For starters, I would like to thank the Patriots for winning yesterday. Wait, I said this wrong. I would like to thank the kicker for missing the field goal which allowed the Patriots to make up for their mistakes and not lose the game. We couldn’t have done it without you Billy Cundiff! (Also, the looks on everyone’s face when that kick missed was priceless. I laughed for hours.) Can’t wait to see the Patriots redeem themselves after the last time they faced the Giants though, I hope so anyways. First though, we have to suck a little less at the Super Bowl.
Next on my moments of awe this weekend, I saw a 9-year-old turn into a high school-er, but more useful. First I find out there’s a school dance he would love to attend. I walked out as my hormonal self cried a little over this, but agreed to work it out with him. Then as I became overwhelmed by cooking for the game and my husband was at work, this little adult announces that he will be doing the laundry to help and lugs a basket larger than himself down the stairs. I should also mention that the laundry came out flawlessly and I realized that he was now more useful than most men I knew. It was refreshing to know I did something right.
Finally on my list of shocking moments, Newt wins a primary? I’m personally shocked by this. He’s not a likable or charismatic person by any means, and I’ll admit I’m not a Republican but I’m still lost here. He should thank his speech writers, those unsung heroes of any successful politician. Or, give a shout out to the same person that made Cundiff miss that field goal, because those were both miracles we didn’t see coming. I assumed Romney, the more charismatic and likable guy would’ve pulled it off and not walk away with half the votes Newt did. I suppose we’ll see what happens in Florida, and I hope that my son won’t become a janitor at school because they both got rid of child labor laws and minimum wage. Go America!
This post was my Wednesday post, which I opted to move to Friday for more important things. Let’s hope the people we “elect to speak for us” do their job and listen to us not wanting SOPA. Go team and sign a petition if you haven’t already.
I laugh sometimes when I sigh and think of what we get on TV. We have shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant which aim to show kids how difficult it is to be a teen parent, and hopes to make them think a little about consequences. What I see are spoiled brats that can’t raise kids, but get more money to support their family for being on television than I do. I don’t think its aim is to glorify the life of the teen mother, but considering one of them is pregnant again and one of them had a friend that was so inspired she wanted one too; it’s hard to wonder if it “accidentally” glorifies that life.
Even worse than that, we realize that there are still a lot of societal challenges these teen moms have to struggle with. On one hand, we have these teen moms on television making money for being teen moms and possibly inadvertently glorifying it a little but on the other, in the real world teen moms struggle with discrimination. I have a lot of difficulty with this, I can’t understand a society where they glorify something but tell you it’s completely wrong. At least when you watch a hoarders show, you don’t sit there going, “hey, living in a place where I need to climb a mountain of junk to get to my room is fantastic”. You sit there and go, “what’s wrong with those people?”
I was a mom at 18, and I still to this day remember dirty looks I got at the grocery store, or how I was treated by doctors that weren’t my son’s normal doctors. I remember how I was treated in the hospital when he was born, and that still sticks with me today as a 28-year-old woman with another on the way. I remember having to lie just to get him christened. Most of all, I remembered losing a good job opportunity as a result, and ended up picking up slack where I could making it so I worked from sunrise to well after sun down. The life of a single mom is the most demanding thing a person can do; when you’re a teen single mom, you have a lot more to deal with.
The point of this was simple, a friend mentioned on her Facebook that her niece was denied entry into the Colleen Contest on the grounds she was a teen mother. I think it’s incredibly distressing to me that with everything I’ve stated before about the society we live in, that such an outdated rule exists. In fact, I think they should be honored to have her because she sounds fantastic and anyone who does what she does and raises a kid too should be given a medal. In fact, all moms deserve a medal for the things they need to deal with daily. I hope the contest changes their mind, because as an Irish-woman, I’d be honored to have her represent me.
I’ll start this by pointing out since I couldn’t do my usual Monday, Wednesday, and Friday routine, I’m going for a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday one. It happens to work out well though, since the People’s Choice Awards was yesterday and inspired me. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a good inspiration.
