mommy revolution

A dear friend of mine is struggling with something that we all struggle with at some point; Does it really matter? Do we really have a snowball's chance in hell when fighting the BP's in our world? I have to believe the answer is yes. I am sure the answer is yes. Especially for those of us with kids. How we raise our children will determine the fate of BP and all the other greedy corporations that be. We don't need violence. We don't need protests. We don't need anarchy. We just need to teach our kids that every time they spend a dollar, they are voting on who wins. They can vote for the good guys or they can vote for the bad guys. I am arming my children with weapons that cannot be removed. I am teaching them to use critical eyes to follow the money trail; Who wants your money and why? Why buy it if you can grow it? Why buy new when you can buy used? Do you really want to enslave yourself to that hamster wheel of consumption? Do you really need it or just want it? Are you helping a greedy few far away or are you helping a lot of local people now?The greatest weapons we can give our children are a sharp, critical mind, a razor wit, and voice without fear. With love and support, they will have the courage to take the narrow path when the time comes. We are paving the way for our children, one decision at a time.

resurrection day

Outraged mom is back! Four years and two more kids later! Ok, so I haven't posted in years, but I have been reading. I have been learning. And I have been writing. I have also been outraged. It's not like the outrageous material slowed down because the Democrats took over. Health Care? Where are their backbones? Puddles of yellow-striped amoebas in the Capitol Building mixing with dirty money. BP? Over 700 safety violations? How can anyone say de-regulation is a good idea with that kind of record?

New Orleans Lady

I went home to New Orleans for the first time since Katrina hit a couple of weeks ago. I knew it would be an emotional visit. I was thrilled to see my family. I was happy that friends' homes were remodeled and occupied. My immediate circle of loved ones are recovering very well. I wish I could say the same for the city I love.

I was born in New Orleans and spent the first ten years of my life there. Some of my happiest memories are of wandering the Quarter with my dad on the weekends hopping from jazz band to jazz band. We had to listen from the sidewalk of course. But the bars kept their windows and sides open to bring people off the street anyway. We always had a good veiw.

I remember when fifty cents could get you a paper sack of bird feed in Jackson Square. I remember when the fountain across the street was there and it was the poor kids water park (and constant source of amusement for teens who poured soap in it and flooded Decatur with suds). I remember when AJAX Brewery was nothing but an eyesore full of drug addicts and the homeless. I grew up thinking K&B was a national drugstore chain and an official crayola color. I remember going to Mardi Gras on Canal street as a kid and never seeing drunk college kids.
I remember walking down Bourbon Street and thinking that the nude woman in the portrait of Big Daddy's straddling a rope was a stunning beauty and wondering what it was like to be her.

Twenty years later, it met that woman. In fact, we worked together in the same club. She was a waitress and I was a dancer. I begged for her autographed photo but I never got one. I don't think she understood how much I really admired her.

Scandallous, I know. Political hopefuls are NOT supposed to be strippers, EVER.

But no matter how pious and conservative Americans claim to be, I know what people really are. Most people are neither of those things. That's a different blog.

My point is that I am as New Orleans as I could be. I am deeply saddened and distressed by what is happening there. I pray for Mayor Naggin with the same fervor I used to bring on stage. I admire and applaud him for how hard he is working. The way FEMA is treating him (and my home city) is nothing short of deplorable, dispicable, and disgusting. I know he's made some mistakes (haven't we all?) But few politicians have mantained the integrity and grit he's still working with. He has become a hero to me. I hope my prayers help. If nothing else, I hope he's comforted somehow. He has inspired me in a way I would not have considered possible from an elected official or politician.

I am equally disgusted with the lack of media coverage in the national news regarding states rights vs. federal government here. This would require more than a blog, it's a fricking one hour talk show episode. Read the Times-Picayune online to get an idea of the political atrocities in the Crescent City.

Read it!

