Why I Was Wary Of The Bailout…

by rhealitycheck

Really, now we want to bailout the automakers in Detroit who haven’t been performing up to par for years? This is the ultimate in privatized profits and socialized losses. Sometimes I wonder about the Democrats in office… Are they actually paying attention or do they just think handing out money to anyone who asks is a good idea? Because I don’t. I may be a liberal but I still believe you should have to earn your own bread and butter. I have come to terms with the fact that our entire economy would have collapsed if we had not bailed out the banks. That I can accept, unhappily but accepted nonetheless. If the automakers cannot create vehicles that people in this country would like to buy then they should not be rewarded for their incompetence by being bailed out.

Yes, I do realize that allowing the auto-giants in Detroit to fail does mean a significant amount of jobs lost. But let’s be realistic, if you run your business poorly, you don’t pay attention to your consumers and the fact that your sales have been going down for years then you are going to run yourself into the ground. And it is not the general public’s problem to clean up. You fail, you close, too bad for you.

And I know Detroit is crying out that we bailed out the banks so why not them. Well, to put it simply, yes the banks made a mess of things but unfortunately they effect every other industry in the United States and, with these fantastic global markets, the rest of the world too. So not bailing them out would have most likely guaranteed a Depression that would have been unprecedented. While I may not like that we bailed out the banks, it certainly was necessary in order to maintain some semblance of an economy, even if it is in crisis. The automakers on the other hand, well ok too bad they go out of business, we still have a bunch of foreign automakers that have factories in the US. This will not effect the entire country much less the world even an iota of what the banks failing would have done.

Perhaps it isn’t fair but it’s true and the less socialized losses we take the happier I am because let’s face it we’re not a socialized country. I am all for socialized losses as long as we start socializing the profits, you just let me know when that happens cause I’m not gonna be holding my breath for that one. And just one final thought, perhaps we should take a look at Britain and learn from their mistakes, bailing out a lousy automaker does nothing for anyone. It’s just plain stupid.

Keeping An Eye On Palin

by rhealitycheck

I believe that Sarah Palin may have learned something in her disastrous run for VP. When I was reading the article about the Republican Governor’s meeting in the Times I was thoroughly shocked by many of the Palin quotes. I do believe she is one that the Dems should keep their eyes on because she is charismatic, attractive and if she learns how to actually speak well she could become a thorn in the side of liberals everywhere.

I mean just the simple fact that she didn’t want to talk about 2012 and instead redirected the conversation to what the governors should be focusing on now are their budgets and giving Republicans all around a better name, well that actually shows some vision. If she continues to make statements like that and thinks before she speaks, well, colour me concerned.

And it’s not just her, I know many people may have forgotten about Mike Huckabee but he is yet another Republican with amazing charisma. I generally don’t agree with anything he says but what I will give him credit for is actually making sense when speaking about what the middle class needs. With someone as grounded as he is and Palin starting to get her act together, I’m a little concerned about our future.

The Dems really need to get it together and fast because I can see some major competition coming up in our future. And I think it would be nice to have a more moderate government for a while, I mean idealistically I’d like it to lean left but you know I’ll settle for moderate. I just don’t want to think of what could happen should the likes of Palin and Huckabee get to be more significant National figures for the Republican party.

The Suit Makes A Comeback

by rhealitycheck

I have to say that I was thrilled when I opened up my Thursday Styles section to find that suits are making a come back. I have always loved a classic well tailored power suit, probably more well known as your typical interview suit. It’s just my thing. I think they look absolutely wonderful.

Granted I tend to side with the folks that are fans of pantsuits. I think that skirt suits are beautiful, sure but for some reason I always associate it with secretaries. Could be that I saw too many old movies where secretaries are in fabulously beautiful skirt suits but it’s true. And maybe I’m being a bit too controversial in my light fluffy post about fashion and how I’m excited about suits making a comeback but I also think the skirt suit brings up some gender discrepancies for me. I think the pantsuit comes off as more powerful and more formal. Although in the article I was reading there were quite a few that disagree with me but it’s just my opinion.

