glowing
glowing's JournalRomney misses the mark with his stance on Planned Parenthood remarks...
I posted this in a thread discussion and was told it should have its own thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002278843 this is the original discussion that prompted the longer rant.
Anyway, its amazing to me that the man running to become President is so out of touch and seemingly insulated from the "real America" that he totally missed the PR backlash against Komen... (Unless, of course, he thinks that saying this now just before Super Tuesday with many primaries based in the Southeast, that he will win support from the Grinch fans with his anti-choice stance; and that his own word's won't come back around in the General Election to bite him in the ass with women voters.) :
Did he miss the $3 + million that has been raised off of this debacle? Did he miss the fact that time and time again, under investigation by congress and all, that no funding from the Govt nor Komen is or will be used to fund abortions or the fact that only 3% of their services is providing abortions to women who choose to have one? Most of their care goes to women who have no where else to turn for medical care... Pap smears, birth control, and breast cancer screenings. Doesn't he realize that this country is firmly for the right for a woman to choose what to do with their own body, and that it is a private matter that doesn't involve the entire world deciding.
Seriously, what do they plan on doing if they do make abortion illegal again? Incarcerate Doctors and women who obtain illegal abortions? We already know the wealthy would be able to just hop on a plane and discreetly "take care" of the "problem" without a second thought... Its the countless women, young women, poor women who will be left with the options of going through with an un-wanted pregnancy OR will seek unsafe alternatives, such as throwing themselves down a flight of stairs or the good ole' coat hanger method; like that has ever been appealing as an option for anyone or is a safe medical procedure.
The Republicans are on a war path to eliminate health care for women in this country because of some sort of freaky weirdness of stating they are "pro-life". How is taking away medical access for women, especially young and poor uninsured women, "pro-life"? How is taking away pap-smears, which detect cervical cancer, "pro-life"? How is taking away "family planning" with a woman's choice to take birth control to reduce the risk of an unwanted pregnancy, "pro-life"? Making a woman have a baby that is unwanted is cruel and not very "pro-life"... Seriously, if they want to reduce the number of abortions that women have, they need to pass progressive, liberal legislation that creates a safety net without so many holes... more like a soft blanket that can swaddle and nurture a poor person back into health...
It would help if we had jobs that paid a living wage ("working poor" shouldn't be something any working person is ever classified as). Paid maternity leave for a woman (1yr @ level that actually takes care of the financial needs the first year a baby is born); and men should have the option of a 6 month paid paternity leave. All medical care should be provided as needed without costs hanging over the head of the mother and baby; even when things don't go wrong, the costs for general check ups and shots will cost money.
And we need a real daycare system that ensure's to the gov't best ability, that the children are taken care of in a safe and watchful manner (shoot, head start/ pre-school items could be started right off the bat with a real daycare system). Most women loathe the thought of leaving their baby or young child with daycare worker's whom make too little and have very little monitoring or regulations; not like elementary school. So for the first 5 yrs, for those who have to use daycare, its a crap shoot that the daycare provider they have chosen to watch their most precious child(ren) is not some psycho who tapes a pacifier into a 6 mo old's mouth and locks them into a closet.
AND lastly, our work week has to be reduced to accommodate for family raising or "free time", in general. We either have a lot of working single mom's struggling between sometimes 2 and 3 jobs to provide for their child(ren); and they are still floundering with either a crappy car or an unexpected shift or a child who becomes ill and the missed shift loses the woman their job OR puts them in the hole for the month and they will be ducking the landlord later on. There is no "Cadillac driving welfare" people. The system was dramatically changed under Clinton. I think now, with the economy falling off the cliff so dramatically, regular middle class people are seeing how little help there is for people who are poor. Food stamps don't cover enough funding, welfare doesn't really exist, medicaid is nearly impossible to access (especially in some states), and that all those charities the wealthy say their money goes to funding instead of taxes that the govt could use to help your family, are completely understaffed and underfunded.
OR we have two parents working their tales off to make a living; becoming passing ships in the night. Increasing the stress on their marriage. Increasing the distance between themselves and their family... to the point that divorce becomes almost and inevitable thing... which then we are back to single moms or dads struggling alone to find the resources with 1/2 the financial help. There is an ABSOLUTE need for our definition of "full time work week" to be re-examined for the health of the nation. People need time to unwind, de-stress, spend quality time with their families and spend quality time being able to take care of oneself... How many working mom's or dad's even have the time to think about adding "work out time" to their already busy days. How many families do the drive-by McDonald's or Pizza on the way home because cooking a healthy full course meal at 6 or 7 at night just isn't in the cards.... On top of that, it is often cheaper for a family to grab the quick fast meal, than it is to buy a nutritious cart full of groceries and cook properly? Seriously, the prices at the grocery store are thru the roof; many are reduced to scaling back into pasta's and hamburger helpers without a rounded out side of veggies. I can't go to the grocery store for the most basic of items without spending $50.00 these days. And the price of gas is expected to increase up to $5.00 this summer.
If these ass-hats are so pro-life, they would insist on a quality life and a chance for every American to succeed, whether they were born into wealth like Romney or if they were born to a "poor" family (both the Obama's made it thru struggle and courage--which is why many are inspired by them and which is why they understand very much what families struggle with-- you know, empathy).
