FAQs
Location
Payson, AZ
Bio
I'd rather be many, many places other than AZ - home of some of the reddest necks in politics. If I attend an afternoon movie performance, the chances of having a private political conversation while waiting is nil. I have been lectured on the truthfulness of Fox News (all other news agencies LIE), the greatness of Limbaugh and Beck, and the Bible. Can't forget the Lord God thing always coming up. It's a shame that a lot of us who once considered ourselves faithful Christians took a hard look at them during these past 8 years and decided to give it up for sanity's sake. Or out of disgust.
I've been passionate about politics since I was 15 and joined the Young Democrats to piss off my parents. Somehow it stuck. I will admit, though, had my parents not died young they would be shocked and appalled at the actions of today's Repugs. Well, they had class, but my Dad would have, sadly, hated Obama for his skin tone regardless of his politics.
I was lucky enough to have lived in Denver for several months in 2008 and worked with the Democratic Party there during the convention. It was the most exhilarating year I've ever spent politically, but 2008 is fast becoming a dim memory in light of the tragedy that is American politics today. The tragedy that is America today, period.
I've got a son, 31, who was blinded in Iraq; a son who is gay - and a son who was unemployed (homeless but living with gay bro) for 18 months. I'm a very well-rounded mother with first-hand experience of many of today's toughest problems.
A sinister chill ran down my back when I realized Bush was determined to start a war. During Viet Nam, an analyst stated that America was involved in a 'major conflict' every 20 years. Although I was in high school, I got the uneasy feeling that I might have a son about the right age who'd get tangled up in that. Check.
Most of our soldiers are very decent people. They have done good things in Iraq and Afghanistan, all we see here at home are the horrors committed. My son was a medic, but he has told us stories about the good efforts of soldiers helping Iraqi citizens, particularly with the children. He hates the war, but he hates even worse that the military shoulders a lot of the blame for it. When he was badly wounded we got into the mother of all battles for VA benefits. It took a year to get him anything - including medical care; during that year I supported his family.
When the gay thing went sour in the '70's and 80's, I had gay friends both male and female and it shocked me. I was pretty sure one of my sons was gay at a very young age, but rather than trying to 'cure' him I taught tolerance, acceptance and love in our family. My kids, steps and fosters have all grown up with 'homo-blindness'. One of the most priceless gifts to a child is to teach them kindness.
My daughter-in-law teaches first grade in a suburb of Phoenix, used to be a fairly upscale area but today hosts cardboard city. I went down to help her out the first week and we had 6 homeless children out of 27. The cafeteria was absolutely overwhelmed for free breakfast, so we had to dash out and buy donuts, cereal & milk when they ran out.
After we got the kids back to the room, they were falling asleep at their desks. I went down to the gym to see if we could use the mats and they had gotten new wrestling ones so we got last year's. Since it's Phoenix we didn't have coats to cover the little ones with while they napped. Then we got 'em up for free lunch at 11:30 and managed to get some organization going that afternoon. It mostly consisted of getting to know them, letting them express their concerns and worries and help clean them up. I even did some minor mending!
I thought it was a very good thing that the rest of the class saw what is happening today in our country. The following day we got gifts of clothes from their homes - particularly for girls! ;-) We had scoured our neighborhood and Mary's church members for blankets, meals that needed no preparation, and basic hygiene items. We wound up sending a lot of the stuff home with the kids, so did the same runs the following evening.
Now they have blankets and pillows for the sleep time, clean clothes and decent shoes, but when Mary is going to get any set teaching schedule going I can't see. She gets a different set of kids almost daily.
My family has not been sheltered from the horrors of war and poverty in America. We've all been doing what we can to help. Obama is very right that volunteering is the best way to help Americans who are suffering so much. He's there every day in Washington, trying to fight the wealthy status quo into some sort of fairness for us average citizens, and you see how well that's going.