It's ironic and laughable that I've been lurking in these blogs for a year or so and just when people start finding them, I'm off the interent for almost a month! While Bellsouth spent two weeks (and five techinicians) to fix my internet service, I have been lost in a book called Natural Capitalism; Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Huntger Lovins. This book should be required reading for every person with a voter's registration card! If you find any of my ideas intriguing, this book is for you. Ideas that I have had for years, hunches I had about business and the environment, and things I knew but couldn't explain are all addressed in detail in this book. It's everything I ever believed about economics.

dirty oil, dirty money

Tonight, I have to say "Thank God for PBS". Without it, I would starve mentally. First, I watched a show on third party candidates called "Crashing the Party". Very inspiring. Then I caught "Extreme Oil". How anyone could watch this program and NOT get high blood pressure is beyond me.

Drilling oil isn't just bad for the environment. It's bad for us. The exhaust gives us breathing problems, the driving short distances prevents us from getting exercise and makes us fat. Dirty oil is making billions in dirty money because corporations are putting our future at serious risk for disaster.

Our greed for oil has cost us the respect of the world, and we have started a war that people will fight in the name of God to get our evil greed out their countries.

If the American public knew the truth, they would vote differently. Anyone who loves to hunt or fish would understand the catastrophic implications of these choices.

Imagine at the turn of the Century, if horse owners had a lobby as powerful as the oil and gas industry. Imagine us clinging to horse drawn buggies when new technology was there and ready to go. Imagine our country refusing to put in gas stations so as not to make cars easily accessible to customers.

The technology IS here. Hydrogen powered cars are ready for the road. There are safe ways to transport the hydrogen, in the form of a spongy disk. In the future, you would buy a tank of hydrogen off of the impulse shelf, next to the gum, candy and batteries in the checkout line.

Solar and wind are ready and waiting. If Bush can give tax breaks to SUV owners, why shouldn't we give tax breaks to people who install alternative energy sources.

abortion issue

SIX WAYS TO END ABORTION: WITHOUT CHANGING ROE vs WADE

As a Catholic woman, a mother and as a woman planning to run for office, I am very saddened by the actions of some priests to refuse communion to pro-choice candidates. I strongly consider myself a pro-life person but I do not believe that changing laws is the right way to end abortion in this country. I think there are powerful choices we can make as a faith community that will help end abortion without crossing legal lines. After reading some articles on this subject in the St. Augustine Catholic, I felt led to share my story and my vision for ending abortion WITHOUT changing Roe vs. Wade.

I agree very much with what the Church teaches about the sanctity of life. Even when my life was endangered with my unborn daughter, it never occurred to me or my husband that we would end my pregnancy. The conversation simply never came up. We struggled with severe toxemia and HELLP Syndrome to bring our beautiful baby girl into the world. It was a terrifying time. We worried so much. Would both of us (mommy and baby) make it? What if the baby made it and I died? It was hard to understand that bringing a child into the world could mean that both of my children could become motherless.

I truly believe that every woman should choose life. But I certainly can’t tell another woman looking death in the eyes what she should do. This was the original premise of Roe vs Wade; that women, with their own personal articles of faith, and their doctors could make medical decisions in the event that the mother and/or the unborn baby were facing severe medical problems, birth defects, etc.(Roe was facing a baby with severe birth defects).

We should never overturn Roe vs. Wade and prevent women and their doctors from making medical decisions when a pregnancy has turned from a healthy, happy occasion, to a burden of grief and pain. Knowing I was choosing to continue my pregnancy helped me trust God and understand that I was an active participant in the miracle. Had I not had the freedom to choose to trust God, I am not sure we would have had a happy ending. The extra burden of force and coercion from the state to carry a child that could have killed me may have been too much for me. I am truly not sure I would have survived to raise my beautiful children if I had not felt the freedom to choose to trust God and believe in a miracle

The unfortunate part of Roe vs Wade is that any pregnancy became a medical condition. The Pro Life movement and the Church have failed to address the idea that ALL babies are NOT medical decisions. While there are women, like Roe and myself, facing very difficult medical choices that should be made in the privacy of marriage, medical consent, and prayer, the numbers in this category are small. We (the Pro –Life movement) should instead focus our attention on the reality that healthy unborn children are not medical choices, they are miracles.

