Politics

I have tossed back and forth the idea of a Political blog - I mean just one, certainly not a series. I couldn't keep up the emotional aptitude to do more than 1 blog along the way.....b/c when I am engaged w/ the political climate of our day, I am certainly charged up but I can only maintain that energy for brief periods of time. Then it gets too much for me and I have to "check out" of MSNBC and The Daily Show and any other news radio program that gets me fired up.
I am no fair weathered Democrat. I come from a long line of Democrats from every blood line that flows through my core. In fact, I think only once did someone related to me (I am not talking sibs or cousins, but those who came before me!) vote Republican. But I must honestly say my own ideas about what a Democrat is or should be didn't come to fruition until my first job as a Child Welfare Caseworker.
For me it goes like this......I am lucky in life to have it all - love, work, aspirations, success, and support. But for many, those things don't exist. I can remember being in my 20's and getting into a heated argument at a bar with a friend from college about "why can't these moms just get a job - why are they all on welfare". Well, the answer is so simple. All of the things that have come about it our personal history brought us to where we are....so for every good decision I make in my life, it didn't come out of no where, it came to to me via genetics, birth right, geographical location, love, support, encouragement. I didn't decide to chose college or a good husband or good friends on my own with nothing behind that - I made those decisions b/c I was shown love, given opportunity, encouraged to succeed, and lived in a constant mode of pride - pride of hard work, family and myself. NOW.....take all that away and I find it unreasonable to expect that people with much much less than I was given can make equally good decisions. It's unreasonable. I will tell you why these moms are on welfare - it's either all they know or they are on hard luck. If all you know is loss, abandonment, hopelessness - you better hope you have the genetic predisposition to at least have some level of intelligence to get you through. But so many people don't even have that. And if you don't have good genes or good examples of faith, hard work or pride than you better hope the school you went to as a kid rocked. But my money is - it didn't. You see - the people who have nothing, get nothing b/c it's all connected. The people with something get even more b/c it's all connected. I remember driving in my car one day while working in Child Welfare and thinking "why is that woman like that and I am like me?"....was it luck? What was it? It's not luck, but it is good fortune. I am blessed. So this long winded explanation ends by saying that that is why I compelled to help others and to vote for those who believe that without that help, we as a Country abandon each other. We MUST provide these kids with more b/c they aren't getting it in any other way. We must provide mothers with training, hope, encouragement b/c they aren't getting it in any other way. We must educate each child equally b/c if we don't, those kids can't buy a better school like so many others can. We must provide everyone with equal healthcare b/c I shouldn't receive better coverage simply b/c my husband has a good job b/c he was born to loving parents who raised him in a fabulous community with an outstanding high school and free ride to college - provided him with love, opportunity and yes, even a car. That's not fair. And I would love for someone to try to argue that it is.....Come on, try me.