Well, yet again, we are facing another day of economic crisis and the fear of what looms ahead for all of us. The economic bailout failed to pass yesterday which in turn had a negative effect on the stock market sending the DOW plunging nearly 800 points in one day... Needless to say, yesterday was a horrible day for the American economy and the American people... It is becoming more and more apparent that things very well may get worse before it gets better. That we may actually be headed towards a recession (although I think in some ways we're already there) and/or that another depression is waiting in the wings to rear its ugly head... That is a scary thought...
For the better portion of the population we have no idea what it was like to live through an era like the Great Depression... Although, I'm sure that most of us can find a family member or friend of the family that remembers what it was like. I know for me the extent of what I know about it stems from my high school and college history classes as well as from reading Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath in high school... That for me is enough to be scared of what these possibilities could mean for us in today's society... I'm afraid as an individual, as a wife, but especially as a mother... I had hoped that my husband and I were bringing our daughter into a world that was better than what we've read and studied about in history books... But it seems that I was wrong. As with many things that have happened in history and the things that continue to happen it is almost as if history truly does repeat itself. You know, I always joke, a long with many of my friends that clothing trends and fads recycle themselves throughout the years... It seems that everything in life seems to do that... It is as if our economic system is recycling itself from the years of the Depression and playing itself out in modern times... Kind of a scary thought if you take the time to actually think about it...
I don't know... Maybe this is just me and my conspiracy theorist side coming out, but it is a scary thought nonetheless... My heart and prayers go out to everyone in the country who are struggling to make ends meet, who are losing their homes to foreclosure, their jobs to a wavering job market, and their investments to a system so broken I sometimes wonder how quickly it can be prepared... I truly hope that we can come together a country to try to figure out a way to fix this so that we can all live our lives in the best way possible...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
My views on this election
For the first time in my life I have gotten actively involved in the political process of elections. I spend hours of my days reading up on what's going on in the election, reading about the candidates policies, trying to stay informed so I can make the best decision possible. I made my choice long ago who I was voting for. I've made a call for all people to make the same kind of informed decision that I made... No, I'm not asking that they vote for my candidate of choice, but I'm asking that the candidate that they choose be chosen based on informed research not just by here say. I've chosen to vote for Obama. His policies and his view on where he feels America should go I best identify with... Honestly, whether he or Hillary ended up with the nomination I would've voted Democratic, as I always do because I most closely identify with Democratic policy. With that being said multiple people have questioned me as to why and how I could vote for someone like Obama, the same as how many Obama supporters have asked McCain supporters how and why they could vote for him... So I've decided to give people some insight into how and why I'm voting for Obama...
At 27 years old I've lived through a lot, I've experienced a lot, and I've grown a lot. I grew up in South Sacramento, not exactly the most picturesque place to live. Easily put, its the ghetto. My parents to this day still live in the same house and refuse to move. I can respect that because they OWN their house... It's paid off and chances are, even if they wanted to move they probably wouldn't be able to sell it and use the money to buy another house without having to have a mortgage... Although, I'd rather they have a mortgage and live someplace safer, but there is nothing I can do to change their opinion...
Anyways... Growing up where I did I got to experience a whole other life than what most people get to experience. We didn't grow up with a lot of money. My father was a high school PE teacher, and my mother worked part time as an administrative assistant. We didn't get fancy clothes, eat out, or take outlandish vacations. My parents lived paycheck to paycheck. I remember the days of being excited to get a hamburger from Burger King... It was like getting to eat at Ruth's Chris!! My parents spent their money on ballet lesson for my two sisters and I... I wore a lot of hand-me-downs from my older sisters and we shopped at the various department stores... Many of my friends lived in similar if not worse conditions. I grew up in an area where I was the minority. I feel like I identify more with African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans. This is where I grew up and who I grew up with.
I went away to Texas for college I didn't know how well I was going to adjust. Almost all of my close friends were African American, Asian or Latino... Trying to adjust to a place where white people outnumbered what I had grown up knowing as the majority, was a hard adjustment. I only lasted a year in Texas. I felt most comfortable in my dorm, which just happened to be the athletic dorm, which just happened to have an abundance of people from culturally diverse backgrounds... It was a place for normalcy for me...
As an independent adult I found myself working as a server in a restaurant where I was unable to make enough money to pay my bills, which forced me to get a second job, where even then I wasn't making enough. At times I considered doing things completely against all of my moral principles to make the money I needed to pay my bills... I was in such a bad place with my credit I didn't know if I'd ever find my way out... I was driving a car that was a POS because that was all I could afford, but ended up paying more to fix it in that one year than I had spent on my monthly car payments... It took me 4 years to get myself out of the negative credit situation that I had gotten myself into, much in part to the help of my husband...
I moved back to California one month before September 11th... I went back to school, started dating my husband, and spending my paychecks from teaching ballet to pay off my debt so that collectors would stop calling my parents house. I majored in Women's Studies, largely in part because I spend my days working with young girls, but also because its something that I'm hugely interested in. Through my studies I learned so much... My eyes were opened to so many things that I had never known... Both in relation to women but also to politics. I had one of the best professors, Michelle Matisons, who spent time not only on course topics but also on world topics that we were facing. When George Bush won his second term in 2004, we spent two or three classes discussing the election and what that meant for the future of the country and for the future of women. Because of Michelle I found a sense of urgency to make myself more knowledgeable and more active for the 2008 election.