There are a six significant changes we can make to end abortion without reversing Roe vs. Wade. We don’t need to change laws, we need to change hearts. As Paul said in one of his letters, “They will know we are Christians by our love for one another”. Love is the answer to ending abortion.

FIRST, we must recognize our own involvement in the medicalization of childbearing. The vast majority of pregnancies are healthy, viable pregnancies. Yet most women consider their pregnancies medical conditions. They consult doctors instead of midwives. They birth in hospitals (which are for sick people) and despite being healthy, most women (and their doctors) opt for dangerous, expensive drugs and procedures for convenience rather than safety. The Unites States is ranked 27th in the world for infant mortality. It is safer to give birth in some developing countries than here at home. The U.S. is ranked number one in iaotagenic birth defects. These are the defects, disabilities and developmental problems caused by routine obstetric procedures. It is a poverty that even the strictest Pro-Life mothers fail to see their involvement with the abortion mentality that babies are medical conditions and not miracles when they choose unnecessary medical interventions in a hospital.

SECOND, recognizing that a healthy pregnancy is a joyous occasion, we should seek the wisdom of midwives and doulas to help us bring our babies into the world. We should avoid hospitals if we are healthy and birth at home or in church sponsored birth centers. What a painless, joyful way to bring a baby into the world, to sit in a warm whirlpool, waters blessed by a priest and lift your baby from warm waters to your breast. Imagine the joy women in the sisterhood could experience by being a part of this new joyful, sacred birth movement.

THIRD, after birth we should continue to respect the sanctity of the female body God gave us and breastfeed exclusively for at least six months. Despite twenty years of research proving that breast milk is superior, most American women wean long before God intended us to. Formula is so convenient. But is parenting supposed to be convenient? Do you really think that genetically modified proteins grown on petroleum by-products are ok for your baby? Did you know that 1.5 million babies a year DIE from bottle baby syndrome so that formula companies can expand their markets and offer a convenient product to you? Is the convenience to you worth the price of those young lives?

FOURTH, we need to make the foster care system history. There are thousands of children who are in foster homes and orphanages because their parents are unwilling or unable to love and care for them. I am very proud that Catholics are so active in recruiting and pushing foster care. I am saddened though that so many in the Pro-Life movement are unable or unwilling to commit to loving one unloved child with a history. I admit that prayer chains, and standing on a corner periodically take much less time and commitment than loving a problem child. However, it seems that unborn babies get more support than the living, breathing, hurting children in our foster care system. If every Pro-Life person committed to one child, I am not sure we would have any abused, abandoned children left. When we have placed every suffering, abused child into a loving home, we will have done something that is sure to lower abortion rates.

FITH, we need to educate young girls and boys about the sanctity of a woman’s body long before they are married and include that again in pre-Cana coursework. Young girls in this country are bombarded with negative ideas about their breasts, their genitals, and their bodies. The boys get these same terrible messages. We should begin sex education with junior high children. We should include, not just the physical facts about sex and conception, but natural childbirth (the Bradley method), lactation classes and an introduction to the sacred calling of motherhood. We are doing our children a great disservice when we fail to connect sex education with pregnancy, childbirth, lactation and the sacred role of motherhood.

SIXTH, we need to end domestic violence on all levels. Abortion is the highest form of child abuse. As Mother Theresa said “It is a poverty that a child must die so that you may live your life as you wish”. We know that as many as one in four women report abuse by a spouse. This is simply astounding. Millions of children are growing up with violence. Yet we often turn our attention elsewhere, for fear of getting involved. Ending domestic violence of all types is a powerful way to end abortion. We must confront domestic violence with the same fervor that we have fought Roe vs Wade.

