Why I'm a Liberal

I'm a Liberal. Treehugging, flaming, completely unapologetic Liberal.

Being a Liberal means, of course, that I'm totally squishy and want a world filled with flowers and unicorns farting rainbows...all viewed through my rose-colored glasses.

Being a Liberal means, of course, that I don't have the slightest idea of how the Real World is- being all starry-eyed and all I just have no concept of things like budgets, and statistics, and the seedier side of things.

Yep, I just float through life wishing and dreaming of a utopian Shangri La because I don't know the score, haven't been knocked around by reality, just cruising through on my blissful ignorance of how Things Really Work.

Except that's bullshit.

I keep hearing about 'shared sacrifices' when what is really being called for is no sacrifice at all for those who could afford to give just a bit more (or at all), and huge life-changing (or ending) demands for those who are already precariously on the edge of security.

Non-liberals cluck, and shake their heads and roll their eyeballs- clearly convinced that I'll never understand the Sensible Things because I live in a sheltered padded little fluff of a dream world- they and I are clearly not on The Same Page.

Really?

Lemme take a few minutes to explain exactly why I feel the way I do about things, and some of this is seeing light of day for the first time- but I'm sick of people thinking I'm a Liberal because I "just don't know anything about the Hard Facts of Life".

When I was 15, I took myself to Planned Parenthood and got on the Pill. Not because I was promiscuous and wanted to sleep around, but because I had suddenly and unexpectedly learned several things- adults who are in positions of teaching morality are not always trustworthy, and sexual assault has really nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with control and dominance. Also that shame is a wonderful tool for bullies, in fact it takes sometimes almost 40 years to overcome it.

Wow. Can you SEE the unicorns?

Planned Parenthood was also my only source for routine physical health care- not just "girlie stuff"- for years when I didn't have the luxury of spendy private insurance because I was working 2 minimum wage no-benifits-offered full time jobs just to afford my roach-filled rental mobile home in the drug-infested trailer park.

Hey, look- is that a rainbow?

Anyone who knows us even a little bit knows what our family has been through with the medical industry, specifically the cancer and heart disease facets. Because of that, we know firsthand how the system treats those with private insurance, those with Medicare and those without any insurance at all. We've seen it, lived it, survived it- our decade+ embroiled in this mess isn't just 'something we heard that our sister's husband's mechanic's mother had happen' and it boggles my mind that when we tell people who know us some of the things that have happened to us, they look at us skeptically, incredulously, suspiciously. Like we're lying to them and the talking heads on TV are not.

Things like if you don't have the money to pay for stuff, you will die. It happens to regular, educated, worthy people every single day and it's not a tragic fluke. It's literally the law of the land. If you can't pay, you can't play with the life-saving stuff, no hard feelings- just the rules. So yes- Death Panels are very real, but not in some far-off scary future if (fill in the blank with 'the other guy's' name) wins the election- Death Panels are the private insurance companies who own the hospitals that deny people care all the time...care that would let them live. Denied. Want to see the best doctor for whatever you have but he's not 'in your group'? Denied. Death Panels- here, and real, and we've seen 'em.

Oooooh....fluffy.

Recently, I discovered that if you are aged and can't live in your home by yourself anymore, moving into assisted living will cost you about $4,000 per month- no Medicare coverage- out of pocket. So, if you have money you've saved up your entire life- money you were probably hoping to leave to your grandchildren, perhaps- that's gone. That will be all used up well before you die and then they'll determine whether or not you even NEED to be there.

Yes, if you can go to the bathroom (mostly) by yourself and feed yourself without (mostly) setting anything on fire, they can kick you right out of the nursing home but HEY! you won't have any trouble finding an apartment with no savings and on what social security pays you every month. Eating and utilities are over-rated.

If you're very 'lucky' you'll qualify for Medicaid and be allowed to stay in a designated Medicaid facility. That's not squalor you smell- it's efficiency.

Here- borrow my rose-colored glasses, it'll all look better...

So, ya. I get a little worked up about things like women's rights and patient's rights and Seniors' rights- but not for the reasons generally thought of- not because I'm just looking for the Nanny State to take care of everyone.

Maybe I'm just sick of the Corporate State literally rolling over actual people, paving the path to the bank with the blood of the weakest members of Society- the elderly, the disabled, the young, the female- not because I'm a squishy Liberal, but because those categories define MY family, exactly, and it scares the hell out of me that the 'social safety net' is considered so expendable...that WE are considered so expendable.

