Endorsements? What is REALLY important to me.

[Mother Of Four]

This is more a thought post than it is anything else.

I take my time deciding important choices when I get the chance (read: Luxury) I come here to these forums numerous times a day, just to scan some posts on the first page and maybe catch things I didn't hear or see in the course of my family "stuff"

You know...I and the majority of the people I know, couldn't give a rats arse about who endorses who.

The biggest endorsement will come when we select a nominee, and that endorsement will be from the American people.


Things I and the people I know care about:

Our children: The educational system is sick and dying. Schools are falling apart, state and county government isn't doing its job and our school boards/town commissioners are "Lets choose the lesser of however many evils"

Our homes and neighborhoods: Homes foreclosing with more on the way, families becoming desperate. Homes standing empty and fallow for years, because no one wants to buy at this time. Attracting squatters, druggies, and prostitutes.

Our Jobs: Consistently outsourced, given to people who have no intention of spending the money they make here...they send it "back home" to their families draining our economy. Taking jobs that could be for hard working people who are citizens and not here (USA) temporarily. Shoddy goods that break right after the worthless warranty is null, fostering a "It's cheaper just to buy a new one than fix it" throwaway society. Poisonous toys, dangerous electronics, unregulated "supplements"...where does it end?

Our citizenship: Also going back to jobs...companies welcoming cheap labor because its all under the table..and they can cheat these workers out of a decent wage because the workers don't dare complain (deportation). I can understand basic human rights, but it's gone to the point where in many areas they are taking MUCH NEEDED aid away from the needy who are here legally. Either born or immigrated.

War...war and more war. War on drugs, war on illiteracy, war on crime, war in other countries, war with each other. Can't people see we are self destructing?

What happened to our PRIDE? Our sense of self and justice? What happened to helping each other, without fear of being "taken for a ride" ?

I fear for my CHILDREN. Let me tell you about them, because at the core...the reason I care who becomes President and what kind of character they have is due these small wonders.

17 year old son-
He wants to go into the military and serve his country, but he's torn. He wants to be able to help people, and lift people up...not destroy them. He wants to enlist for four years, then leave and go to college for Criminal Justice. Then he wants to become an LEO. But there again, he's torn. He see's how tired his father is, and he's so proud of him yet he see's the same hatred for the police uniform here as other countries hate the military uniform there.

This breaks my heart. I come from a large family of people with civil service. Everything from Ministers, to nurses, to Social workers, to Police, to Firefighters...and I myself am an EMT-I It tears me apart that the joy is helping others is now tempered with fear of lawsuits and "Public perception" because of the media.

15 year old son-
He wants to be a firefighter with a paramedic certification. He calls it "the best of both worlds", and still has that light in his eyes when he talks about following in grampas footsteps. I never want to see that light go out, but I'm afraid for him because we as a society have become so ungrateful of sacrifices made, we take them for granted.

12 (13 on Jan 1st) year old daughter-
Brilliant and beautiful...an intense combination she is an artist and a poet. She plans on becoming a marine biologist, with a secondary degree in a chemical science so that she can focus on the pollution in our oceans. She is driven, and wants to "Fix our planet" She's so aware of the issues we face, at this young and tender age, that she shares with me RESEARCH she does on the melting of the polar ice caps...and the effect it's having on temperature in the currents...in turn the effect the temperature shift will have on the marine life in the oceans.


11 year old daughter-
She wants to be a Veterinarian, working with local police on animal cruelty cases. Specializing in criminal law, and working with the system to prevent overpopulation, abandonment and abuse. She watches animal planet religiously, and wants me to tell her about any news I hear about advances in prosecuting these "Horrible people". She is my baby, and sometimes I have to look at her in wonder and remind myself she's only eleven.


Even with all of these plans they have for their future, they still run around outside...chase with the dogs...visit with friends. They love playstation, and computers. They still go to the county fair, and they still love candy and goodies. They are still children, my children.

These four beautiful creations, my heart and soul. Two of them will be adults or in college when this coming presidency is turning, the two youngest will be again...either grown or in college when the term after that is rolling.

ALL of the candidates have good and bad about them, none are perfect. I don't care who endorses who, I care about who will put their breath, and strength into making this country whole again. All of my adult life, I've been feeding the flames of wanting to do something good with their lives in my children. I don't want that fire to go out.

I would welcome a discussion on how the candidates you support would fan that fire in my babies.

I support Edwards, and my children are why.

[K Gardner]

1. Wonderful post, Mother of Four..

Thanks for sharing your thoughts..
(from a Mother of Three/Grandmother of Four)

[bonito]

2. From a father of four, thanks for sharing!

:hi:

[waiting for hope]

3. Edwards speaks to the Mother in me -

Mom of two - ages 6 and 3. The future I see for them is the one Edwards has laid out.

K&R!

[Mother Of Four]

4. Thank you for the responses and taking the time to read this.

:loveya:

[waiting for hope]

5. Sunday Morning Kick!