Do you think they’d swing me like that? Maybe if I dressed like a penguin? I just love this little family. And you can learn a bit more about them here.
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Dear 2012 Presidential Candidates,
We are your future constituents and we are parents.
We are American mothers and fathers and grandparents and guardians. Our families might be the most diverse in the world. Blended and combined in endless permutations, we represent every major religion, political ideology and ethnic culture that exists. We are made from equal parts biology and choice. Our children come to us in every way possible—including fertility miracles, adoption, and remarriage.
Our very modern families embody the freedom that defines America. We embody America. We are rich in diversity, but we are united in our family values. We come together today, with one voice, to express our grave disappointment in the national political discourse.
The 2012 countdown has barely begun and we are already being bombarded with the warmed-over, hypocritical rhetoric of 2008. We are living in a time where 15.1% of Americans now live in poverty, the unemployment rate stands at 16%, and we are spending close to $170 billion annually between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan*.
Given the current state of affairs we would expect every candidate to focus on the issues that truly matter: job creation, debt-relief, taxes, education, poverty, and ending the war(s). Instead, it is already clear to us that the conversation has been hijacked, with the goal of further polarizing our nation into a politically motivated and falsely created class-war.
We will not stand for another campaign year in which politicians presume to know what our family values are as they relate to the nation.
To be clear, here are our family values:
Affordable health care, including family planning, for all Americans. We will not tolerate any candidate using the shield of “Choice” to blind us from the issues that really matter. When funding is stripped from organizations like Planned Parenthood, access to sliding-scale health care (including yearly pap smears & mammograms), comprehensive sex education, and family planning is blocked from the poorest of the population.
Access to education, and the ability to actually use it. We want quality, affordable, federally-funded pre-K programs made available in every State, in order to provide an even starting point for all children enrolled in public schools— regardless of the wealth of the district or town they live in.
A reinstatement of regulations for banks issuing mortgages and full prosecution for those who engaged in fraudulent lending practices. We want full accountability —investigation, indictment and prosecution— of those individuals and institutions who engaged in fraudulent lending practices and who helped create the massive foreclosures that left many families homeless or struggling to keep their homes.
A return of strict environmental regulations protecting water, air, food, and land that were removed in the last two decades. We want our children to grow up in a world not weighed down by the strains of pollution and global warming. Between BPA in our products, sky-rocketing rates of asthma in kids, questionable hormones in our over-processed food, and more, we need leaders who will put our needs and safety over the desires and profits of large corporations.
Family planning, healthcare, education, economic solvency and environmental safety: these are our national family values.
Candidates who demonstrate the ability to understand the gravity of these issues, and their impact on our families, and who can provide actual, viable solutions to these problems will garner our support and our votes.
We believe in this democratic system of ours, and we will continue to use our voices and our votes to see that it reaches its fullest potential.
Sincerely,
Your future constituents,
The mothers & fathers of America
(this is the brainchild of Lisa Duggan and Avital Norman Nathman. To read more about it, click here.)
P.S. And this list is not all-inclusive, at least not as far as my governmental wish list, but it is certainly a start.
Would you allow your daughter to wear a ‘masculine’ costume for Halloween?
512 answered yes
5 answered no
1 answered not sure
Would you allow your son to wear a ‘feminine’ Halloween costume?
437 answered yes
15 answered no
11 answered not sure
I think it is interesting that more people total answered the first question than the second. I was actually a bit surprised that 5 people said they wouldn’t allow their daughter to wear a ‘masculine’ costume. I thought there wouldn’t be any no’s on that one. And certainly more not sure’s than no’s.
94% said they would allow their son to wear a ‘feminine’ costume. I love that. I love that the vast majority [of my readers at least] are open to the idea.
In regards to my actual Just B project:
- People are a lot more likely to let you dress up their daughters than your their sons
- Girls are more likely to not care what they are wearing costume wise than boys
- Men are more likely to not care what they are wearing costume wise than women
- Once they get going, almost anyone will put on almost anything
- People have a LOT of fun playing dress up, boys, girls, men, women.
- Bring more mustaches than you could possibly imagine using
- Set out a tub of costumes and props and you will get all kinds of mashups
- Not as many people are familiar with the Blind Melon bumblebee than I imagined - which means perhaps I’m old
- It’s quite hard to pin down a schedule that works for more than one person
- We own far too many costumes and dress up clothes
- My kids have some great friends and all of them are really fun and funny
- I need to do some serious work on learning how my camera functions - if I do this again, I hope I can take actual good quality photographs
I had so much fun working on this. Being the list lover than I am, this project provided a lot of fodder. I even made a spreadsheet. The best part was just watching to see what the kids were drawn to. And the adults for that matter. I think I’m going to carry a basket of the funny glasses and accessories to every party I attend.
Now it’s time for feedback? Which were your favorites? Were there too many? Not enough? Ideas for next time?
This last picture is a shout out to a frequent commenter, KnitManYarn. Hi!
I adore this picture, mostly because of the story that his mom sent along with it:
When my 8 year-old son with Autism actually *told me* he wanted a Rapunzel costume, I had mixed feelings. First, excitement, because he enthusiastically and persistently communicated what he wanted. Second, some apprehension, because I knew it had great potential as a point of contention. I made his dress and bought the licensed wig, but he couldn’t wear the wig because it was too itchy. So I made him a wig out of yarn. He was so excited at the store when we found silver glitter half-inch heeled shoes with bows. I asked him, “You want these?” He practically shouted, “Yes!”. If you knew my son, you would understand how big this is for him.
If I had decided to say “no” the costume, how the heck could I have ever explained it to him?