First I’d like to state that I’m a Glee fan, so this isn’t about whether they should’ve won any awards. I don’t really view Glee as a real comedy, when I think of real comedy shows on TV I think about Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, and Suburgatory. So when I witness Lea Michele (who I love, really I do) beating say, Kaley Cuoco for Best Comedic Actress, I was shocked. I let it slide, it can’t be that bad. Then I realized that I must’ve been watching the Teen Choice Awards, part 1, because those were the people who seemed to be voting. Really, Pretty Little Liars beating Game of Thrones? I died a lot on the inside over this.
Then it made me think about elections and politics, and this awards show epitomizes everything I hate about the electoral process. You don’t need to actually know anything to vote. You could just show up and pick any name and go with it. You could pick a candidate and not know anything about him, but you just kind of like how he looks or because that’s what your friend is voting for. I’d be perfectly happy if I had to take a test of basic knowledge to vote, I think it’s something to be considered. At this rate, Taylor Lautner will end up president because our culture is “Team Whateverfadexists”. If you’re wondering why I chose him and not that guy who plays Edwards, you really should do us a favor and stay away from the polls.
Maybe that’s a bit harsh, considering making people take a test to vote for their president because I lost hope in people’s decision making skills after watching the People’s Choice Awards. Maybe I should just suggest we do a questionnaire and they pick a president for us based on our ideals and choices. That’s more up the tech savvy laziness we’ve grown accustomed to. It’s a lot more fun than Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Mo.
SOPA SOPA SOPA. This bill seems like something that is being quietly pushed through while many people are focusing on the upcoming elections. I understand the fact I’ll get those arguments of “well the Democrats pushed through the healthcare law the same way”. That’s ok, because I live in Massachusetts, we have it here already. My only argument really to fight those people is that “well you didn’t want the government to have too much power over you then, why do you allow it now”. The main difference is the amount of money they can probably pocket from the movie and recording industry in passing SOPA. Yay corrupt politics.
I don’t like the idea that this bill could hypothetically start a dictatorship-esque control over our internet content. I especially don’t like this idea as someone who writes my content, with the fear that I write one thing someone doesn’t like and I could get in legal trouble. This is mostly because it’s quite likely I have and will continue to post things that people don’t like. I’m sure if they really wanted to stop piracy as they claim they do, they can figure out a less Nazi like approach.
It makes my head spin, it really does. I’m starting to wonder what people are thinking. They preach in one breath on the podium how the government is getting too much power over us, but we can’t allow things like gay marriage or abortion. So, the government can control what we do with our bodies, but giving us healthcare to help people is bad? What about government control law enforcement and safety? Why do you want to control the internet if you have too much power over us? I think these are fair questions that the politicians really should be answering, instead of spending 80% of their time attacking their opponents.
We need to see how much control the people really have. We elect these politicians and they do whatever they want. Here are 2 petitions you can push through if you haven’t to help a cause and see how much say we really have. https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173 and the Official White House site has one you can get access to by clicking on the open petitions link.
In time for Christmas, I look at my son’s Christmas list and see a game entitled “Naughty Bear” on it. I chuckled, not knowing what the game was and assuming that with a name like that it couldn’t be that bad. Then, my husband walks in and starts getting upset over it. Apparently the game was far from what I thought it was, and immediately we both crossed it off his list.
In researching it, we find out it’s a video game that has a serial killing teddy bear. There’s over the top violence, which it’s a cartoon we see it in cartoons all the time. I think even cartoons have a line. That’s not what really upsets me about the game, and the main reason we disallowed it in our household. In the game, you’re supposed to torture fellow teddy bears into killing themselves. There’s not much that offends me but that definitely brings me close, especially considering the state of affairs today with teens being bullied to a point of suicide. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that this sickened me a little, especially for a game that’s rated Teen. We spoke to him about it, and he nodded in understanding and went on his way like nothing happened.