Ok Forget Prop 8, Let’s Talk About Arkansas

by rhealitycheck

While the rest of the country is bemoaning California passing Proposition 8, which I still find extremely depressing, let’s discuss what just happened in Arkansas. What you may not have known and what I did not know until very recently was that they just passed a motion to ban people who are “cohabitating outside a valid marriage” from serving as foster parents or adopting children. I have to say I was horrified to see that in my op-ed page of the Times!

I find it quite disturbing that there are now laws being passed about the marital status of an individual’s ability to raise a child. I was raised by a single parent and in our case it was because she was widowed rather early in life but what if someone had deemed her unfit. I don’t believe the state can determine what is best for the child simply by the marital status of an individual. For example, in college one of the religious advisers at the school refused to marry her “partner” (who is a man) because she is morally opposed to marriage if it isn’t equal for all people. What would Arkansas say about her children, would they be taken away simply because she opposes the institution of marriage?

Anyway reading that just horrified me. First California goes and passes a law that protects the rights of chickens over the rights of their gay residents and now this. Really, what is this country coming to? And since when did we want the government to come knock down our doors and take a peek into our bedrooms? I thought America was all about freedom, what ever happened to that? I thought conservatives were really about small government, somehow this does not sound like small government to me. And Little Cog made a fabulous point in this article about how there should be “Marriage for none, Civil Unions for all” and I completely agree with that sentiment.

And to throw a little amusement your way watch this video about a counter proposition banning divorce in California.

I will end this with a happy thought, CT just legalized gay marriage. Yay!

Teach For America – Teaching Irresponsibility

by rhealitycheck

I am the first to admit that since leaving the education industry I haven’t given education nearly enough thought. I try to fit it in to my schedule but it doesn’t always work out so well. But I was recently directed to this fabulous article on feministe. And reading that really hit home with me.

I was only a teacher for a year and in terms of teaching careers that’s nothing. I had planned to go in for 2 years but it was never really in my long-term plans to be a teacher. Little did I know how much I would fall in love with my students. Had my administration not made me cry every day for about 2 months I may have even become a career teacher. But this post isn’t about my path in the public schools, it’s about Teach For America.

I remember being a senior in college whose after graduation plans were suddenly up in the air because I had recently made the decision that I did not want to go to grad school right after graduation. School had just overwhelmed me and I needed a break – this is probably far more common than I thought it was at the time, at the time I thought the world was ending.

But then I discovered Teach For America. Isn’t that the perfect alternative to bide your time before you go to grad school? You get to teach in the public schools where communities really need new teachers. It looks fabulous on your resume, grad school or otherwise and I loved TA-ing in college, it can’t be that far away from it, right? Wrong, teaching is nothing like being a TA. At least not a TA at a women’s college where you’re TA-ing help sessions that are not required. I mean all of your students show up because they’re over-achievers and they want to be there, not because they have to be and this is the last thing they’d like to be doing.

Anyway I spent much of my time goofing around and I applied late for the spring TFA application process and was rejected. I was actually really surprised that I was rejected considering I was a physics major but alas, physics is not a required subject in the schools and I wasn’t all that keen on teaching math or younger kids, limits your choices quite a bit. After that rejection, I was still quite set on being a teacher so I decided to broaden my scope to a couple of agencies and look into the private schools as well as send out my resume to some nearby public schools. I remember after reading all of the TFA literature I thought it was just a brilliant idea to make teaching a stop gap in figuring out what your real career path would be. Now by the end of the summer I had secured a position as a math teacher in an inner city (I’ll put the disclaimer that it was a small city) high school.

Now being hired directly into the school system you don’t have quite the same support as TFA or any teaching fellows program that I’ve heard of. But I’ve also heard their support system isn’t exactly stellar. In fact, a few friends of mine in TFA were a little upset because the teachers in the school and some of the students actually resented them for making this their 2 year stop gap. So I was lucky, in a way, that I somehow managed to sneak myself into the public school system without an education degree nor any training. And while I had an incredible learning curve that year I also found that to be a successful teacher you have to want to teach for the long term.