FINALLY, I would like to challenge the idea that a pro-life candidate is really a Pro-Life candidate. The sanctity of life isn’t just for the unborn. Yet most Pro-Life candidates support the death penalty. To kill someone for a terrible crime is, simply, another crime. It is hypocrisy to tout an unconditional love for all life, and yet fail to give mercy on those who deserve it. As many as eighty percent of incarcerated criminals admit to being abused physically, sexually, and emotionally growing up. If we, as a Pro-Life movement had spent the last thirty years of Roe vs Wade loving these unloved children and ending domestic violence instead of fighting the law, perhaps we wouldn’t have prisons (or abortion) today.

God’s love conquers death. This is the simple promise of Jesus’ crucifixion. It’s also the map we should follow for ending abortion. Our love will inspire people to choose life when we change our hearts and follow the teachings of Jesus. Having a healthy baby isn’t an illness that belongs in a hospital. It’s a sacred event that belongs in our home or in a birth center. The Church would do well to provide us a place that specializes in welcoming new life into the world. We desperately need midwives and doulas in our congregations to aid, not just in the physical birth, but in the sacred act of bringing new life into the world. We should focus our attention on encouraging moms to breastfeed and we should refuse to do business with companies that make money by killing babies, even IF their products are “convenient” for us. We need to educate our children at a young age about the natural progression of marriage, sex, childbirth, lactation and motherhood. The fervor we fight Roe vs. Wade with would be better spent ending domestic violence and child abuse. Furthermore, we need to remember that the sanctity of life includes those we might judge unworthy. We are to love unconditionally and we are called to forgive and show mercy to those on death row. These six steps of loving abortion away are the answer to our struggles in the Pro-Life movement. We don’t need to change the law. We need to change our hearts, the world our babies are born into, and the way they are brought into the world.

Democratic moms and Republican moms

How Liberal Democrats are Really the Finest Republicans Around or “How did the Right Wing Conspiracy Manage to get SO FAR OUT THERE?”

I asked one of my best friends here (who happens to be a die hard Republican) WHY she was a Republican. I REALLY wanted to know. So one day, while our oldest children had soccer practice together, and our youngest were playing with pine cones, I asked “Friend, WHY are you a Republican? What makes you proud to be a Republican?” I spent the next hour getting her answer. I listened. I listened to every word she said. I did not’t rebuke, rebuttal or argue. I didn't’t debate, discuss, or dispute. I just listened and tried my best to see how she could be right. I assumed what every friend thinks of another friend; that there was a sincere, logical explanation in there rooted in experience, intelligence, and wisdom. I wanted to see this part of a Republican. I wanted the value of her perspective. Here are the main points I remember from this conversation.

1) She believes in small government, especially a small Federal government. She made a good point; “How can the federal government best know how to spend my tax dollars to meet the needs of my state and local communities?”

2) She believes in minimal taxes for people.

3) She believes in a big military.

4) She believes that churches and not government agencies should help people in need with things like food, shelter, etc. She believes that government safety nets should not exist. She thinks they promote laziness in some people.

5) She believes in “Trickle Down” Economics with the same fervor she believes in Jesus Christ.

6) She firmly believes that government regulations of any sort interfere with the economy in VERY BAD WAYS.

7) Small government, so people can "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" all they want.

Having heard her perspective on these issues, it made me wonder “How on earth did the Republican right get SOOOOOoooooo out there? Many of the things she talked about did not offend me as a Democrat. More importantly, she admitted that she does not agree with a lot of the things the Republican agenda is pursuing. But she is loyal to her party and she tolerates their shortcomings, because in the end, she believes in the vision of the party. Here's where she and her party differ:

1) She’s pro-choice. This is something both of us agree on. Neither of us would have an abortion, both of us completely disagree with them entirely. But both of us believe that the government does not have the right to tell us what to do with our vaginas. So we agree; no bureaucratic red tape on our genitals!

2) We both believe in the power and sanctity of the family unit. We both agree that the failure of the family unit is the root cause of many of our social problems.

3) She’s not against homosexuals. I am not sure if she’s “pro gay marriage” but she’s certainly not die hard against it. I think this is because she is really into the “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” part of the constitution. It is possible that she's really against them and won't tell me for fear of upsetting me since I have some lesbians in the family, so I put that on the table owing full disclosure to this story.