This isn’t talking about how video games are too violent and shouldn’t be made. I appreciate video games as an art form, and think that they can create as they want. It’s not the video game companies’ responsibility for what they produce; it’s the parents’ responsibility to make decisions on games that are appropriate or not to play. As avid gamers ourselves, we watch what we play in his presence as well. I don’t look at ratings when I pick games for my son, I look at content. Parents should research the games and be vigilant in what they allow them to play. Those same parents that refuse to educate themselves try to pass of blame on the companies. It’s not right. We have the same problem with television shows and movies. Parents want things censored so they can ignore their kid and let electronics babysit them, and when something goes wrong they look back and refuse to blame themselves. If you don’t want your 9-year-old to play Modern Warfare 3, don’t buy it for them. Last I checked, as parents you should have control not the kids.
I keep seeing the debates on “to vaccinate or not to vaccinate”. I despise needles; I hate the way I feel after I get a shot. I hate watching kids get shots, and I hate when they cry because the doctor said they needed the vaccines and I agree with them, making me feel guilty for the decision that was supposed to be right. It was supposed to be the right and mature call that most parents make. After all that, I realized I’d rather get a shot and be miserable for a day today, then down the line die. That’s the decision I made and I’m sticking to it.
I watch crime shows, I love them. However, in one episode of one of these shows I like, the bad guy wasn’t this evil and malicious villain. The “bad guy” was a mom who refused to vaccinate her kid, and the result of that decision caused a baby too young to be vaccinated die. Was this just a scare tactic the show used to get propaganda in our heads about an issue they felt strong enough? Maybe. Did it work? Oh heck yes it did.
What was made clear to me in this episode was that this mother’s decision not only allowed her child to get sick from a disease a vaccine could’ve easily prevented, it killed another who was too young to be offered prevention. I knew every decision I made could easily either help or harm my child, most parents know this. Now, it’s apparent to me that the decisions I make not only affect my son, it could potentially affect any one he comes in contact with. I can’t have the death of a child on my conscience, I can’t handle that.
I don’t care if I’m considered a bad mother for this, I will vaccinate my children. I realize it’s a personal choice, and while I consider it stupid and selfish and irresponsible to not vaccinate your children, I accept other’s refuse to. I don’t understand why not. So what, they supposedly cause seizures and allergies? Apparently the latest Twilight movie does, but you still let your kids watch that movie. (A side note, no one should watch that terrible movie let alone your kids. Again, totally my opinion.) I’d rather chances of things that could be caused by hundreds of different other things than killing my kid or someone else’s.
I’m not saying everyone should run out and get every vaccination ever created and dose up on antibacterial stuff. I’m saying that I believe that guidelines are there for a reason. Thanks to a lot of these vaccines, we’re protected from illness that could kill us or bring us very close to death. Because of a lot of these “harmful” vaccinations, we’re free and clear of several very deadly and miserable diseases. I’ll take that, even if it makes me have a bad reaction to a strobe light.
I don’t attend church, big shock. I pay my share to them to send my son to CCD, because every kid needs something to believe in, some morals to learn. I’m not entirely ok with the idea, but it couldn’t hurt him, and he thinks well enough on his own to make his own call on this. I’m opposed to the idea of the organized religion part. As I’m sure you understood when I pretty much mocked organized religion in an earlier post.
As a result of this, every year I get flyers for the “Annual Catholic Appeal”. Pretty much, they want your money to do charity work. I approve of charity work, I think everyone should donate at least some time or money into a cause you believe in or to help others out that need it. Let’s be honest though, people pay a ridiculous amount of money for Catholic schooling for their kid, and teachers don’t make that much money. What happens to that overflow, shouldn’t that go to the charities those yearly donations beg us for? Of course it doesn’t.