It is so difficult for kids to have their teachers keep changing every year. I remember when I told my students I was leaving they were so sad and upset and I felt like a horrible person. But I am glad I left when I did because I know now that I cannot work with that kind of public school administration and until we can effect some sort of reform in public school systems. The thing that you learn is that you really cannot be an effective teacher in the first year and I would even say that second year teachers are just barely starting to get the hang of it. Teaching is a field that is unlike any other and any time you make a mistake you are leaving an impression on multiple young minds that will forever remember your mistakes. It’s not like screwing up a line of code in a software program (I relate this to things I know, I know code), you can fix that in an instant (or at least some reasonable amount of time) and no one will care or remember that it was wrong in the first place. Trying to re-teach students an incorrect understanding of algebra, well, that could take years.

In essence, I take issue with the fundamental practice in TFA to only stay in the school systems for 2 years. I take issue with the fact that so many people think it is acceptable to treat teaching as if it is something that can be a transition phase in one’s life. It is reaching out and touching the lives of young people everywhere. It is not something that should be taken lightly and in fact you should really truly want to be an educator to go into education. I know we have a shortage of teachers but a bunch of young kids (the 20 somethings) that think that teaching is a great stop gap isn’t going to fix the problem we have with education. Creating an educational system where these young people want to stay, that’s the ideal. That’s what we should be focusing on. Creating an environment where kids will enjoy learning and teachers are respected is what will really make a difference.

When Politics Gets Personal

by rhealitycheck

I’ve been thinking about the passing of Proposition 8 a lot lately and what bothers me most about it is that it is fundamentally unacceptable. I believe I have finally understood why it bothers me so much and it is much the same with the issue of abortion. And I say this because it has nothing to do with whether anyone believes that being gay is acceptable nor what your personal opinion of abortion is. The similarity between these two issues is that these are basic human rights that we are not being afforded.

Let me be clear, I am not saying, “Yay, let’s all go get abortions”. I mean really, who says that? or even thinks that? Personally, I don’t know if I could have one if I were ever to get pregnant but let’s leave hypotheticals out of this. So what do I believe? I believe that women should have a right to choose. Yes, yes I do. I believe we should give women enough credit that they should be able to make this choice for whatever reason may be behind this. It is scientific fact that having an abortion is not easy, women experience a whole host of side-effects. In reality the whole thing sucks a lot, even having to make that decision sucks a lot. Can you imagine being a teenager and trying to deal with the consequences of having a child? Can you imagine being a woman who has been trying to get pregnant for years but is told that it’s your life or the child’s life? Can you imagine being a woman who has been raped and not only that but now has to go through a series of tests to find out if she is ok, if she has stds and if she is pregnant and if so wants an abortion? Those are not easy decisions to make. This is not something that they should be persecuted for.

This whole Christian right campaign about being pro-life is actually completely unfounded and ridiculous because if you were actually pro-life then should we be abolishing the death penalty. Not to mention thinking about health care for those babies that you so generously saved. And what about health care for their parents so that they can still have parents to take care of them while they’re growing up. Or even social security for the elderly so that they may not starve to death because they were too poor and too old and too weak to fend for themselves. And how about those food stamps and welfare for those families that are too poor to take care of those children that you so wonderfully saved from the jaws of death. What about making sure that there is appropriate housing for all these people whose lives we clearly care about saving. Clearly those do not qualify as being pro-life. Really this campaign isn’t about being pro-life, it’s about being anti-choice but let’s face it pro-life sounds a whole lot better than anti-choice. And I will say that whoever came up with that verbiage was a genius.

Now if we look at the issue of gay marriage, I want to know exactly how this threatens your heterosexual marriage? Is there somewhere that states, “oh if we let the gays marry then our marriage means nothing anymore!”? I would imagine that the divorce rate is actually more of a threat to the institution of marriage than actually allowing two people that want to spend the rest of their lives together to be married. What I think some people seem to be confusing the issue with is, is it ok to be gay? Well I’m sorry it’s not your legal right to tell me whether it is or is not ok to be gay. Remember, marriage is a legal institution what your house of worship chooses to do about the gay issue is not in question here.

