This I Believe

Politics Alert: Read at your own risk!



I loved the PBS segment "This I Believe". I always wished I knew what to write myself when they were collecting them. So many were inspiring. Too late for PBS, but today was one of those days when I got hit with a This I Believe moment. I just hope that those who should have heeded the politics alert but didn't will try to understand that this is me. It's who I am and has nothing to do with them and how I feel about them. I can separate the two.

Families are complicated things. I am so lucky to have been born into a wonderful family. I have 6 younger siblings, one brother and 5 sisters, all very distinct individuals, and I love each one dearly. Mom and Dad were there for me always. We lost Dad last year, but Mom is still in the house we grew up in. If those walls could talk! Wallpaper in the bathroom upstairs is the same as it was almost 50 years ago. It's telling me it's time to replace it. This year, pillows. Maybe next year, wallpaper.

Mom is turning 85 on September 6th, and I will be flying straight to Boston from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte to celebrate with my daughters, sisters, brother, in laws, nieces and nephews, and maybe a few cousins. My Dad didn't make 85. No one in Mom's family made 85. It's a BIG birthday. I want to be there for the party. Fortunately, I'll be on the right coast.

I am so honored to have been chosen as a National Delegate to the Charlotte Convention. It's an understatement to say I'm excited to be one of the people to cast a vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and for the Democratic Platform which this year will include a plank for Marriage Equality. Not everyone in my family shares my passion, and it makes me sad that I can't share my joy and excitement about this once in a lifetime opportunity. But I respect their opinions and try to walk a peaceful line because no matter what, we're family and we do love each other. Ditch the politics and religion, stick with the Red Sox, Pats, Celtics and Bruins, Sullivan and Herrmann family lore, and we're all good.

It's been kind of crazy lately, so I've taken to emailing Mom. Phoning is not always convenient give the time zones and schedules. I want her know I do think of  her and love her, even if I don't pick up the phone. I'm actually kind of a phone-a-phobe. Like getting calls but am not much of one for making them. I love getting 'real' emails, and picture her opening up her little netbook to find something that's not spam. Last night she wrote that she was watching "Mitt and his vp choice Paul Ryan" while waiting for reruns of Lawrence Welk to come on. She added not so subtly:

" I hope you listen to both sides...  I know you are going to the Dem. convention, but this country needs to get back on track. I will leave it at that."

Mom, of course I listen to both sides. I'm a scientist (and a Gemini)!  I like data. I like truth. I know how to play with numbers. I am not easily swayed, and during my 60 years I have found myself at times when I was younger hanging about in no man's land because I can see both sides of an argument. I wasted a Presidential election vote one year many moons ago on an Independent (John Anderson). Those years are gone. This election is crystal clear to me, and the most critical and important of my voting life -I was too young to vote for JFK, back when you were a Democrat. And of course you love Ryan, he's Catholic.

Our country IS on track. Our President told us from day one that it would take a long time to climb out of the hole we were in. Two unfunded wars and an economic mess were left in his lap. And he did not lie. It has taken a long time. It will take longer, especially if he has to keep going it alone. Do I think President Obama has all the answers? No. Do I think he's perfect? No. Heck, I was a County Convention Hillary delegate in 2008. I like to think I would not have caved on a public option for health care reform to compromise with the other side. But I think he's doing the best he can possibly do in impossible circumstances. I'm not in his shoes. He's compromised past the middle and gotten NOTHING  in return from the opposition. He's a good and very intelligent man.  He has a wonderful family that is obviously very important to him. His wife is warm, wonderful, accomplished and wicked smart. They have two beautiful daughters, as do I. To me they are real and honest people. I have an easier time relating to them than I do to the Romneys of this world.

I firmly believe in my heart and my head that the best choice for going forward is to reelect Barack Obama. I love you dearly and forever, no matter what, but the agenda of Romney and Ryan is not looking out for you or the people or the country. I ask, do you care about having Medicare? Look at Ryan's budget and tell me what he has proposed is good for you. Do you like your Social Security? Do you remember what happened a few short years ago when the stock market crashed? What if all your SS money had been invested and was now gone??? These guys want to privatize Social Security. I know you remember a time when our family needed help. Romney and Ryan would do away with a lot of the safety net that helps good people who fall on hard times. I can't abide that, along with a lot of other things they want to cut out. I could go on longer but I won't do it now. Maybe later...

A man who hides his wealth overseas to avoid paying taxes (as low as they are on the very rich among us who can write off horse expenses that are than twice what my two college educated kids made last year combined) and won't disclose his tax returns as every other presidential candidate (and VP) has, is not the kind of person I want leading our country. Do you think he asked Paul Ryan for more than 1 year's taxes in the vetting process? Mitt gave McCain a LOT more than one year's worth...and McCain picked Palin.

Men who want to insert their opinions into the decisions that should be made by women and their doctors and spouses are not people I can support. Men who have as their mission taking out Planned Parenthood, which serves millions of women around the country for basic preventative health and family planning (which PREVENTS abortions) are not people I can support. Count me among the millions of college age women in the 70s who graduated before becoming a parent because of PP.  Men who deny civil rights to fellow Americans are not people I can support. Men who are incapable of making a distinction between church and state and cannot respect that separation are not people I can support. Men who have been party to crippling any movement out of our economic crisis by voting NO to anything proposed by President Obama from the day he took office are not people I can support. In my mind they are nothing but traitors to our country. He says he'll do things but offers no plan.

Yes, Mom, I do listen to both sides. I just don't like what I hear from one of them.  I listen to more than Fox News and the Catholic League. And I am a big fan of Nuns on the Bus. You should be, too. I do more than listen. I read. I watch. I think. I participate. And I will be doing everything I can, with every fiber of my being, to make sure Romney and Ryan don't have the opportunity to take our country backwards. This I believe.