Why my daughter (and I) support Barack Obama

This is from my daughter in Phoenix. For some reason, FB is not letting me share it. So I have done the Copy & Paste experience. You need to read this and understand how some of us feel about the current political system. I always took my daughter and son with me back in the days when Oregon still voted by standing in line and waiting for an empty voting booth. I took them to rallies and parades and demonstrations. I guess it made an impact.

"Wanna know why I support Barack Obama? Because I know someone very dear to me who can't really afford his insurance or his medication co-pays for his cancer treatment, but who is paying it anyway. He has it for the next 18 months because of the terms of his divorce settlement, but he has the privilege of paying Blue Cross $500 a month for it. (Before the divorce, he and the wife paid about $250 for both of them.) If he hadn't already been a Blue Cross customer, he would have been denied....because of his pre-existing condition: Cancer. They are covering him only because they have to. And if he misses or is late with even one payment, they can cancel him, with no chance for reinstating him. He has to take medication for the cancer, medication for the side effects of the cancer med, and meds for a couple of problems that aren't life threatening but make it easier for him to go out and have a job, a life, pay taxes and be a productive member of society. He has been doing cancer treatment for two years in April, when he is done. He gets to hope to god that it doesn't come back after that. After the 18 months are up, he may not be covered anymore because they could jack up the premium so high that he can't afford it, or maybe deny him completely. He will then be at least 5 years away from being able to get onto Medicare. The Affordable Care Act will give him at least a better chance to be covered by SOMETHING. The insurance companies would then NOT be able to deny him because of the cancer. The Tea Party Republicans want to take that away from him. Mitt Romney doesn't give a SHIT about anyone except his rich buddies getting richer. He is a joke. He DOES NOT CARE IF WE POOR PEOPLE LIVE OR DIE.

I needed to put a human face on this, so I can explain why I post and share political stuff. I do it because I believe that what we are facing with the Tea Party and their agenda is very scary and alot of good people will suffer and die because they DO NOT GIVE A SHIT. As far as I am concerned, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are pure evil. Obama may not be perfect but he's doing SOMETHING and I still believe that to a certain extent, he cares.

Jesus said to love one another and take care of each other, right? I'm voting for Obama because I happen to care a LOT about people. Including the fellow I referred to at the beginning of this post. And my gay friends in long-term relationships who want to make it official. Also the kids in foster care who need a certain friend of mine to help them navigate a very scary system. And my own daughter and the daughters of my friends who need to know that they are just as important as boys and can do anything they want, and their bodies are sacred and worthy of being honored. And my own son, who has poor parents who want him to have opportunities in life to make himself the best person he can be.

This is why I hit that "Share" button on certain things. Don't read if you don't want to, it's your right. I respect your views as I hope you respect mine.

But I also hope I have really, really made you think. ♥"

Voting Gives You the Right to Make Sensible Noise

Are you registered to vote?  Are you aware of the things that are happening politically?  Not just the fact that there are bunch of ego-driven boobs on the Beltway who think they know what is good for us.  Are you aware of the various agendas being driven by obscene amounts of money from corporations who have been given citizenship status.  

I went to the Oregon Democratic Summit last weekend and had the opportunity to listen to three of Oregon’s US Representatives and Senator Al Franken from Minnesota.  Sensible words from sensible persons…  not afraid to stand up in front of their constituents (unlike Rep. Walden).  They validated what we keep hearing from media not controlled by big money.   The GOP has one, and only one, agenda regardless of who ‘wins’ the nomination.  They don’t care one iota about jobs for Americans, or helping homeowners to stay in their houses, or actually making medicine affordable for everyone.  No, their ONE GOAL is to ‘take down President Obama.’  

The persons in the House and Senate who decide which bills get to be presented and voted on don’t much care about middle America.  Just last week, when the first chunk of President Obama’s Jobs Bill was ready to be voted on are you aware of what the GOP did?  They dragged up yet another anti-abortion bill to vote on.  And if you aren’t already aware, the federal government does not and never has paid for abortions.   They could have been moving forward with positive action for unemployed Americans.  Instead they were pushing their “Women Must Die” agenda.  Not sure what this is about?  Check out what a number of state legislatures are ramming through their agendas … supported by corporations who are not citizens.   And something else they are doing is supporting the changes that are starting to happen with being able to register to vote.  Do you see a pattern here?   Back to the dark ages...

I will freely admit that I am a news junkie and have been for a long time.  Also a political junkie.  I will very proudly say that I have never, to my knowledge, not voted in a primary or general election since I was old enough to vote.  My children will probably remember accompanying me to voting booths no matter the weather, and standing in line to vote.  “Mom, are we done yet?”   No, we are never done voting.  Nothing less than 100% turnout should be acceptable.

When I was at the Oregon Summit, I bought a pin that says “I am one of the 99%.”  In the last week I have had some very interesting conversations with store clerks.  Sadly, three of them were young mothers who said they had no idea what was going on in the world, let alone the United States.  Only one of them was registered to vote but said she had never voted.  The other two said it didn’t matter whether you voted or not so they weren’t registered.   One of them thought her husband was but didn’t really know for sure.

Voting gives you the right to complain and protest and make noise.   I make noise so my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be able to live at least a life with a roof over their heads and food on their tables.  

Changes

Seems like September was a month of changes.  Procedures that I was used to suddenly did about-faces without warning.  Of course, Facebook was the big one.  And I’m still frustrated with the fact that it was working just fine as we all know, now it doesn’t work as fine, but all those “tech wizards” think it does.  Why didn’t they ask first? 

And then I discovered that eBay took it upon themselves to add a line under the title of my auctions letting potential buyers know that I don’t accept returns.  In 12 years of selling fun and wonderful items on eBay I have never had an item returned but the option was always there.  But, I never had to give a bidder a black or white choice.  Again, eBay did not ask if this was a good idea or not.

Then, I got a computer generated notice from my credit union asking if I still needed my Line of Credit availability.  So off I go to the credit union to find out what is happening with this.  Since I have all of my accounts here, one would assume that the Line of Credit account is okay.  Turns out they don’t do these  anymore and “I don’t need it .”   Well, it took a long time and a lot of hard money managing to achieve this piece of financial safety and did they bother to ask?  No, they just decided to do it.  I have asked them to please leave it in place and if I have to pay for it then to please inform me first.  One can hope.

There is far too much of this decision making being taken out of our control.  I am an intelligent adult and appreciate being asked first before changes happen.  Even if I am in the minority, it is still a sign of respect and honor to be asked.