Maybe I CAN'T get on 'the same page' (shit- same PAGE? Not even the same book, the same shelf, the same fucking LIBRARY) with people who declare, "I'm a Constitutionalist- anything not expressly called for in the Constitution has no business being run by the government", especially when those same people

- are women (Founding FATHERS, gals- it wasn't that long ago we couldn't even VOTE)
- cherry pick the Constitution so that the 1st Amendment only pertains to THEIR religion and the 2nd Amendment doesn't 'really' include the words REGULATED MILITIA
- are so goddamn selfish that they are a-OK with letting someone who really needs help DIE as long as one 'undeserving' person doesn't get some of THEIR hard-earned tax dollars

Maybe I'm a Liberal because I can't define a civilized society by how fiscally in order its finances are- by declaring that you've 'got to break a few eggs to make an omelet' when those eggs are living, breathing people. By declaring that the number one important thing is to balance the checkbook, no matter how desperate your citizens are, or how much worse your 'fiscal fix' will make their lives.

Guess I'm just a Definitionist-

civ·i·lized   [siv-uh-lahyzd]
adjective
1.
having an advanced or humane culture, society, etc.
2.
polite; well-bred; refined.
3.
of or pertaining to civilized people: The civilized world must fight ignorance.


so·ci·e·ty   [suh-sahy-i-tee] noun, plural so·ci·e·ties, adjective
noun
1.
an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.
2.
a body of individuals living as members of a community; community.
3.
the body of human beings generally, associated or viewed as members of a community: the evolution of human society.
4.
a highly structured system of human organization for large-scale community living that normally furnishes protection, continuity, security, and a national identity for its members: American society.


I am a Liberal, and I'm damn proud to be one.

I earned it- it's not just some ideal or rhetoric spewed by anyone- famous or powerful or otherwise.

It's woven into the timeline of my life experience by experience, each thread of fear, helplessness, worry, rejection strengthening the whole, giving me the voice and determination to say, "NO- this is NOT right. No one should go through this and be dismissed, trivialized, marginalized, ignored."

Don't dare tell me I don't know how the Real World Works, what the underbelly looks like, how the poorer half lives.

Don't dare tell me I'm a dreamer, a wishful-thinker, an idealist.

Come on into my head and heart- meet the terrified teenager, the battered woman, the full-time employee still so poor she's faced with living in her car, the wife fighting for her husband's care- all of them pissed as hell, baby.

Those aren't stars in my eyes.

That's fire.

...With Liberty and Justice for All

So the President up and came out and said out loud and in front of everybody (if in a round-about and halting way) that he no longer opposes gay marriage.

That's fabulous.

Now, can we please move on? Just like the whole abortion/contraception debate, this is stuff that shouldn't even be part and parcel of who runs our country.

Not because it's not important- because it's VERY important- but because it SHOULD be a given. There shouldn't even be a discussion about it. ALL people deserve the same rights as other people- it says so right in that dusty old document the Tea Party prances out after making sure the part they agree with is face up and all the other parts face down. They're RIGHTS for criminy's sake- not perks, not gifts, not favors dependent on who is signing bills into laws.

Rights.

To "debate" the rightness or wrongness of this stuff is asinine.

If you are against anything "gay", you have a right to your own opinion and belief. You may not limit what gay people do according to whether or not you yourself find it repugnant, weird, un-natural or (more likely) disturbingly arousing. Don't try to say it's against the law because your holy book says so. Your holy book also says a woman must be a virgin when she marries or she needs to be killed. If you insist on the literal interpretation of your holy book, you can't pick and choose. As far as I can tell, that leaves me with exactly ZERO female friends and relatives left alive, including the religious ones, and a shitload of funerals to attend.

If you are against abortion and/or contraception, you have a right to your own opinion and belief. As of Roe v Wade, abortion is NOT a crime. According to common sense, contraception is a damn good way to avoid needing abortion services- I'd posit that it's actually the BEST guarantee of it. Abstinence-based sex education is a good idea in theory, but doesn't work. (see above re: all my female friends and relatives would be dead).

Here's the thing.

Pushing a "bible based social agenda" is a really really bad idea.

As well as a really really un-American idea.

Any government based on any ANY ANY religious doctrine is NOT a "freedom and liberty for all" government, plain and simple.

Practice your religion. Display the 10 Commandments, the Nativity, the Crucifix in your church, on the church lawn, on your own lawn, plastered all over your car and person.

