Democratic Values
Democratic Values
Like a lot of Democrats there are many values we share, and some we don't. I support the death penalty for example. We are all shaped by our experiences, including our family values and what we observe outside our family circle. My mother was a stay-at-home mom for the most part though she worked part time for a number of interesting employers, Mimi Benzell an opera singer with the Metropolitan Opera in NYC, and Edward Roosevelt, Franklin's son. My Dad worked at a defense plant and took classes at night. He never earned a degree. He struggled after being laid off in his 40's. Both of my parents worked hard for what they had including a large amount of "sweat equity" in homes they bought, fixed up, and sold. The only credit they used was their mortgage, saving and paying cash for everything else.
I never forgot the lessons I learned at their knee, and from my maternal grandmother and aunt who lived down the street from us. They taught me the value of hard work and doing things right. From the time I was little, I had my chores, and I roamed the neighborhood with friends earning money raking leaves, shoveling snow, cutting grass. I worked in a supermarket after school, and worked summers at a wide variety of jobs from 15 onward.
I suffer from a number of disabilities very likely a result of a closed head injury when I was ten. The ADHD is the most obvious, but I am also dyslexic and dysnomic (recalling names). I struggled through school including undergraduate school only catching on at age 23 when I entered graduate school. I left undergraduate school with a 2.3 (low "C") but had people who believed in me and tested well (1300 on my GRE's). I finished a two-year program in 18 months in school psychology and graduated with a 3.8 (high "A"). And I worked very hard against all odds as an advocate for children with disabilities for 38 years.
Working in the public schools all that time allowed me to observe first hand a wide variety of parenting styles and life styles. It was easy to recognize the families who put their children first from those who did not. For every parent who used "bad luck" as an excuse to drink and abuse drugs, there were many who worked two jobs to make ends meet. Those who allow their addictions (gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex) to take precedence over their children (like Sade's mother and father), parents who have no money for their kids' clothes and social activities, always have enough to do their hair and nails somehow, and tattoos, and all the cigarettes, beer and booze they depend on. Too many of them have children by accident or because they need someone to love THEM unconditionally only to find out children grow up and will judge the parents who they worshipped as little ones.
While I accept that we have a large number of individuals who were abused as children or suffer from clinical depression and cannot focus on their offspring, having had to deal with the throwaway kids they left behind, have little to no sympathy for parents who forgot that being a parent means sacrifice. I also believe that every citizen of this great country we all live in needs to give back to their community, and to support the party and candidates of their choice, and to join with other like-minded people to maintain our freedoms including the right to vote. By the same measure, sacrifice is needed, giving one's time and resources to support their beliefs and the candidates that put them into motion. So as liberal as I may appear, maybe I can be considered more "moderate" based on my wide range of beliefs. But Republican? Not even close. Too many issues on which we are diametrically opposed, income inequality, women's rights, foreign intervention, access to lethal weapons, religious freedom, LGBT Rights, and others....Proud to be a Democrat. Have high expectations for myself and others as well.