DUers, At What Age Did You Become Politically Minded and Why?

[Niagara]

171. My mother was raised in a Christian Republican home

where her father and mother (my grandfather and grandmother) were dirt poor farmers raising four children. My mother and the rest of her siblings ate bread topped with milk and sugar for breakfast. Aside from whatever meat for the main dish for dinner, they ate green beans almost every night along with those meals. She refuses to eat green beans to this day.

As my mother got older in the mid 70's she got a job in a union factory that at that time paid $4.00 an hour. That was a high paying job in those times. Eventually, it wasn't until the Reagan Administration that she realized that she wasn't a republican.

My mother was always pro-choice, always made comments about how women should have control over their own bodies. I had mentioned to her in my freshman year of high school that several of my female classmates were pregnant. She told me to let her to know when I was ready for intimacy so that I could get on birth control.

I voted for the first time in 1996 for Bill Clinton when I was 19. Not knowing or realizing what was at stake, I didn't voted again until 2008 for Barack Obama. I have been an active voter ever since my politically inactive mistake. I've had comments made to me by others that it's just not worth the time voting. I flat out tell them that it takes 5 minutes to drive to the voting place and about another 5 minutes to actually vote.Thankfully, we don't have to stand in a line for hours where I live.