Today, here we are. In the midst of another fiery election. Where BOTH sides are throwing out lies and insults... Where BOTH sides are fighting for what they believe is best for the country. But the question is what side is correct? We all have our opinion based on how and where we grew up... My belief is that the correct direction is Barack Obama and the Democratic Party... I've lived and breathed economic hardship... I've watched as my friends faced discrimination and inequality because of their race... I've seen first hand how desperate people are right now - my parents had their lawn mower and miter saw STOLEN from their backyard - people actually lifted a lawn mower over the fence to steal it!! I've seen my friend have her car window smashed in right in front of our work in broad daylight to have her purse stolen... I've listened as she's talked about how her family doesn't have health insurance because it's too expensive, and that her mom can't get the proper medical care that she needs for the various serious health problems that she faces because it's too expensive for them... Or that they are now faced with possibly losing their house because her father's business is one of the small businesses being hit hard with this failing economy... I know first hand how expensive it is just to live... My husband and I have been dipping into savings EVERY month because of the price of gas, electricity and groceries - when theoretically we shouldn't be because we (well, really he) makes GREAT money... Because of all of this I'm voting for Barack Obama... Someone who has made it obvious that he's fighting for the people who I grew up with, for the neighborhood that I grew up in and that my parents continue to live in, and for the children and my daughter who deserve to grow up in a country that treats EVERYONE regardless of where they grew up or where they currently live as human beings...
Please, go out on November 4th and vote!! But only vote if you have been a responsible American and have done your research!! BE AN INFORMED AMERICAN VOTER!!
At 27 years old I've lived through a lot, I've experienced a lot, and I've grown a lot. I grew up in South Sacramento, not exactly the most picturesque place to live. Easily put, its the ghetto. My parents to this day still live in the same house and refuse to move. I can respect that because they OWN their house... It's paid off and chances are, even if they wanted to move they probably wouldn't be able to sell it and use the money to buy another house without having to have a mortgage... Although, I'd rather they have a mortgage and live someplace safer, but there is nothing I can do to change their opinion...
Anyways... Growing up where I did I got to experience a whole other life than what most people get to experience. We didn't grow up with a lot of money. My father was a high school PE teacher, and my mother worked part time as an administrative assistant. We didn't get fancy clothes, eat out, or take outlandish vacations. My parents lived paycheck to paycheck. I remember the days of being excited to get a hamburger from Burger King... It was like getting to eat at Ruth's Chris!! My parents spent their money on ballet lesson for my two sisters and I... I wore a lot of hand-me-downs from my older sisters and we shopped at the various department stores... Many of my friends lived in similar if not worse conditions. I grew up in an area where I was the minority. I feel like I identify more with African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latino Americans. This is where I grew up and who I grew up with.
I went away to Texas for college I didn't know how well I was going to adjust. Almost all of my close friends were African American, Asian or Latino... Trying to adjust to a place where white people outnumbered what I had grown up knowing as the majority, was a hard adjustment. I only lasted a year in Texas. I felt most comfortable in my dorm, which just happened to be the athletic dorm, which just happened to have an abundance of people from culturally diverse backgrounds... It was a place for normalcy for me...
As an independent adult I found myself working as a server in a restaurant where I was unable to make enough money to pay my bills, which forced me to get a second job, where even then I wasn't making enough. At times I considered doing things completely against all of my moral principles to make the money I needed to pay my bills... I was in such a bad place with my credit I didn't know if I'd ever find my way out... I was driving a car that was a POS because that was all I could afford, but ended up paying more to fix it in that one year than I had spent on my monthly car payments... It took me 4 years to get myself out of the negative credit situation that I had gotten myself into, much in part to the help of my husband...
I moved back to California one month before September 11th... I went back to school, started dating my husband, and spending my paychecks from teaching ballet to pay off my debt so that collectors would stop calling my parents house. I majored in Women's Studies, largely in part because I spend my days working with young girls, but also because its something that I'm hugely interested in. Through my studies I learned so much... My eyes were opened to so many things that I had never known... Both in relation to women but also to politics. I had one of the best professors, Michelle Matisons, who spent time not only on course topics but also on world topics that we were facing. When George Bush won his second term in 2004, we spent two or three classes discussing the election and what that meant for the future of the country and for the future of women. Because of Michelle I found a sense of urgency to make myself more knowledgeable and more active for the 2008 election.
Today, here we are. In the midst of another fiery election. Where BOTH sides are throwing out lies and insults... Where BOTH sides are fighting for what they believe is best for the country. But the question is what side is correct? We all have our opinion based on how and where we grew up... My belief is that the correct direction is Barack Obama and the Democratic Party... I've lived and breathed economic hardship... I've watched as my friends faced discrimination and inequality because of their race... I've seen first hand how desperate people are right now - my parents had their lawn mower and miter saw STOLEN from their backyard - people actually lifted a lawn mower over the fence to steal it!! I've seen my friend have her car window smashed in right in front of our work in broad daylight to have her purse stolen... I've listened as she's talked about how her family doesn't have health insurance because it's too expensive, and that her mom can't get the proper medical care that she needs for the various serious health problems that she faces because it's too expensive for them... Or that they are now faced with possibly losing their house because her father's business is one of the small businesses being hit hard with this failing economy... I know first hand how expensive it is just to live... My husband and I have been dipping into savings EVERY month because of the price of gas, electricity and groceries - when theoretically we shouldn't be because we (well, really he) makes GREAT money... Because of all of this I'm voting for Barack Obama... Someone who has made it obvious that he's fighting for the people who I grew up with, for the neighborhood that I grew up in and that my parents continue to live in, and for the children and my daughter who deserve to grow up in a country that treats EVERYONE regardless of where they grew up or where they currently live as human beings...
Please, go out on November 4th and vote!! But only vote if you have been a responsible American and have done your research!! BE AN INFORMED AMERICAN VOTER!!
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