Like some of you, I am not inclined to particularly bash a candidate or have my heart go fluttering either. I am agnostic and I have no problem with those who are passionate as long as my measured reluctance does not stir them into a frenzy of some attempt to intervene for my own good. I have many issues that need fixing and possibly intensive therapy, my refusal to invest in a particular person isn’t one of them.
Although the right has long positioned themselves as being champions for “family values” what they actually champion hegemony, social control, a strict definition of families as being strictly a self contained nuclear unit, and a return to good old fashioned patriarchy. I. Am. Not. Interested. In. That. So… just to annoy people I tell them I don’t care about family values. Did you know watching heads explode could be a sport or a hobby?
Families are blended, extended, made up of (gasp) unmarried people, gay, straight, and the undecided, adults are taking care of their kids, their grandkids, kids that they adopted, unofficially adopted, their own parents, friends, those with chronic illness, disabilities, those who fell on hard times, they are in short making up their own little communities quite in defiance of what the right thinks they should be doing. They might not even think of themselves as rebels. And. They are being squeezed by their obligations, their hopes, and wishes to be a community by a complete lack of legislative support. We constantly ask why ordinary Americans are not agitating and participating. Maybe they are numb, not from political fatigue or disaffection….. they don’t have time. They have no free time, their desire to help others in their families has dire financial consequences as well. They are going into work half asleep because they were up all night before caring or tending to another person. They are worried at work while they are half asleep that might might make an error and lose their job.
Many Americans are every day heroes in this effort. They might not have that self image or a wish to get the keys to the city for recognizing the paths they choose.
FMLA is not enough. Unpaid leave for workers who are lucky enough to be in place that has 50 or more employees is not enough. I am not a policy wonk, nor do I play one in bloggyland.
A few states have attempted to rectify this, New Jersey being the most recent. It will have to pass approval in the General Assembly but the Senate narrowly approved
paid leave for workers to meet the demands of caring for others. It is to be financed through payroll taxes although the article indicates it might also require the shifting of monies from that state’s temporary disability funds.
Those with bigger brains that I can read the actual legislation here.
Most of the objections centered on a perceived hostility to business interests. Six weeks seems barely adequate. Well, it isn’t. Who know if the General Assembly will even pass it. If it does, New Jersey will be the third state along with Washington, set to be implemented in 2009, and California.
What we need is federal legislation similar to this. That is what I want from my Congress and my future possible Dem President. Give us stuff, even flawed stuff. Do something to actually support families.Living in the south makes me wary of arguments for state’s rights and allowing each individual state to determine their needs because the reality is most of them won’t.
I know we all have a shopping list of expectations piling up so fast it appears insurmountable. We don’t even all agree on the role of government and about what we mean by freedom, intervention, and change.
Several countries are ahead of us in terms of life expectancy and while the reasons are varied I cannot help but wonder if how we support with legislation families has an impact on that.
Policy is rarely sexy and yet tremendous battles are fought over the intent and meaning. Having a Democratic president will be meaningless unless we start asking, demanding for structural changes. The New Jersey proposal is far from perfect but it is an example of what I want for ordinary Americans. I am inclined to think we must ask for far more than we ever think we can hope for in order to get what we can live with.
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Pretty hard to follow P’s act but somebody had to do it….
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The finale for the Wire starts soon.
No one is a hero. Each of us do what we must do, in war or peace. Ordinary persons do extraordinary things under extraordinary circumstances. The thing is, we must avoid exploitation.
to describe an assumed morally superior position.
…and the people who espoused them have slowly but blatantly shown us their true colors….
line, calico, it’s a beaut!
DEMAND. let’s start DEMANDING. btw, we already pay taxes for paid leave. it’s called unemployment fucking taxes… and if we need to leave work to care for a family member, i’d say that qualifies us as unemployed.
do i sound hostile? these bastards.
but for all of it, nothing will be done to benefit the middle class (and those at poverty level??? deep chest heaving sigh) without structural changes. nothing. it is all lip service…
the bad thing about FP is no rec button… so consider yerself tip’d & rec’d.
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Has been up here too long…. We need to go find to FP, not that it would be hard.
Just watched the finale of the Wire.
The game is the game.
One, there are industrialized 1st world country that have six weeks paid VACATION a year….that haven’t collapsed from lack of a Puritan work ethic.
Second, this line triggered a memory.
Yes I learned that as a young hippie in SF. Tourists back in those days loved to ask guys with long hair, especially teenagers who they figure wouldn’t punch them…. “Are you a boy or a girl”
….it was sport for them. So I invented my own sport, I would reply…”why don’t you S*ck My D*ck and find out”
My sport was actually healthy though, since it usually involved some nice exercise for both of us, i e me running, and them chasing me.
i confess this
hit me hard…have you been peeking in my windows?
11 yrs ago my world collapsed when mrDs mom got too ill (& ornery) for mrDs dad to tend her alone anymore. they came home to the farm. i eventually quit my job (managing & maintenance for an apt. complex-67 units), my husband eventually quit working (self employed)to help also. there was NO question of putting her in a home..I don’t believe in that. Then mrDs dad started failing. we learned nursing, nutrition, physical therapy & all the other things a facility provides while onthejob 24/7. and going to library to research diseases, cures, medications, etc…we spent ALL our savings and borrowed more besides….
but i wouldn’t change a thing if i had it to do over. thats what family is for. to tend. as they tended mrD for years to raise him up…i figure i still owe them some time (^.^)
i learned an awful lot those nearly 5 years.
then i learned a lot more dealing with probate for them & MrDs gramma…
i didn’t have a spec of time for politics… barely had time to bathe & brush my teeth.
and i really thought better of mankind. i didn’t understand how greed can grow oout of control so quickly. i thought w/Carters solar on the white house; no ads for alcohol, tobacco; recycling cans, bottles programs; ollution controls on water/air; welfare/foodstamps…i thought it was under control…
but mrDs father always said…
you know what ThoughtE did? thought he had to poot but he had to change his britches!
anyway, thanks! Great thought provoking essay.
But odd how it can create or remove so much well being from human beings. I look around me and I see people in need. Have people in my life in need. I provide what and when I can but I wish it wasn’t sometimes a guerilla venture doing so in the South.