To the relief of the postal workers

They can now stop delivering those political mailers that got larger and larger as it neared election day. Those things went from a 5x7 early on, to 8x15 like I got this past week. Some were folded into three or four pages, essentially making them even larger. To my relief I can give my shredder a break (I shred the name/address portion, ESPECIALLY since they use my *gasp* middle name on them). And my senses can get a break from all the high school maturity that political arenas collect. It's pretty much all childish behavior. I get enough of that around my spawn, I don't need to hear, see or read grown adults doing it.

Who's in your pocket?

I said the other day that I dislike election season. I keep getting giant oversized flyers and post cards from candidates spouting what they think is rhetoric I want to hear. As I said before, I am willing to share my opinions with the candidates, but they need to come see me and find out what is important to me. I'm now getting phone calls with pre-recorded messages from candidates....and I know I put my number on the national do not call registry. I just got another call from a candidate saying "vote for meee!" and he was kind enough to give his website address. I was almost convinced I could research this candidate more, till the last line of the biography... noting an affiliation with First Baptist Church, the megachurch that takes up more city blocks than city government buildings do. I've also been privvy to information about certain aspects of that particular church that make me wonder where they stopped being a true house of God, and became such a force in this city that garners both such favor and disdain. If you haven't noticed, I don't like this church, more on principle than personal experience. And if you haven't read my own history, I married a Baptist, so I'm not bashing that particular faith, just this particular organization's propensity to take over things. I don't vote for candidates affiliated with this particular church because I have concerns of these individuals mixing religion with politics in such a way that it utterly perverts the process. My husband thinks it's stupid of me to think this way, but after all it's not his vote, it's MY vote. I don't question his logic on his vote. Some vote on the pro-life/pro-choice platform, some on economics, some on another aspect of the campaign. I try to look at the overall picture and locally I look at which apple tree they've dropped from on their way to the candidate registration department at the Supervisor of Elections office. Yes, dear candidate, I do judge you by the company you keep. Choose your friends wisely.

As the CapitolOne commercials end with "What's in your wallet?", I'll ask the candidates, "Who's in YOUR pocket?"

Oh would you just get off the girl!

I awoke this Tuesday morning to news that reaffirms why I don't watch the news, or listen to it, unless someone tells me there's excessively tropical weather nearby. However, the alarm clock is set so the radio comes on before the obnoxious beeping. I hit the snooze less often that way. Then I get up and alllll over the news is blabbety blabbety about how a candidate's teenage daughter is pregnant........aaaannnndddd? This is your big news story? It's DRIVEL for criminy's sake! Girls younger than that get pregnant all the time, and there are no cameras in their faces. Well, there were cameras eyeballing Jamie Lyn Spears, but it's probably because the rag mags were tipped off by "reliable sources" close to the teen. Are the members of the media in other parents' faces asking, asking "where was this child's mother?" Oh well I can assure you where she was NOT - and speaking from experience, she was not wherever that baby was made. I have pulled some stunts in my life, and I will not disclose them here, but only to those I know, and generally fair amounts of alcohol are involved for me to tell them. My parents gave me the foundation and I was taught probably the same things this candidate's daughter was taught. My parents RIGHTFULLY trusted me, because I had not done much to prove them wrong about their trust for me. It's entirely possible this was a similar scenario with this teen of new notoriety. Well then along comes puberty and makes a girl a little grown up and a boy a little grown up and well lookie here....they do some grown up stuff. Oh look, that's not a new and noteworthy story either. What on earth makes it acceptable to cast judgment on a young man and woman who are willing to take the RESPONSIBILITY for the child they created?? She's going through with the pregnancy, like so many others do on a regular basis. He's not like most every Junior Schmuckatelli and saying "dat ain't mah babeh" and being splayed all over Maury and the like with a paternity test to prove where he'd been stirring his Kool-aid.
I'm speaking from personal experience that I still carry on my heart to this day. Do not judge this girl and her child's father (go see Matthew Ch 7 in case someone wants to just entertain a Biblical reference for poops n giggles). I knew the odds were stacked against me like a surfer's chance of staying dry in a crashing wave. I knew there was lack of sleep, and difficulty finishing high school, and getting a job to be able to care for my child, and not being able to earn as much because I didn't go to college, and the risks to my child's well being long term because I was a young, financially ill-prepared teenage mother.
I had an advantage that so many other girls like me lacked. I was raised with a moral backbone, and I was not left to fend for myself 100%, I was aided by my child's father, my family and my child's father's family. My child's father WANTED to be there, and he was. My family was angry with me and hurt by the circumstances, but they helped me - provided I was going to school and working. I did get some assistance, but I certainly was not getting a check to pay my rent and bills and sit around doing nothing. I worked and I went to school while someone else cared for my child. My child's father ended up enlisting in the Marine Corps because he wanted to make sure his child was not going to lack basic needs being met.

We did a grownup thing, we got caught in a grownup circumstance, we did the grownup thing and made it work. We didn't throw in the towel and walk away from a responsibility we created. But along the way, so many others were so willing to make an attempt to remind us of what we did wrong, and expected us to fail. Those individuals are STILL amazed that 16 years later, we're still together and we haven't completely failed. We're not perfect, never will be, but you're not going to catch me casting judgment on a young girl and her boyfriend because they are going to have a child together. Save the judgment for when it's truly due - as in when you're looking at your own screwups and realizing just how much an impact they had on yourself and those around you.
The opposing party's candidate was born TO a teenage mother in case anyone wasn't paying attention. Plus that other candidate plainly said "kids are off limits" in the campaign arena. However AFTER their parent is elected and they drive drunk, then the kids brought that crap on themselves.
Till then, just get off the girl. She's a rare one, and you'll not find many like her. She's not running for an office anyway, she's ineligible. Let her stumble into adulthood with some semblance of dignity. She just might surprise you.

My head hurts

and it's from all the politicality. I want to run from the scene screaming "STFU!!!!!!!" to everyone. Local elections teeming with BS, underhanded comments, backbiting. Just quit already. Tell me what you're going to work on in office and I'll tell you to do the job or go away. And I cringe at our presidental offerings. I'd rather eat something my 6 year old concocts.

What we really need is a stay at home mother with enterprising ideas to run for president (or any other office for that matter). Because, Lord knows if anyone can balance a craptastical budget, referee fights and get resourceful, it's a MOTHER.