I am a lifetime supporter of women’s rights. I watched my mother take over the duties of a family during a time when women were struggling to have an even playing field with men. I sometimes wonder how she even managed to do all of the many jobs that were required of her as a single parent. Somehow she worked, ran our household, and earned a college degree all on her own. She kept our home tidy, our bellies filled and our determination to earn our own degrees rolling along while she did every single job related to parenting all by herself.
I was fortunate to be part of a team when I launched my own career in education. My husband handled half of the tasks related to our home life and I completed the rest. My days were long and as I look back on them I am astonished that I was able to do as much as I did. I had to rise from my slumbers before the sun came over the horizon and make sure that everything my two daughters would need for the day was all set in place before even thinking of leaving home. I was usually at work by seven in the morning which sometimes required a drive of up to an hour just to get there. I was mostly on my feet for eight hours making sure that my students had learned the concepts that I was teaching them. On some days I had afternoon duties or meetings to attend that kept me at the school until five in the evening when I would repeat my one hour drive home. Once there I prepared dinner, helped my girls with their homework, and tidied up the house or did a load of laundry.
I was fortunate to have a sweet mother-in-law who came to sit with my children until they were old enough to officially become latchkey kids. When they were sick my mother-in-law came to sit with them. I understood my good fortune in having her so that I did not have use my sick leave every time one of them had a fever or upset stomach. Once they were older and reliable enough to be alone I felt that I had won a valuable prize.
After my daughters left home to attend college I enrolled in an advanced degree program and took advantage of every workshop offered by whatever school district had hired me. The additional education allowed me to advance my career and become a school administrator. I was balancing so many balls in the air that I might have been a circus performer. I was tired all the time but pushed through the whole experience. I never regretted all of the hard work or the balancing act that became my daily routine for decades.
I knew that I was not alone. There were men and women everywhere working together to raise families and still be successful in their jobs. I understood how difficult it was to be my best in the many roles that I had to perform and knew that others were living parallel lives to mine. The daily grind of most Americans is duplicated around the world but in some places the governments have created programs designed to help. In the United States working people are mostly on their own. The situation can be particularly brutal for single parents who must carry every single duty on their backs.
We now live in a very lopsided society in which the wealthiest among us are able to hire a fleet of people do do the everyday work in their multiple homes while the lowest paid often work more than one job just to stay afloat. Many children become caretakers for their siblings while they are still quite young. Families often overlook the symptoms of illnesses because the cost of medical care even with insurance is beyond the parameters of their budgets. Sadly, those symptoms may accelerate until individuals are mortally ill. There are people all around us who are working harder than ever but barely hanging on.
I recently read a post from one of my students who created a floral business that was flourishing until the cost of flowers and gasoline increased to record levels. She frantically posted one day that she had to have a large vehicle to deliver her creations but she was burning gasoline at a rate that forced her to stop at a service station every other day. She needs her truck to keep her business thriving but has to increase the prices just to stay even. She is exhausted and frustrated just as many Americans who own small businesses are.
While the vast majority of Americans are working unspeakable numbers of hours only to fall further into debt with the rising costs of everything our president and his family members are doubling and even tripling their wealth. We read about their energy and ingenuity while understanding that they have dozens of individuals who do the work that the rest of us must do after laboring at jobs all day. They are not affected at all by the higher cost of everything that they want. They fly around the world with billionaires wearing five thousand dollar outfits and then they wonder why so any Americans are angry every time they go to a grocery store or stay up until midnight paying bills and doing chores.
Our present society is financially lopsided in many ways because the man in the White House has been spoiled by wealth his entire life. He does not know how to be an every day ordinary citizen nor do his children. He lives in a gilded palace ranting about his own importance, playing golf every weekend while the rest of us are wondering if we and our families will ultimately be alright. We watch our incomes being stretched with every single purchase. We make adjustment after adjustment to stay afloat as the prices of everything we use grow higher and higher. For the poor the sacrifices are even more drastic and yet our president only has sympathy for himself. He cannot even understand what it is like to be stranded on a ship that has been at sea for over two hundred days. He is unable to relate to anyone who is not wealthy.
Our economy is not on fire. It is teetering at the brink and our leader is incapable of understanding how so many Americans are suffering. I am lucky enough to be in the middle. I was able to purchase a hybrid car that allows me to drive around for only about twenty four dollars a month. I am covered for now by Medicare and I get a pension from my years of teaching. I am still healthy enough to do most of the work that needs to be done in my home. I know that I will survive just as I always have but I worry about the younger Americans who are struggling at every turn. I know that we all have to join together to send people to Washington DC and to our statehouses who will begin to concentrate on the people, not on enriching themselves. We all have to vote in numbers that send a clear message of our displeasure. If we simply rubber stamp the wishes of Trump and the Republicans who bow to his every whim our entire society will be in grave danger. Our president does not care about us and that is the brutal truth!
All It Takes Is A Little Love 