I was in no way surprised when
Mother Jones released the video with Willard's
comments concerning the 47%. It was a the sky is blue, water is wet, and republicans are assholes moment. To be honest, I don't think Romney even minds the video coming out--it was red meat for the troops, and God knows republicans love their red meat. He can disown the comments and republicans will just wink and nod.
No, what really pissed me off is that he was talking about my Mom.
My Mom didn't go to any Ivy League Schools. She didn't get to spend a couple of years overseas for her religion, though I'd guarantee she's every bit as religious as Mitt Romney. She was never the Governor of a state, and the last job she'd ever want is President of the United States.
But she did raise three kids. All children have mothers who give them life, but not many have one who gave them life twice, which my mother did for me. She beat breast cancer. She survived a horrendous auto accident which left her wheelchair bound for six months. She survived losing her husband, my father, to cancer much earlier than she should have. She volunteers at her church to babysit children so her unemployed fellow parishioners can look for work. She went once a week to make sack lunches to distribute to the homeless for years until her health prevented her from continuing. Hell, she was still cutting her lawn once a week into her mid-seventies.
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She's my Mom, so she's special to me, but I know there are millions of others like her.
She pays no federal income taxes because she lives on my late father's small pension and Social Security. She has Medicare. She in no way expects the government to take care of her, and neither of these programs are "entitlements." My father worked his fucking ass off for over forty years and paid money out of each and every paycheck to help run them (as do most Americans who have a paying job). Like all of us, my mother still pays state taxes and sales taxes. She pays property taxes. She does her part.
The world, in many tiny ways, is a much better place because my mother is in it.
Amazingly enough, when my mother casts her ballot next week, she will cast it for Mitt Romney (my mother will freely admit that if it weren't for the abortion issue she'd vote Democratic, and while I vehemently disagree with her on this issue she has been a wonderful mother and after 78 years on this planet she has earned the right to base her vote on any issue she damn well pleases).
I won't. I'll cast my vote for Barack Obama because he doesn't believe that my mother is a leech on our country. He's not a soul sucking zombie who thinks only the wealthy matter.
And when I cast that ballot, I will be voting for my Mom and the millions of others like her.
Peace,
emaycee