Recently a friend sent me a note on his thoughts about Proposition 8 being passed and I am thankful to have many friends who have the same socially liberal views that I do. The thing that he said that really brought the point home was when he compared it to segregated education. It was not so long ago that our schools were still segregated. It was not so long ago that people believed that the education system should be segregated. But there was one man, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who stood up to all those people and took the initiative to turn it all around. Now LBJ was originally just a school teacher from East Texas and I’ll be the first admit (being a Texas native) that Texas is not always a particularly progressive place. But he was still able to realize that we should not allow such discrimination in our school systems. The questions around this issue run parallel to those with gay marriage – Does having black students affect the ability of the white students to learn from their teachers? Does it hinder the education system to allow people of various colors to be in that system?

Regardless of your belief, whether you believe all men are created equal or not, is it your place to judge and put it into the legal system of this country? America was created to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. It is not brave to disallow people who are different from you to exist happily, it is cowardice. It is not freedom to have unequal rights for particular groups of people.

As my friend said to me, “Should we not abide by and promote the idea that this nation was founded on one fundamental idea, freedom and liberty for all. Let’s not prevent other law abiding citizens from enjoying the same freedoms and liberties that we so freely enjoy, and let us all progress once again and truly be Americans.”

A Bitter-sweet Victory

by rhealitycheck

When the election results first came in I was absolutely elated. The Democrats have successfully managed to gain a majority in the House and Senate and we even got the presidency to boot! This has not happened since the beginning of Clinton’s first term and it only lasted for his first two years in office, so I tend to not count that. Before Clinton the last time we had Congress and the White House with a Democratic majority was when JFK was in office. Clearly there has been a major shift to the right and the people have finally decided enough is enough. At the end of the day I do believe that Americans, as a whole, are rather centrist in their beliefs and it was about time we started moving back towards the middle.

I say this is a bitter-sweet victory because while I am elated that the Dems have swept Washington, I am also severely disappointed in the passing of Proposition 8 in California. I find it hard to believe that in California of all places they could pass such legislature to modify their own constitution. Especially considering all of the anti-discrimination legislature that is already in place in California I find it disturbing that they don’t see this in the same light. Ah well, I hope that my friend, Matt, is correct when he says there are many things that pass in California that cannot be put in place because there are too many checks against stupid laws actually passing.

Ah well it was a nearly perfect election, I suppose you can’t always get everything you want. I’ll settle for a hopeful Presidency and Congress!

A Historic Election

by rhealitycheck

I would say this election is one to remember. Not just because a black man was elected President of the United States of America but also because we now have a Democratic majority in D.C. “We” just swept the House, Senate and the Presidential bid. I know this has happened in the past but with the conservative rule of the last 8 years it seems like it was a lifetime away that America knew what being centrist was about let alone having a Democratic majority in anything. I just hope that the Democrats can do a good enough job to at least not lose the majority significantly in the next 4 years.

I have to say being in Chicago for this momentous occasion was pretty spectacular. Granted I wasn’t in Grant Park (you know Chicago is notorious for its riots for no reason and this time there were many reasons had the results gone either way) but still biking home from my friend’s apartment across town there were victory calls smattered throughout the city for Obama. There were couples on the street rejoicing and people everywhere celebrating. It was an unforgettable experience.

To be here.
Right now.
Is larger than anything that one can imagine.
It is being a part of history.
And this history cannot be rewritten. It is up to the Democrats with Obama at the helm to truly turn this country around and show us why we put our faith in them. I just hope they are up to that task.

I know that Obama wasn’t my ideal candidate but I cannot explain what a relief it is to see him as the nominee. But in the same breath I will also say that I was extremely impressed with McCain’s concession speech. That was one of the most gracious concession speeches I have ever heard and quite frankly if McCain had campaigned like that I don’t think that Obama would have had the landslide victory that he did. I may not agree with McCain but I do respect him. I respect him because as he proved in his speech he is a classy, intelligent, honest (relatively speaking, this is politics) and courageous man. In that speech I saw a glimmer of the McCain that I actually considered to be someone worth looking in to in the 2000 Republican primaries. I still say had he won the 2000 primaries or even been allowed to run in 2004 I would’ve considered him. He had far more gumption back then and as this speech proved he can really be a moving speaker.