4) We both agree that the multi media conglomerates have too much power and that it is difficult (if not almost impossible) to find accurate, unbiased information about the goings on in this country.

5) We both think that the local and state news do a terrible job covering issues relevant to the democratic process and that they spend too much time covering fear based issues (like shark attacks).

6) We both believe that ALL children deserve an excellent education regardless of income level or geographical location.

What I discovered (and what I treasure most) about my friend is that just as she and I have more in common than not, so do Republicans and Democrats.

SO WHAT THEY HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY?

Men. That's what's going on in our country. But before I get into that, let me comment on what I think of my friends ideas about government.

1) BIG GOVERNMENT: The idea she has that the Federal government can't most effectively meet the needs of state and local government, well I agree with her completely.

2) MINIMAL TAXES: AMEN I am all for a flat percentage tax. More importantly, I believe that American Corporate giants should be paying a lot more taxes. I am completely against corporate welfare too (She's not and I'll address that more in the TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS section).

3) BIG MILITARY: Completely disagree with a big military, and I have bad news for my friend; You can't have a big military AND low taxes. Even "Enron" math can't make this work.

4) CHURCH AND STATE: Well I don't understand why the government can't DO the loving work we all learn about in church. I do see why her idea doesn't work. Since Dubya took office and passed his faith based initiatives, thousands of organizations representing dozens of faiths have applied for federal grant money. Not one non-Christian organization has been given a grant. NOT ONE. If you can't see the problem knowing that one little fact, shame on you. There's a reason we need separation of church and state and why our government and not our churches should be helping its citizens.

5) TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS: She believes that corporate welfare leads to lower consumer prices. I believe it leads to excessively wealthy people and corporations that take money from our government that could be better spent on it's citizens.

Exhibit A: Enron
Exhibit B: United Airlines
exhibit C: WorldCom
Exhibit D: Haliburton

6) LOW REGULATIONS: I don't believe low government regulations cause price problems but I do believe they cause health problems. Most notably cancers and breathing problems. The American Lung Association has some statistics that really put this into perspective.

7) SMALL GOVERNMENT: How does the Federal government have the right to tell two consenting adults what they can and cannot do? Banning gay marriage is one way to completely violate the premise of “small Federal government”. Interestingly enough, I have a die hard Democratic liberal friend who pointed out that the Federal government shouldn't have the right to recognize ANY marriage because even that is a violation of separation of church and state. She said marriage is a sacred thing, and that the government should only recognize civil unions for everybody. VERY INTERESTING. Perhaps this gay marriage fiasco is the result of the Federal government going places it should not have to begin with. If the Federal government did only recognize civil unions, that means that churches could still determine for themselves what was and was not a marriage, civil unions of all types would have the legal protection they need and we would not have these debates.

If my friend and I can agree on some of the biggest political issues we have, without even TRYING, I am sure that we would work out some agreements. So why can't our parties do this?

Well, I'll tell you. The last thing both parties want is for us all to know that we agree on most issues. Because if we all know that, we are going to look at our elected officials and ask "Why haven't you done your job? We all agree on this abortion issue. We agree on saving the family unit. How about some tax cuts for stay at home moms instead of corporations outsourcing overseas? The day we realize that we agree on more than we disagree is the day that the people of this country and not the elite of this country will be running our country. It's called a Democracy; we should try it sometime.

This is a divide and conquer strategy of monumental proportions. It's a plan to make money by selling us a lot of fear and distracting us from the smoking guns (like the guns in Iraq protecting Bush and Cheney's oil buddies). We're getting played for fools.

My friend and I, we want the same things for our children. We want a safe world, a safe country, a good education for good paying jobs and the freedom to worship wherever we want. But if we continue to let the policital machine divide us and distract us from the things that really matter, neither of us will have the peace that comes from knowing that the world is a better place for our children than it was for us.

We need one unified party. Men get caught up in their egos, their power trips, money, prestige and all of the other deadly sins erroding at our democracy. What we need is a bunch of moms running the show. YEP. MOMS. People like me and my friend, working on issues, being fair to one another's ideas. We need moms who can disagree with one another, still love one another and care about ALL of the children affected by policy. We need a MOM Congress, a MOM Senate, and a MOM in the Whitehouse.