When I do attend church and toss money into the collection, I really wonder if that money ever makes it to people in need. When I see a nun pull out a Blackberry, I’m assured that I’m right in wondering what happens to our donations to the church. They preach to us about charity and kindness, but I don’t understand where they actually do this help. I’ve known churches to turn their back on people who couldn’t afford to put money in for donations or to unwed mothers who just want to baptize their child. But hell, let’s donate money for them.
Then, I see on the news that the Catholic Church just bought the Crystal Cathedral for 57.5 million dollars. They need money from us, because they are too poor to help the needy. But they can afford a 57.5 million dollar cathedral? I dislike this idea, and it strengthens my belief that organized religion is a sham to get money from people. It’s good to see they haven’t evolved too far from the times where they would sell off forgiveness for sins if you paid enough for it.
This isn’t a discussion of whether I’m a sad, Godless soul. I’m a ginger; I’m told I don’t have a soul to begin with. It’s a discussion that the church is just like those companies that demand us to bail them out while paying for their CEO’s to go on a yacht tour with our money. The Occupy Wall Street people are blind if their only cause is student loans, though I can’t say I’m even sure what they want except attention or being sprayed in the face with tear gas. The problem isn’t just student loans robbing people; the problem is everyone is robbing us, especially those in the business of “helping” others.
I learned that civil rights may have changed the world, however that doesn’t beat the iPod. While I love my iPod, I like equality more. I like that as a result of the Civil Rights movement, at least in the words of the law, we’re all equal. I like that I can marry my cliched soul mate now, which I wouldn’t have really been able to because he’s a different race. Though I would be in accurate to state we currently live in a world of true equality, at least we’re headed there soon. Hopefully.
Granted I say this, while away from my computer on my beloved smart-phone which probably wouldn’t exist without Jobs. But I love my Android more than I will ever love an iPhone, I love my iPod only because it’s better than the others, and I hate Pixar movies. I do appreciate Jobs art of not really creating anything new, but just making things a little bit better.
I didn’t mean this out of disrespect to someone who is a legend in his field, I meant this in awe of how we view importance in America. Personally I am more impressed by changes in our society that moves at a slower pace, than an impact on a field of technology that is in a constant state of change.
Today, reading the U.S.A Today I learned that the Tea Party and anything else political really makes me question ideals. Not just a little either, I really sit there wondering where people come up with some of this stuff.
Where do I even begin? It seems the Tea Party feels the government has too much control. They say the government over stepped its boundaries by mandating everyone has health insurance. As someone from Massachusetts, who has definitely felt the downside of this policy and doesn’t fully support it, I completely understand this. Then I’m stunned to learn most are Pro-life and seem to want to ban abortion. So, I try to talk myself through this. “The government can’t tell me to get health insurance, but abortion is a bad thing the government needs to ban”. Saying it aloud doesn’t make sense of it to me. So then I read most are against gay marriage. With that said, I can’t be told whether or not I have insurance but I can be told what to do if I’m pregnant and I can’t marry for love. Yup, I am sufficiently baffled.
Then I really read something that contorted my face into such a twist: there was a Tea Partier that felt we need to return back to the ideals of the constitution. Yes, I agree with you. Finally I found someone who made sense and they change my idea.of the tea party. Only then I read to a quote stating “no where does it say in the constitution that we need to separate church and state”. Really, no where?
I can forgive general hypocrisy of controlling citizens’ bodies. I can even forgive that they want to lessen government control and let states control their own education, but force schools to learn creationism alongside evolution. I can’t seem to ignore how the constitution doesn’t cause a separation between church and state. Unless I missed something in high school civics class, though I doubt I could even screw that up.
Something else I learned today: Being an American citizen that supports al-Qaeda is different from being a foreign grown one. In reading the Op-Ed section, one close to my heart because that and humorous columns were among my dream “to-do” list, I saw a reader comment on the American drone bombing of one of our own. He was angry that we decided to kill him without due process. He was an American, one of us. He deserved better. He deserves better than the other terrorists we stuff in camps to torture without due process? I remember people in an uproar when we started to try terrorists. I don’t understand the logic, at all.
