Let’s talk family values.
Yesterday, I took my 5 year-old son to our local science center, which he loves, because it gives him a safe place to explore and play and understand his place in the world. As I was sitting, watching him get to work, a woman with a son his age came and sat down next to me, placing her other child, an eleven week-old baby boy.
The boy lay on his back, moving his arms and legs in jerky excitement, looking up at his mother with as much of a smile as he could manage.
It’s easy to talk to strangers when they have a cute little baby like that, so the mother and I fell into conversation. We both talked about how great the science center was, and complemented each others’ big boys, but when I asked about how old her baby was, the mother’s face grew sad.
This would be her last week with him, she told me. She had to go back to work. She wants to stay home with her baby, but there isn’t enough money, so her baby will be in day care with strangers all day from now on. Her husband hasn’t had much time with their baby at all, because he has been working extra hours to make up for her short maternity leave.
I thought about this woman and her predicament yesterday as America prepared to hear yet more angry rhetoric from the President about the state of the union.
The political party that now controls the Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court tells us that they are for family values, and they’re Pro-Life. They say they want families to have babies instead of having abortions. They say they want traditional values, with strong family bonds.
But tell me, is it family values to rip babies apart from their parents at just three months of age? Is it family values to tell people that they can’t use basic contraception like the morning after pill, they have to have their babies, but then make it next to impossible for most American parents to actually be parents to their babies once their babies arrive?
It seems to me that the Republicans have more love for a fertilized egg than they do for a baby. They rage up in arms when a woman legally takes a pill to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in her womb, but what do they do for babies once they are borne by their mothers out into the world? They walk away.
You want family values? Fine. Here’s family values: Give Americans the support they need to be good parents for their babies. Don’t force mothers and fathers to walk away from their three month-old babies because they don’t have the money.
If Republicans had real family values, they would support paid maternity and paternity leave for six months.
Don’t tell me there isn’t the money for it. Our government is shovelling billions of dollars out so that rich heirs like Paris Hilton don’t have to pay a single red cent when they inherit their parents’ millions. That’s not family values. Our government is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into a war that was based on nothing but lies. That’s not family values. Our government has spent untold billions more to research, design install Star Wars Missile Defense Systems – even though, after 20 years of funding, none of the technology to make it work even exists yet. That’s not family values. Our government is purchasing waffle irons for the military at the price of $1,781.90. That’s not family values. Our government is giving out billions of dollars in out-and-out gifts to big oil corporations – even though those big oil corporations are already making record profits on their own, while we pay record prices at the gas pump. That’s not family values. That’s a rip off.
Any one who says that there isn’t enough money to support American parents while they build family bonds and take care of their babies for the first six months of life ought to be ashamed for telling such a baldfaced lie.
It’s just a matter of priorities. My family values say that when people have a baby, they deserve their community’s support in becoming good parents. The Republicans’ family values say that it’s more important to keep dropping bombs on Iraq.
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The taxes the liberals instituted?
Those taxes were put in place to pay for the big debts run up by the right wingers, who figured that someone else would pay the bill later – with interest. That’s who you ought to be upset with.
But of course, you won’t deal with the issue at hand.
The writer of this article is calling upon reductions in wasteful government programs and the unnecessary Iraq War started by right wingers to make it possible for the first months of family life to be paid for by the government.
You won’t deal with that issue because it’s an example of how liberals actually want to help you out with your problem. You’d rather be angry at liberals than make America a better place to live for young families? What a shame.
Patricia: “But of course, you won’t deal with the issue at hand.”
HA! I can’t resists chiming in on that statement, as I’m still waiting for proof that I in any way wrote sexist statements. So, Oh My God, you might be waiting awhile to go head-to-head; it’s been over a year since she first accused me.
But back to the issue at hand. I’m all for helping people out when they need it, but to mandate that the government MUST take care of someone simply because they neglected to: 1) Consider the financial implications of having a child/children 2) failed to prevent unwanted outcomes from sexual intercourse. To believe that MY tax dollars should be earmarked for irresponsibility, whether it be this issue or $1 million potties, I for one will not stand for it. Plus, did these people save money for the proverbial rainy day?
I understand people experience hardships that are beyond their control at inconvenient times; but to expect a government handout at every turn is wrong. To expect the government to coddle you and make it better all the time is wrong. I believe that system was tried once. Has anyone heard anything from the U.S.S.R. lately?
Bad things happen to good people all the time. But if I’m going primitive camping, there’s a few things I never leave base camp without a few essentials (water, food, plasma tv). If I find myself without any of those, I can’t call on the government to help me out. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between Liberalism and Conservatism.