Moms have a lot of on-the-job training in politics. One toy, two kids and a snowstorm; it doesn't get any messier than that. Moms specialize in holding people accountable. Moms are often diffusing situations, juggling a dozen projects and demanding honesty from self serving interest who don't want to give it (ie. their own children). Moms understand the real cost of war because they know the power of giving life. Moms understand the difference between gun control and gun responsibility. Moms know that you can't force anyone to do the right thing if they are really commited to doing it wrong. In fact, a lot of moms are responsible for legislation that protect all children and all citizens. That's because moms know you can't put a price on selling out your own children. Most moms wouldn't put a price selling out someone else's children either because they wouldn't want someone to do that to them. Moms see first hand what happens when someone doesn't clean up after themselves. Moms know better than to leave dangerous chemicals within reach of children. Moms know that quality healthcare is about more than a doctor. Moms just know....and moms are our hope for a better country.

The spiritual path of Sysiphus

As I push through my journey of homemaker, there is a conversation that used to recycle through our marriage on a consistent basis. The generic form of it goes like this:

“I am so exhausted, I have so much work to do and I am just too tired. I want to sit down and do nothing.” says my husband.

“I understand. I’m exhausted too. Can you bathe the kids while I clean the kitchen?” I ask.

“I’d rather not. I just told you I’m really tired and I don’t want to do anything”

“Well I’m really tired too and I want to sit down and do nothing too, but we have kids to feed, bathe, and put to bed. Could you help me get through this?”

“I work all day to support this family. I make money so we have everything we need. I just need some time. I deserve to come home and relax if I want”.

“Well I work around the clock. I am still breastfeeding at 5 am. I don’t even get a break in my sleep. And I work all day making sure you have clothes to wear and food to eat and that your home environment isn’t condemned by a health inspector, and I pay the bills, and organize all four schedules for every person in this family and try to give the kids the emotional support they need so they don’t become drug addicts or snipe shooters, or apathetic non voters. I need more than some time. I need some help. I just want you to bathe the kids. You could have been finished now. Furthermore, I wish I could go home and relax, but since my home is my job that is never going to work for me. Maybe I could go to someone else’s’ house to relax”.

If you’re married with children then you have had this conversation. That’s why I am pretty shameless about writing it. I can’t be too embarrassed writing a pretty generic conversation that sums up one of the biggest sources of stress in a family. Families are work. Hard work.

This conversation isn’t about a power struggle. Unfortunately, that’s how most people see it. This conversation is really about appreciating the unique gifts people bring to a family, most notably, the role of mother. The old cliché “A mans work comes and goes with the sun, but a woman’s work is never done” is the most accurate and telling insight into the gender issue ever spoken or written. Sisyphus was based on a housewife.

I say based because he didn’t get the full impact of being a housewife. Yes, a housewife pushes a proverbial rock uphill everyday and it falls every night. We call it housework. Just getting the basics done, laundry, floors, and cooking, that’s the rock part. The reason Sisyphus is only based on a housewife is because if he had been an actual housewife, he would have been responsible for raising children while he tended his rock duties everyday.

The conversation I have with my husband, is about the exhausting nature of my job everyday. It’s also about how down I can get when I start to wonder about how many times I have tried to get up the hill with my one year old screaming four or more hours in a day or my first grader throwing a tantrum. It’s about pushing up the last part of that hill at the end of the day with your children ignoring you request after request or arguing with you about fairness when all you want is some laundry off the floor or teeth brushed or even a bath time without the near drowning of a younger sibling at the hands of the older. Every night, I am so glad when I reach the top of the hill, that I just fall into the couch and I am grateful I survived.

