Politics, Motherhood, and Politics

It’s only been a little over a month, and a lot has happened in the political world: the Midterm Elections, the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I, the G-20 Summit, and now the death, funeral and burial of the 41st President of the United States.  To be perfectly honest, I started this writing at the end of October, but life gets busy, and I have a difficult time going back to my writings. However, I feel this is of a great importance to not let this go on the sidelines. As many of you know, I am not a fan or even a respectful observer when it comes to Donald Trump, who is now President of MY nation.  I often call him buffoon or just 45, and for this writing it will be no different. I mostly use “buffoon.” I can not let go of the fact that he used the word “Nationalist” at a campaign rally in October. You may ask why does this matter to me?  One reason would be that there is a dangerous and frightening level of xenophobia (anti-immigrant) going ...

Yesterday, my sons returned to school after a long, lazy summer off.  My oldest is beginning his first day of Middle School (Junior High as some may call it). My youngest begins his last year of Elementary School.  For those who don’t know, my sons are just a year apart, so this is their first separation in five years. But this is the second time in their lives that they have been separated, the first being when my oldest went to First Grade, while the other stayed behind at a private Kindergarten.  Needless to say the current separation has caused some anxiety in my home for the past few weeks, and it was strange to drop off each one at a different school and at different times yesterday morning. Also, my oldest must make the scary transition to being a “big kid”: changing classes, no recess, and remembering his locker combination.  He even had a small panic attack when we pulled up in the car line to drop him off, “Wait a minute, what do I do with my Tru...

As the summer vacation begins, I am home with my sons, as I remain unemployed (trying to start a political writing career), and they are excited about it.  They are now 10 and 11 years old. Activities on their agenda this summer are: sleeping in late, playing video games, going to see the Cubs and our hometown team, the Slammers, swimming in the neighborhood pool, and with luck, a family vacation.   My agenda for them includes those things, plus some reading and playing outside (besides at the pool), and some activities that will include some life skills and knowledge about the actual world around them.  We are lucky and privileged in our lives more than some, and even than most human beings in this world, and it is important that they learn to appreciate and know these things. We don’t have a lot but what we do have, we are grateful. Everyday I am grateful for my sons, my spouse, and the other people who love me.  Every day I am grateful for my home, my nation, a...

It is 9:36 AM on a Friday, May 18, 2018, and I am home watching the news.  The news is talking about yet another school shooting at Santa Fe High School near Galveston, Texas.  We have yet to know the details. An expert in Homeland Security, called this an epidemic, and he is right.  If this were a disease, killing us all, we would be panicking lining up for any cure or treatment we could use to save our children. If we limited it to a particular source, we would try to control it.  (Think HIV and condoms, we learned that a virus caused it and we figured out condoms provided some type of protection.) My local news just announced that there are 8 dead.  They are quoting CNN and showing a listing of all the school shooting since the beginning of the year.  They are quoting that on average there has been one school shooting a week since January 1, 2018. They just stated the shooter used a shotgun, not a military-style weapon.  So this rant will not be abo...

Lockdown is a term usually associated with prisons.  For those of us not directly exposed with the prison system, we usually hear it in movies or TV shows. However, since the killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary 2012, many states have enacted these drills, much like they do fire and tornado drills.  I get calls, texts and emails letting me that these drills take place, but for some reason, as if my sons dying in a fire or tornado isn’t bad enough, the lockdown is what shakes me to my core.   My 10-year-old was in kindergarten when the 1st graders at Sandy Hook Elementary died. When I would see their angelic faces flashing across the screen, in my selfishness, I think of my sons. When I see any child victim, whether that is in these mass killings or the ones pictured on my local news, I cry and then hug my sons. That is what I do, I put myself in and feel the pain of others.  The word is called empathy, which I try to pass to my sons. Those speci...