I give a hearty “Congratulations” to Obama and I do hope to see what we can accomplish in the next 4 years. As an eternal optimist I am hoping for the best!

side note: I am officially a Rachel Maddow fan girl now… I typically don’t think of myself as a “fan girl” but I don’t mind for her, she’s worth it

Incompetence, Next Stop White House

by rhealitycheck

Now I don’t believe in doing anything party-line. In fact, this year is the first time I have ever voted a straight ticket because I believe that all parties have good candidates to offer and one should spend the time getting to know who is best for the job.

But I really have to say that I have been wary of Governor Sarah Palin from quite early in her nomination as the Vice Presidential hopeful and it has now heightened to being more than a little terrified of what might happen should we allow her into the White House. For one, her camp and the McCain camp are having issues and clearly are not communicating with each other. I mean a McCain aide even said that Palin had gone rogue over the last week or so. Now, that is not a team that works together and if our President and Vice President can’t work together what hope can we have for Congress or the Cabinet?

While that is definitely concerning I think the straw that broke the camel’s back is that Sarah Palin actually believed that the President of France would just randomly call her up at her campaign office. I mean does her office not vet their callers at all? Obviously not since you can actually watch the whole thing on youtube and read all about it in the Canadian Press.

Haven’t we had enough incompetence in the White House? Do we really need yet another misfit in a position of power? I know that being Vice President is not the same as being President but let’s face it McCain is old, if he were Obama’s age I’d say it’s not nearly as frightening – still a concern but not to the same degree. This, this is just outrageous irresponsibility on his part and utter incompetence on hers. What a pair.

Has anyone else taken a look at how Canada’s doing? I hear it’s a nice place to live…

The Importance of California’s Proposition 8

by rhealitycheck

To be honest I hadn’t really been paying too much attention to Proposition 8 in California, I guess I just viewed it as just another one of those votes that irritates me. But after reading this article in the New York Times and as a member of the queer community I feel that it is not just my right but my responsibility to speak out on this matter.

Proposition 8 matters.
It matters because it is an issue about human rights.
Civil liberties.
In fact what it is mostly about is discrimination.

Before you stop reading, hear me out.

This is not about what you believe in as a church. This is not about what your religion dictates. This is about legalities. This proposition is allowing a blending of church and state. It is about denying two people that love each other the right to visit the other one in the hospital should one of them fall ill. It is about not allowing two committed people the right to adopt a child because it would be better to have that child jump through several different dysfunctional foster homes. It is about the legal institution of marriage not the religious one. I don’t care what your religion dictates. Feel free not to have gay marriages at your church, synagogue, mosque, temple or what have you. That is your right in following with your religious beliefs. But a legal marriage license is simply a partnership between two people that affects their taxes, their property, their bank accounts, visitation rights and all other legal matters. What happens outside of the realm of the legal system really is not a concern.

What I find unacceptable is not allowing two committed people who intend to spend the rest of their lives together the right to do so legally. It is perfectly ok to allow Britney Spears to have a 24-hour marriage because she married a man yet gay couples that have spent 10, 20, 30 or any number of years together are denied that right. How is that acceptable to this society? How is it acceptable in a society that touts “liberty and justice for all”? That is not justice.

Also, I find it fascinating that many liberals are suddenly conservative when we talk about gay marriage just because of that one little word marriage. But you know what I’m not willing to budge, when you speak in legalities you apply for a license to get married not to have a civil union. If you want to oppose the term marriage then it must not hold legally for anyone. It is perfectly acceptable if everyone, regardless of whether they are marrying someone of the opposite sex or someone of the same sex, is applying for a license for a civil union. That way it would still be the same rights and the word marriage is no longer in contention. But until that can change the simple fact is that in order to be equal and fair, the equivalent would be to allow gay marriage. Creating new laws to separate the two institutions legally allows for discrimination and therefore is not acceptable, hence the need for gay “marriage”.

In fact this sort of discrimination reeks of the same sort that existed when interracial marriages were not allowed. Is this truly any different?

Again, this is not a matter of religion, it is a matter of legalities. And until we can offer all people equal rights this will be a problem for this country and, in my opinion, for the world.

In the immortal words of Catie Curtis:
Some day we’ll all be free
I can feel it, it’s our destiny
Some day, I believe
Love will make an honest world for me

I hope Californians will choose to keep that refrain true.