I tried to explain this idea to a childless friend. They laughed and then made a curious face and asked “But wouldn’t the kids be the rock?” Naive. Very naïve. No childless friend, the children are not the rock. It’s the housework that is constant. It’s always the same weight, always the same work, it’s ongoing and never ending. My children change moment by moment. Think of the children as the weather. Some days Sisyphus pushes the rock on a clear sunny day and some days, the sky turns dark while a hailstorm (complete with flying soccer ball) pelts you in the face. There's a reason hurricane names remind us all of children we know. My children are a lot of things, but consistent or predictable are not involved. Ever.

My husband finally realized that. I am not sure when it happened, but he began to understand that I am not whining or complaining about my job when I need help. Nor am I negating his hard work. But we have very different types of jobs and mine is truly the harder of the two. The only time I ever have off from my job is the time he gives me. He’s my substitute. He is the only person who can help me relax or add to my stress level. Now that he understands this, he tries to be more generous about how much time I have. He gives me more. Since he began to help me more at night, I have had time to read or write. My ability to be myself, even for just a half hour or so, has translated into a more relaxed, refreshed wife and mother. Things have shifted to lighter, easier, calmer and more pleasant. Our family has subtly changed for the better.

I don’t make any money for what I do but I figured out my monetary value. A cleaning service would cost me fifty dollars a day. If I paid a taxi to drive the kids and myself around, I’d be looking at forty to seventy dollars a day depending on the day. There would be an occasional $100 fare for special shopping expeditions about once a month. A cook for my meals would easily run me a hundred bucks a day. Nannies in my neighborhood make ten bucks an hour and I would need nine hours if I worked full time as a teacher. So somehow, if we contracted all of my roles out, we would be shelling out approximately three hundred dollars a day. And that doesn’t even include my part time stints as nurse, doctor, psychologist, secretary, travel agent or reporter. So I am worth roughly four hundred dollars a day. Four hundred dollars a day times seven days a week. That’s $2,800. Multiply that by 52 and I’m worth $145,600. WOW! Not too shabby for an unemployed stay at home mom. I’m the only person I know worth more if I’m schizophrenic. My husband can’t afford to lose me. Maybe he did the math too and decided he couldn’t afford to fire me. It’s cheaper to be nice and help out once in a while.

Gay Marriage

The Declaration of Independence was the first act of our forming government. In it, our Founding Members defined a very clear picture of what a private citizen is entitled to....

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness"

Furthermore, the Ninth amendment clearly states that "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

When one takes our most fundamental Law into account, it is obvious that to deny two consenting adults seeking "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" the right to marriage which all people in all states have and the Fourth Article of the Constitution guarantees full faith and recognition thereof, is against our most basic and precious human rights.

I recognize that same sex marriage is very threatening to some people, particularly people of certain Christian faiths. I myself, being Catholic, am very aware of the Church's views on the matter. However, Jesus says very clearly "Judge not, lest you be judged yourself". Jesus gives us the Great Commandment "Love one another". While there are scriptures that conflict with Jesus' teaching, and give fuel to the fire of some, it is important to remember that Jesus is part of "a new and everlasting covenant" and therefore, the words of Christ should be the Supreme authority on this matter until the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Considering the wisdom of our Founding Members and having complete faith in the love of Christ, I believe that same sex marriage is a right to all persons seeking it and that the Federal government has no right to change our original Creed of Purpose which has lasted over two hundred years, for the sake of the religious beliefs of some.

I accept the idea that marriage is a scared institution. So I do not even think it is legal for the government to recognize my marriage. It is appalling to think that our government will decide which marriages are sacred are which are not. Different religious faiths have different views of marriage. The State or Federal government should not be choosing sides.

Let the Churches battle over which marriages are legitimate and which are not. If our governments are incapable or unwilling to apply the law fairly to all, then no marriages should be recognized and we should all be civil unions with only our churches acknowledging the Sacredness of marriage.

I know that many say that by allowing gay marriage, we are destroying the sacred nature of marriage. When you consider the fact that the divorce rate in this country is over fifty percent, that there are over a million children every year living on a one parent family and that millions of women and children are abused by their spouse and parents, I think it is fair to say that heterosexuals are doing a fine job of destroying marriage without any help from gay couples.