The most important lesson I learned reading my complimentary copy of U.S.A today is why I avoid newspapers: Why I never read newspapers. I don’t think I learned anything of true value, except an incredible urge to become more cynical. That’s really what I needed, more reasons to feel cynical.
The candidates for the 2012 elections are campaigning and straw polls have begun. People with big promises to fix the problems we the Americans are currently facing. Candidates with their own followings, preaching change and discussing the moral dilemmas they feel we are currently facing. We have them thrown in our faces, people we have to stand behind, ideals they share with us. All for a chance to change the way we live, the unemployment, our lives.
I watch them, much like the rest of the Americans. Similarly to most people, at least I hope most people, I was skeptical. Promises are one thing, but actions are another story. I can’t keep stories straight; I couldn’t even tell you what each person believes except that they’ll let us believe whatever we want. I can tell you that everyone seems to think the way to vote is by that little letter next to their name, telling us that they are the same as us, and we need to vote for them for the sake of the party.
What about the party of America? Political lines seem like the only thing anyone knows, because we sure aren’t getting anything from our candidates. What about the people struggling, getting hurt by taxes more than corporations hoarding their money, claiming “look at the charity work we do. If we succeed, you do”? I’d like to know when people are going to start talking about something we care about, not “this is Obama’s fault” or “this was all Bush’s fault”. People don’t like excuses and we don’t like finger-pointing.
I openly admit, I’ve never voted. I never had a candidate put in front of me I believed in. South Park had an episode, saying every election you just need to choose the lesser evil. Why should we choose a lesser evil, why can’t we just have a person stand in front of us and say “this is what I believe, take it or leave it”. Instead we get people who tip-toe around questions that matter, or if they do stand up and grow a pair, they take it back when their numbers drop. Why should I vote for someone who won’t tell us what they think, but would rather just do whatever to get re-elected? I would have more respect for the politician that stuck to their guns, regardless, than the one who won’t tell you anything and just attack people. “I am the better candidate because I’m not that guy.” “I am the better choice because I’m a democrat/republican.”
The worst part is today everyone is stressing ideals, morals, and the constitution. Instead, we have people arguing about a health plan that’s “unconstitutional”, while gay marriage needs to become outlawed. Please note: most issues with gay marriage come from religion, which last I checked, constitutionally, we have to separate church and state. Interesting how that works?
What I’ve realized is that elections seem to come down to the ones who can make it until November sounding the least hypocritical. It’s amazing how few of America’s youth votes, isn’t it? I wouldn’t be surprised if that number lessens each year with newly of age jaded youth coming into the election year. They grow into adults just as jaded, or really just cynical of the system. What once existed merely as a “my one vote doesn’t matter” frame of mind, turned into a “what does this person even stand for and why should I bother” mind frame.
In college, I read a book entitled “On Political Equality” by Robert A. Dahl. In it, he describes a problem with our form of democracy. The fact is, our “democracy” allows us to pick someone, and pray that they do what we actually want them to do as our representatives. Practically speaking, we can’t have a true democracy, there are far too many of us. So maybe those people who feel that their “one vote” doesn’t count, can rest assured that it probably really doesn’t. That is until enough people decide, “my one vote doesn’t count” and you have all those people not participating in the electoral process. (On a side note: fantastic book, I recommend it.)
This all brings us back to the original question. Why should we care? I don’t buy into the ideals of “women fought for your right to vote; it’s your duty, blah blah”. I believe if you feel strongly enough about something, you should go for it. If you find a candidate worth it, go for it. But I believe that you shouldn’t be belittled for your mistrust in your candidates and your disgust with voting for someone you don’t feel strongly in. It’s their job to make you believe in them, but I think it’s better if you believe in something and not a person. The person will let you down and break the promises they swore on to make you check their name off in the poll. I think that the failure doesn’t fall in the person who fails to show up to the polls on Election Day, the failure belongs to the people who don’t spend enough time telling you facts to convince you to vote for them.
bluishoblivion 