You know what's important to me? My kids. Their health. Their education. Their future. No shit, you say. Well, what worries me is that these basic, common needs are in jeopardy. Will healthcare be affordable, available, accessible? A medical tragedy puts even the most insured, secure families in financial turmoil. Education costs are reaching heights that are unfathomable. And let's get one thing straight, not going to a brand name college is not an option for Bird and Deal. It's cultural, not snotty. Find me an Indian family that doesn't emphasize education or collegiate cachet, admittedly to the point of kids needing some couch therapy. What will the future look like in America? Immigrant in fighting? Evangelizing in schools? The Big Bang Theory as a rated XXX video title only? Natural resources a distant memory?
As it is, I feel like Bird and Deal are inheriting a load of shit that will stink long after January 20, 2009.
This war must end. You want to see a great show of patriotism? Then bring home our soldiers. My childhood friend's husband is set to go on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He missed his daughter's birth, not to mention most of my friend's pregnancy. He met his daughter well after she could walk and speak. She's five now, and they finally have cemented a lovely father-daughter relationship. He is no longer a stranger to her from whose arms she shirks away. She runs to him. They have not told her that her daddy is leaving in two months and will be home when she's 7.
How many of us think about those little victims? Families and marriages in peril due to the sheer nature of separation. An outrage. An abomination.
Does anyone care about what we are doing to our one and only planet? I'm sick of the idiots who have parasitic ideologies and just take and take and strip and strip the earth of its resources. Who will have an eye on the future? Our legacy and our responsibility go way beyond our physical time on the planet. A neighbor once noted that the planet has been around a long time with no harm done so he doesn't see the point or necessity in all this crazy green talk now. I had to pardon myself so I could smash my fists into the wall and release some fireants onto his bicycle seat.
I have been to Calcutta and experienced air pollution so thick that my snot was as black as my hair. It was as if Chiclet sized clumps of coal were popping out of my nose. It is not what I have in mind for Bird and Deal to breathe. Ditto for the water.
Um, has anyone noticed gas prices these days or do you pay at the pump, crumple the receipt, and just take off as if you weren't just ripped off and violated? I cannot bear to watch the little gallon:price ticker count up. I just spent over $60 to fill up my car today. $60! That's at least 3 pairs of shoes at DSW on clearance. I could probably walk farther in those shoes than that tank of gas will take me.
I could go on about the housing crisis, the hungry, reproductive rights, maternity/paternity leave, FMLA, joblessness, gun control, civil rights, alternative energy, foreign policy, or childcare. But I don't have the energy to end my day feeling defeated. I don't sleep well as it is. Wrapping my brain around such gargantuan issues will be a recipe for restlessness. I am tired. I am angry. You might even say I am teetering on bitter. I am garnering the gumption to turn that into something positive. My kids deserve a positive outlook from me. I owe them at least one place in the world that promises hope, unconditional love, dreaming, faith, and whimsy.
Mac Daddy and I are trying to teach our children about respect, humility, gratitude, grace, selflessness, empathy, and responsibility. We can only teach such values through our actions. Words are like the old Far Side cartoons to the ears of preschoolers...Blah Blah Blah, Bird and Deal, Blah Blah Blah. It is our duty as parents to pass on these values, regardless of the red or blue color that marks our sensibilities. How can we possibly teach our children such important values in a country that demonstrates anything but? When will they be old enough to recognize hypocrisy and selfishness? And how will we combat it?
Canada is too damn cold. Europe is too expensive. India is too far. Plus, I kinda like it here and despite my rants, am proud to call it home. And by the way, I don't own a flag pin. I don't think I'd like to have those pesky little holes poke into my silk or linen suits. I cannot bear four more years of a red administration. I am seeing red but I dream in blue.
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