There ought to be govt run, single-payer healthcare access for every person living in the United States. It is cruel and inhumane as to what "system" is accepted in this country today. People die everyday from very treatable illnesses that could have been averted had they had access to the medical treatment that they needed. (Whenever I think about this issue, I think back to the story I read here on DU about the little 7 yr old boy who had an abscessed tooth. The little boy's mother didn't' have health care or dental care, so she didn't have access to check-ups for lack of funds. The infection from the tooth spread into his head and riddled his body with disease. He died in the ER from a very preventable death had the mother been able to take her son to bi-annual dental cleanings. 7 yrs young and dead from a tooth infection in the United States of America. The death of such a young child is heart-wrenching. My son is 7, I couldn't imagine losing him because of a tooth infection because I lacked dental and medical insurance. And if it wasn't for my husband's job, we wouldn't have the luxury of paying insane rates for insurance... At the time of the story, my son had gone to his dentist cleaning appointment and he had an infected abscessed tooth. They extracted it, put in a spacer to make sure his teeth would remain straight and in place because it is a back molar and will be some time before the adult tooth is ready to come up. That could have easily been my son dead from a tooth infection if we didn't have insurance and regular check-ups. AND seriously, our son didn't even say his tooth was hurting; we had no idea he had an abscessed tooth!! NONE!!).
We ought to have 6 hr work days (30 hr work weeks) and that is full time at a full time, living wage rate!!!! There is no reason for us to work so hard for so little and still have the rug pulled out from under our feet when some company like Bain comes in to "re-organize", steal the wealth, and leave the company covering it's CEO's and Board members in bankruptcy court. American Airlines is a perfect example of how Bain Capital really operates when it comes to "creating jobs" for the country.... Fire 13,000 employees, steal their pension, and refuse to cover medical care for retired employees (in the airline industry, I believe retirement is at 55 because of the stress and what not of the industry, and we all know that Medicare doesn't activate until people are 65. So, at a time when most people need more medical care, they are taking it away to "save the airline" money. I guess that whole Republican medical plan really is to die quickly if you become ill; and after people spent their lives doing the actual work that made the company operate. All lost because the wealthy SOB's at the top make horrible decisions and jump off with their golden parachutes to land safely away with the money that was created thru the toil of their workers.)
We ought to have at least 4 paid weeks off for vacation every year. We ought to have paid "sick time" of at least a week. We ought to have more input into the working conditions that we work in. We live in a "democratic" nation, yet, when we walk into a work and become an employee, we are stripped of the freedoms our constitution allows us. We are forced into a top down, dictatorship. The lower down the totem poles, so to speak, the less import the worker has. It does seem rather foolish of any company to treat those who are doing the work with the most hands-on experience, with the least regard. Best example that applies to our modern society is the decimation of the respectful position of being an educator. The classroom has been stripped down into a "work room" with top down dictation of what to teach and how to teach all carefully watched and monitored by people who have never taught a single class in their life... Who do not understand what it takes to teach the kids and who only look at the system as a money making venture to extract public tax money, into private hands....
Ok, anyway... Mitt is out of touch. PP is one of the best things this nation has for its women. AND that douche bag needs to be kept out of office very much. AND the tea party klan needs to be removed from their elected offices all the way down the line; especially in the House of Reps; and in the Senate, we must work our damnedest to put good, liberal Dems with a 60+ margin into office. Only then, maybe, we could push forward out of the crazy... Could you imagine the response of the people if we had enough good people in the Senate and the House over these past 4 years? We would have better job's numbers because we would actually have invested in funding for infrastructure. We may have had the adventure's in the ME defunded, forcing the President to extract our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan (rather than surging with more in that country). We may actually have funded science to push us off of oil and coal for energy resources. We might have even had marijuana legalized, and taxed it like alcohol; which would keep people out of jail and slow the Mexican drug cartels. AND we may have actually had a chance of changing our trade agreements. We could insist upon making the world's who want American's to buy their goods to play by the same rules we would want applied to our own selves... Like environmental regs, worker safety, labor laws preventing companies from using children or using their workers more like slaves, than human beings providing work for a living wage. Could you imagine if things that made sense, could actually come to fruition?
Why do we have to "Work so Hard" to make a living?
I hear all these politicians say over and over again this schtick about woking hard, making it, and getting ahead... Why? Why do we all have to "work hard" to have the basics of life, and these days, wages are basically paying for nothing, let alone allowing for one to "get ahead".
We have more technology and items that should make our lives better and easier. Shouldn't the technology and the innovations of our modern world allow for us to have better and easier lives where we can use the technology to work smartly, less during the day, and have more time for "freedom" and carefree ease?
AND exactly why do we have to work so damned hard to make ends meet, yet those with the most (inherited a lot of the time), wouldn't know what "work hard" even means?
I personally work a minimum of 42 hrs a week. The pay is less than I used to make before the recession, however, every tangible real cost has increased in my life... like food, electric rates, gas, insurance rates, etc... And I still have all of those other things in my life to attend to like cooking and cleaning and child rearing... I'm sorry, but with all the technology and with the other half of the gender species being able to enter the work force, I shouldn't be this tired and dragging all the time. I should have more time. I should have enough $ to pay my bills and enjoy a vacation. AND I certainly don't think I should have to work even harder to "make it" or "get ahead".
No, I'm tired of the meme. We as a nation, are on the go and worked to death. They keep us on the rat wheel running faster and faster trying to get that dangling treat, and we are literally running faster in circles and going no where. If Occupy could come up with One Demand that would appeal to people the most, I think that would be a great place to start with.... People ask why Americans are so apathetic. We aren't apathetic, we are tired and we're being worked to death. AND that rat wheel is so nearly impossible to escape from because escaping the wheel normally means losing one's home, or health care, or basic ability to buy food to eat.
If Americans had the time to stop, think, ponder, gather with friends, enjoy their families, be able to travel around the country or the world.... we might actually be able to Unite and create the type of country we know we could have.
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Gender: FemaleHometown: West Halifax, VT
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