing to hold so tightly to their interpretation of THE CONSTITUTION, why isn't there the same willingness to really follow the teaching of the Christ so many of these same people believe in?  When did religion become more of a reflection of  politics than anything else?

I understand that belief systems are deeply held and very personal so forgive me for sharing mine, here, assuming anyone will read this- and apologies to those of you who may be hurt or offended by this.

When I left the LDS church it was largely because I had a crisis of faith, I couldn't hold to the faith that if I was a good girl here in this earthly realm that I would be rewarded with children and an eternal partner on the other side, IF I was good, and faithful enough here.  I wasn't willing to wait and made a very deliberate decision to live my life another way.  I also left because I could not reconcile my personal political beliefs with the tenets in my faith in regard to women, race and sexual orientation.  My faith wasn't strong enough to carry me through the doubts, the anger and the disappointment I felt in an organization that I spent 18 months proselytizing for.  Over the years what I've learned is that I have to live my life as close to the truths I hold as possible.  I know that what I believe is just that, what I believe.  The personal irony for me is that what I do and the way I choose to live my life is deeply based in faith.  I can't really even explain exactly what I mean by that.  But what I believe to my core is that people have a right to basic needs, food, shelter, health care, and that there will always be people who will exploit opportunities.  What I don't understand is why some people think it's okay for the well heeled and those who have had every opportunity to exploit people and systems to get ahead but resent every penny used to help people have even a pittance of an existence, deserving or "otherwise".

I'm tired of the notion that if you are poor it is somehow your own fault and that if you are rich you got there through hard work, damn the destruction in your wake.

I am having another crisis of faith, faith in the goodness of my neighbors, faith in my belief that we can find common ground and figure out how to solve problems.

Don't try and make sense of it, just refer to the title of this post.

Shared Sacrifice

I've been thinking a lot about last week's markup of the farm bill in the House Agriculture Committee.  It was a painful experience for myself and the many brilliant anti-hunger advocates around the country. I ranted and raved and felt extraordinarily frustrated at the shortsightedness of committee members and the excuses that so many of them spouted off about how a $16 billion dollar cut really isn't a cut, but closing an administrative loophole. Well, tell that to the millions of people who will lose benefits, the almost 300,000 kids who will lose access to free school lunch.


Some, maybe even some reading this, say that feeding people creates dependency. In fact at least one of friends think that comparing people on food stamps to forest animals is funny.  I find this notion, not only absurd, but thoughtless and stupid, yes stupid.  But mostly heartless, who thinks it's a good idea to let kids go hungry because you don't like that a program is actually working the way it is supposed to?  I'll tell you who, House members of the Agriculture Committee and they proved it by passing a farm bill that will increase hunger and food hardship in our country. And people who would rather believe the stereo-type of people needing to ask for help than ask why people need the help in the first place.


How dare they, how dare they want to make sure their kids are fed, how dare those elderly and disabled people think they have a right to food everyday. How dare the working poor need help buying food, despite the fact that they are working.


If these cuts pass, the safety net we've created will be far more fragile and the impacted communities will feel it.  They will feel it in emergency rooms, at schools, at senior centers and food pantries.


I heard ridiculous words come out of the mouths of men and women, who have not, in recent history skipped a meal for any reason.  It is this that I find most galling-that people who do not have to water down their milk to make it last another day are taking the food off the table of old people and kids.  
Congrats guys, and I have to ask- would you let your children, your grandchildren, your mom go hungry in the name of shared sacrifice?