There was a post on Facebook that our adoption agency’s media director is going to be delivering 400 new soccer uniforms donated to go to a street children league in Ethiopia.
Sounds unimportant, but children have to play too.
One thing I thought I would never do here is talk about politics - unless it’s to say to get off your fat butts and vote. After the last 2 weeks… I can’t begin to express how disturbed I am.
Ok, I had this long detailed thing written that looked more like a term paper than a blog. I’m not even going to read that so I’m scrapping it for something much simpler. It’s probably still going to be long, but dammit, it’s how I really feel and I don’t give a @#$% about proper grammar.
I just have to get this off my chest.
1. Schools not allowing children to see President Obama’s address to children claiming that they are protecting children from partisan politics. WTF!!! What is to be protected? How is this different than President George W. Bush reading to Kindergartners at the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Hmmm? Oooh, even more partisan, how about those speeches that presidential candidates like to make at schools - of course there are children who are forced out of class to attend. I remember in 1988 having to play with my high school marching band when Vice Presential Candidate Dan Quale came to speak at my school. I didn’t complain, but I also didn’t have a choice in the matter. I heard everything he said - sat right behind him. Didn’t former President George H.W. Bush talk to schoolchildren on C-Span in 1991? Was there backlash from the Democrats? If there was, please let me know, because I’m not finding it.
Further, what better opportunity to educate our children on what is going on in the country, both as a parent and as the teacher. His speech was clearly not partisan, but even if it was, um, we are not a 1-party system, and those kids are going to be future voters. Since our president is one party, he can speak for that party. As a parent and a teacher you can tell the kids that there are other opinions out there. Hello????? Oh darn I forgot, teachers are too busy teaching to those stupid standardized tests to have time for anything else. Thank you so much, No Child Left Behind.
One more thing, so what if he changed his speech before he gave it - I’m sure every speech that every President gave had edits made for myriad of reasons. I made multiple edits to this blog before posting - does only my first draft count? There was at least 3x more cursing at neo-cons in my previous drafts. Ok I lied, maybe twice as much.
2. Health Care. My aging retired parents (our future kids’ soon to be grandparents) are currently in the donut hole with their Medicare Part D Plan. Fortunately, my mom’s diabetic medications and supplies are covered under their supplemental plan, but they just had to shell out $150 for antibiotics. Dad is retired from a career field that is woefully obsolete, not particuarly transferable, and he’s closer to 70 than 60 in age. Mom is retired and on disability after working hard for many years. They really are one heart attack away from being royally screwed. Adam’s parents are in their own situation, but that’s his story to tell if he feels like it. It’s very possible we will be caring for our parents at the same time we are caring for our children. When it comes to health care reform, something needs to change, and while what our president is proposing is so different it’s scary, at least someone is trying to fix the problem. It can’t stay the way it is.
Then you have hard working people who can’t afford insurance and work for an employer that either doesn’t carry it, or has a premium so high they can’t afford it. Then there are all the hard-working, educated, degreed people I know who are out of a job and can’t find ANYTHING. What I mean by that is that they are settling for a low paying job and can’t afford insurance either. I know people who have to make the choice of whether to work their $8/hour job and go without insurance, or quit work so they can go on medicaid. They aren’t lazy - it’s the state of how our economy is right now.
One thing that gets me about the neo-cons is the way their pro life views are the ONLY issue, but they can sure bardge into everything else. Pro life, to me, also means you also need to give a @#$%$ about the kids once they are born, and to not do so otherwise is ever so slightly hypocritical. I worked on enough childhood lead poisoning cases to see that children don’t have a say in the circumstances in which they are born. If medical care/welfare/WIC/etc. is denied to a child because you think their parents are too lazy in their parenting, that is just WRONG. Yes, this is a taxpayer issue because every study out there on the subject, points to crime and further taxpayer burdon if disadvantaged children are not reached now (disclaimer - I am very much oversimplifying the problem, but I don’t have time to get into more detail). I simply will not support anything that cuts or takes away benefits to children, regardless of their circumstances. At the same time, I think parents who take advantage of the system should be sterilized, and our child custody laws should be based on the best interests of the child and not the best interests of the adults, but that’s another issue for another time.
Churches and charities can feed, clothe and put a roof over people’s heads. They are not in ANY position to pay for the medical care of all of the disadvantaged. The bulk of the problem is the for-profit status of the health insurance companies. Make them non-profit, and a lot of the problems will go away. To the neo-cons, I said non-profit, not socialized. There is a huge difference.
So, you neo-cons -quit making up stuff that’s not there, like death panels. REALLY??!!
3. The stupid race thing again. Yes I’m going there. I’m going to be parenting black kids in a nation with a black president, of course I’m going there. That being said, I think former President Carter, as much as I admire him, was off base. I’m with the President on what he said on Meet The Press last Sunday. I don’t think the fear that people have about the nation’s health care system, or the crap about not airing the address to the kids is entirely racist in nature. I think this is fearmongering that has been brewing back when the so-called neo-conservatives started making their views known and forced through entities, such as The Christian Coalition. With the recession and the terrorism and the war, it’s coming to a head.
At the same time, if you start a statement, put it in the middle, or end a statement with the comments “I’m not being a racist but…” or “but… I’m not being a racist,” or “that’s not a racist comment, that’s a fact,” or something along those lines in the same context of what our President is doing, then YOU are being a racist. I’ve heard way, way too much of that, and more so in the last 2 weeks than even during the election campaign. While I’m positive and hopeful about the society I’m bringing my future kids into, in the last 2 weeks alone, I having some fear.
Yep, this is how I really feel. I got it out and feel much better. Thanks for listening.
Happy New Year!!
Yesterday was the first day of the new year in Ethiopia. It’s now 2002. From my weekly update:
Ethiopia still retains the Julian calendar, in which the year is divided into 12 months of 30 days each and a 13th month of 5 days and 6 days in the leap year.
Today is usually the day the agency gives us the weekly updates. They will tell you how many kids were referred, their ages, siblings, and how long the parents have been waiting. The last three weeks, there haven’t been any referrals. Hope there are some today.