Keep it the hell out of and off of public property. Just because it's YOUR religious paraphernalia, doesn't mean it's everyone's. We promise we won't sneak in at night and draw mustaches on Mary and the Baby Jesus.

Because we respect your stuff on your property.

Unlike the terrorists who kill doctors and blow up family-planning clinics. I can't even say "abortion clinics" because the last 2 that were set aflame here in Texas by fire-in-the-belly small-c Jesus-wept christians did not even provide abortions at those locations. Dumbasses.

We want to teach our kids how WE think is the right and correct way to live. Go to the church of our choice. Have a marriage the way we believe it should be. Make personal decisions without fear of judgment or retaliation. Vote our conscience. This is America and we should be able to do all the above without fear of being persecuted or disrespected.

^^^See that?^^^

That's what I hear from fundamental Christians.

It's also what the gay community has been saying.

And those who support the absolutely legal and needed Planned Parenthood.

See how that works?

Pretty nifty, huh?

To Hell With the Goose- the Gander Needs His Viagra

So some folks think it's a good idea to allow employers- any employers, not just religious institutions- the freedom to ASK their female employees who request prescription coverage for hormones (also known as "the Pill")exactly what they intend to use those hormones for, and if it is, in fact contraception to be allowed to deny coverage because of an employer's real or imagined religious or moral beliefs (also known as "just not wanting to pay for shit").

This is in addition to the "humiliation via probe and ultrasound" bills already in play for any woman seeking a (still legal- sorry) abortion.

Aside from that first paragraph being a hella run-on sentence, all of the above makes me all kind of squidgy for all sorts of reasons.

And I'm not alone.

There are a number of matching tit for tat bills in the works requiring men who want Viagra or Cialis to watch graphic videos of the unfortunate side effects, or to have a digital prostate exam, or undergo cardiac stress tests.

Which is not as (totally) spiteful as it seems- other than the obvious "I want the blue pill as seen on TV and I don't care about the side effects" most guys think, I believe a little "lookit what could happen, Ace" would be a good idea. It would at least stop 'em (hopefully) from thinking "If 1 is good, 3 will be kick-ass!" and landing themselves in the emergency room. As for the prostate/heart exams- yep- both good ideas before chemically stressing the systems involved.

(I personally think that a written report from a man's wife to the effect that no, he really can't get it up along with dates and measurements is in order. If the man isn't married, it's an automatic NO- cuz that would be immoral).

So actually, a little more care and prudence is MORE warranted for guys wanting to get their Viagra on than a woman who frivolously wants her cystic ovaries to stop causing her intense pain or her monthly visitor to stop making her pass out from anemia.

Women are so shallow...

In addition to the above cautions for the menfolk, here's what I think.

I think that if employers are religiously and/or morally against hormones for contraception and against any abortion for any reason they must therefore be super pro-baby and pro-motherhood.

That's great! Because one of the most expensive types of health care coverage is maternity, and one of the biggest stressors on a new mother is maternity leave.

So obviously, those same employers who will deny hormonal contraceptives and abortions will be happily paying 100% of all OBGYN visits, pre-natal visits, the entire hospitalization (vaginal AND c-section deliveries), will be thrilled to pay at least 6 months full maternity leave AND will be offering no-charge in-office child care.

Wait. What?

That hasn't even come up?

Because they're too busy spinning the entire thing to make women look like party animal slutty prostitutes if they need to be on the Pill while insisting that the need for ED drugs is "a physical condition"?

Because the pastors in church are actually saying that contraception is BAD because it's denying the natural order of things (i.e. producing more church members) but Viagra is GOOD because it allows men to (see above about producing more church members)? Never mind that men can, in fact, ejaculate without having an erection- that's "science" and has no place in church.

So women are not allowed to have abortions, or at the very least must undergo humiliation and pain OTHER than what they've already been through to make that decision and will go through the rest of their lives. Gotcha.

Women may not have privacy in the workplace but must announce that they need hormonal medications to THEIR BOSS- whose business that is exactly ZERO percent. Outstanding.

Viagra and Cialis? Covered under most plans, no problem even though that shit is about a gazillion times more expensive than any hormone out there. Perfectly reasonable.

And yet most plans do NOT cover maternity care and haven't for years. One of those "only good business/nothing personal" decisions.

But no one is trying to control women through a dominant patriarchal forcible submission attitude permeating all of society while simultaneously feigning respect for the fairer sex.

