Declaration

The last presidential election, I spoke up. I spoke loud and proud. I stood up for what I believed, I campaigned for my party, I volunteered my time. I was bound and determined to make a change.
That change did not come.
I remember sitting in silence watching the results, praying to a God I couldn't even say for sure I believed in to make it stop. Now's the chance...please God, don't let it happen again. And it did.
I cried when the news was read. I cried for myself, for my family, for my friends, for my country.
I cried out of fear. And I cried because I felt misrepresented and undersold.

Since that day, I've pretty much stayed out of politics. I guess I was pouting all this time...I don't know. Today, I'm done. Little by little, I've been learning about the candidates. And little by little, I'm finding myself sure of the opportunity our nation has to make some fucking progress.

I want to take a moment to proudly declare my support of Obama and Biden.

There it is.

I've been listening to friends and associates discuss the issues for months now and have stayed quiet for the most part as politics is something I don't ordinarily discuss with friends or co-workers. However, this is my personal blog...so guess what...I'm a go off. :)

I understand concern over how your tax dollars are being spent. I'm just as concerned as anyone else. However, I had the pleasure of being raised WELL below the middle class. As a matter of fact, why don't I just be honest and call it what it was. We were POOR. Dumpster diving, two bedroom apartment for a family of 5, DI shopping, Government cheese requiring, POOR. And don't think we were poor because my Dad and his wife didn't work. As a child, I couldn't even tell you all the places my Dad worked. There was never a time he had less than 3 jobs. And he took EVERYTHING. If someone offered him a job, he did it. His wife worked any odd job she could that would still allow for someone to be at home with the kids at night. Most of the time, she was sewing break away velcro clothes for strippers. Yep, you heard me.
My Dad and his wife weren't popping out kids left and right to suck the system, either. I was my Dad's only child (which, by the way, to those of you who think his values may be lacking due to his divorce - he FOUGHT for. He was a single father of one baby girl before he married his second wife by CHOICE, not because he was forced into it.) His wife had two children of his own who my Dad gladly stepped up to take care of. Neither my Father nor his wife were drug users. They had no criminal history. They worked their asses off and paid taxes just like everyone else.
And you know what - we weren't on Welfare. There were times we had to go to the food bank for essentials like cheese, bread and milk...but that was the extent of it. And why? because my dad thought there were people who needed it more than we did.

Now my Dad is doing very well for himself. Better than anyone ever could have hoped he'd do, and he's still giving money to causes to help people in situations like we were. My Dad believes that everyone has a chance to succeed in life, if their will is strong enough and someone believes in them. My Father has always been strong in his Democratic beliefs, and it is not through him preaching to me that I became strong in mine, it is through him living the life he has. And I am living it now.

I know that my little brothers and sisters will be well taken care of because now my Dad has the money to properly provide for them. They are insured, and will continue to be insured for as long as my Dad is able to do so. I was not so lucky. We went to the clinic...and only when necessary. Which really means we went for school immunizations and required physicals. We didn't really need to worry about bad teeth since there was no money for soda or candy, so the dentist was out. If we were hurt, or became sick enough to require a visit to the ER or Instacare...shit was going to be bad as far as food went for quite some time. STILL...he didn't take as much help as the government was offering because somewhere there was someone who needed it more than we did. He could always get one more job at the Brick Yard.

All I know is that I want that help to be available to those who need it. I want the people like my father who work their asses off and still don't take the help afforded to them buy the tax dollars THEY THEMSELVES EARN because they don't want anyone else to go without to know that they are doing some good.

I want to stop fighting a war that is costing us millions of dollars a MINUTE just on principal alone.

I want to know that my friend's husbands and little sisters will come home safely and won't be deployed to god knows where just because someone FUCKING CAN!!!!

I want change.

I'm going to take a line from the opposing party, and I'm putting country first. In order to do that, I absolutely HAVE to vote for Obama.

Sorry for the lengthy post here, but I had to do it.

Please, no matter what you believe...PLEASE VOTE. Our generation has so much fucking unused potential...we have so much power over what happens to our country. For those of you planning to have children, those of you who already do....think of the past 8 years and ask yourself if you want that for them. Make the right choice, make any god damn choice....just fucking VOICE IT.

Ok, I'm done.