Because this is America, and that would be wrong.

Smoke, Mirrors and a Little Thing Called "War"

Yanno what makes me twitchy?

Well, that noise that sounds like the well pump running even though nothing has been turned on, left on or flushed and that keeps you awake till you get up to check all faucets and toilets only to realize it's the sound of the ceiling fan bouncing off the walls weird- THAT makes me twitchy.

But in addition to that.

People who don't understand the difference between "what someone said" as opposed to "what someone SAID someone said".

For example- there IS NO "War on Christianity" here in the US. There is a movement to get BACK TO separation of church and state, something that was melded together just recently- back in the '50's, as a way of differentiating us from the Godless Commies in Mother Russia. No one is saying burn the churches, shred the bibles, feed the Christians to the wolverbeasts. There IS a history of persecution in other countries that continues to this day and is horrifying and WRONG. But to say Christians in this country are being "persecuted" because they're being asked to take the Nativity Scene off the courthouse lawn and truck it to the church yard ACROSS THE STREET is not persecution and actually belittles and demeans those who are actually, yanno, getting killed and whatnot for their beliefs.

For example- there IS a "War on Women". From trying to roll back Roe v. Wade to defunding Planned Parenthood to slashing social safety net programs that are very important to a huge amount of women, the current "far right" trend is to take women back a few generations and put 'em in their place. I know this to be true not because I read it somewhere or got an alarming email with sketchy references that can be fact-checked in about 5 minutes to prove totally bogus, but because I'm watching politicians on TV utter words out of their mouths that tell me so. They want this. They want this so badly that they are putting forth all sorts of laws with the sole purpose of humiliating and demeaning women who they feel are not worthy of their respect (in a lot of cases that would be the entire gender). For the most part these laws never get passed, but who the hell offers up a law for a vote if they don't WANT it passed?

For example- there IS NO "War on the 2nd Amendment" by our current president. I looked this morning- really searched YouTube. Typed in "Obama on gun control" and got several hundred thousand videos but yanno what? 99% of them are scary music and floating "quotes" and "figures" drifting past a photo of Obama wearing his Scary Kenyan Muslim Face. I wanted to hear the words out of his mouth saying "Guns are bad, mmmkay?" All I could come up with was about 45 seconds of him stating that he supports the 2nd Amendment rights of Americans and he supports STATES RIGHTS to limit them as they feel necessary. (small aside- isn't STATES RIGHTS what the majority of the Small Government/Big Gun crowd wants???) Not nationally. Not a widespread weapons grab. He rated an "F" from the Brady Institute for crying out loud because among other things after Gabby Giffords got shot he did NOT call for the banning of handguns.
If the rabid "anti-Obama" crew can't come up with one stretch of video supporting their views, I will assume it ain't there. Just to double check, I looked here and got this-
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/feb/13/wayne-lapierre/nra-leader-says-barack-obama-endorsed-total-ban-ha/
because I haven't spent years steeped in the Gun Culture, as opposed to being raised up a Christian in America or being born a woman.

For example, there IS a "Class War" going on. The brilliance is that the way it's being spun is that "They" (the women, minorities, illegals and crack ho's) are after "Our" stuff and money. Lemme just put it this way- if you sit down and pay your own bills and if you ever once ask "How much does that cost?" you are NOT the 1%. No one is after your stuff and money. Except the actual 1%. Nifty, huh?

You get the idea. I try to always verify the truth to any claim from any side and the best way to do that is to hear the words coming from the party (no pun intended) in question regarding the topic at hand.

I do not agree with all the words that I have heard come from the mouth of our current president, but I do not believe he is the anti-christ or a Kenyan Muslim groomed and put into place to ensure "death to America".

The words I AM hearing from the current slate of GOP contenders' mouths continue to scare the crap outta me, especially when they're accompanied by cheers from the audience.

Have we really devolved to the point where it's OK for women to die rather than receive medical care they need but be forced to have medical procedures the AMA says are totally unnecessary just because we want to humiliate them? How much of a witch-hunt is charging a woman with murder if she has a miscarriage? These are real bills that are really being voted on, along with the promise of "privatizing" our social safety nets to be "fiscally responsible".

Has anyone else noticed that the rapidly-spreading grassfire rhetoric on the Wars on God and Guns seem to be having the gasoline of self-righteousness and division and suspicion poured on them as an effort to divert us away from the stuff that IS being taken from us boldly and right in front of God and our open-carry sidearms?

Trash the EPA- no safe food, water or air for US but damn the jobs created will be sweet and high paying. Of course you'll have to retire early because of health problems. Sorry. No health care for you.

Don't regulate the banks and corporations- they're the Job Creators. Seriously. This time we won't yank the football out of the way while you're kicking, Charlie Brown.

There's only one War going on, and it's fixin' to be fought, as always, by the people who didn't want it, aren't in charge of it, and who only have a vague idea of who the enemy is and why they have to be defeated.

When all the smoke has cleared, and the country and all the money is safe in the hands of those people-corporations who egged us into battle we won't have any food, water, clean air, health care, education, rights as human beings (unless we're middle aged filthy rich white guys), money, jobs or dignity.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.

Will They REALLY Appreciate Hearing From Me?

Hard to believe, I know, but I've never written a letter to an elected official...till today. But in the words of Popeye (who I really don't like, by the way) "I've taken all I can stands and I can't stands no more".

I've signed petitions, given (small) donations where I feel they'll be wisely spent, but after yet another "sign the petition and WRITE YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL" email today hard on the heels of the passing of a bill in Congress that will force a woman to PROVE rape (like rape isn't degrading enough) the words formed deep somewhere in the region of my bowels, percolated their way up through what's left of my reproductive organs, gathered heat from my heart and push from my lungs and exploded en masse out of my fingertips.

What spattered all across my monitor is the following, and I'm actually pretty proud of it. I sent it to Louie Gohmert, Leo Berman, and Rick Perry- all "my" elected officials and every one a white male WAY-right Republican.

I highly recommend this type of political-overload cleansing, and would be tickled lavender if anyone thought enough of my efforts to use some or all of it in their own missives to their elected officials.

Mr. Gohmert,

As a Texan, and one of your constituents, I must tell you that you do NOT speak for me and my family exactly 100% of the time.

We vote, we pay taxes, and we are proud Americans.

Just in case you missed the memo- there is already a "no funding" policy for federal usage of monies given to Planned Parenthood for abortions. None. Please stop wasting MY taxpayer money frightening people with lies to push your personal bible-thumping agenda.

And about that. It sickened me to learn of the little Lufkin shindig attended by you, Leo and our Gov. Rick where ya'll chanted "NO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE"

While we count many Christians among our friends and family, I respectfully submit to you the First Amendment. Unless my document is different from yours, it says that there is to be NO STATE RELIGION- that bit about "under God" in the pledge? In God We Trust on the money? Ten commandments pasted up in all the government buildings?

All added after the fact. Our founding fathers would have considered all those things a slap in the face of all the work they did to be sure this country stands not only on freedom OF religion, but freedom FROM religion.

Your zealous display of gleefully stomping on the First Amendment, along with the other elected officials at the Lufkin event, would've been considered by those noble men to be not only impeachable, but treasonous.

I am a woman who believes that women should not be treated as property- I am disgusted at your consistent efforts to simultaneously force women under the thumb of government while stripping away any safety net in place for the aftermath of those morally bankrupt laws hidden behind the cloak of Righteousness.

I am an Over 50 year old human who believes that in the greatest nation in the world access to quality health care is a RIGHT, not something to be earned, and have lived with the spectre of cancer in my beloved husband for almost a decade- with insurance, without insurance, and with Medicare. That we've had to go begging for help at times, something that is unheard of in all other first world, second world and most of the globe's third world countries is shameful.

I am a mother who home schools, partly because Texas is dismally behind the rest of the US and light years behind the rest of the planet in quality of education (light years is science- you'll have to look it up). My best friend is a public school principal, and I have friends who are teachers- it's not the people in the system at fault, it's the system itself. The current trend of our state school board and that pompous ignoramus David Barton is assuring future generations of Texans be ignorant and laughably behind...everyone.

I am a heterosexual who believes in the sanctity of marriage and family. I find the assumption that there is but one definition of both words narrow-minded and hateful. People who love and respect one another enough to desire legal marriage and family standing should be encouraged and honored, not vilified- for there is little enough love and respect in the world as it is.

I am an American who believes that the greatest terrorist threat comes from within our nation- from ANYONE who declares a Holy War on the tenets our nation was founded on- be they Muslim, or be they Christian.

I am a Texan.

And I'm sick and tired of having to apologize for you, and Leo, and Rick.

Sincerely,

Sheri Dixon

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition- there's an armed and pissed off liberal hippiechick mama in the East Texas woods...