Still Running-Sort of

When I was a youngster, running came easily. Now I can’t remember the last time I ran for any reason. Not physically anyway although I probably have at some point in time. It just gets to where these joints make it clear that they do not enjoy the activity anymore. Plus, the xrays that the doctors keep ordering come back with the words “degenerative changes in the joints”. Thanks, but the alternative is not one I particularly want to contemplate.

Politics has come around again on its cyclic schedule. Here in Georgia, most things are decided on a two-year schedule-more or less-with some exceptions. The General Assembly, for whatever reason, decided years ago that its members needed to campaign for office every two years. Wasteful? It’s been debated.

Statewide offices-e.g. Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State-are every four years in what most people think of as the “Presidential off-years”. Presumably, that’s so the candidates would get the attention they deserve. I’m pretty sure that the majority party one year wanted to make sure that “their” candidate wasn’t drowned out by a Presidential candidate who wasn’t of the same party. (Gee, wouldn’t that be a shame?)

Anyway, those of us who either are “want to be elected” or “want to be re-elected” are back out there running our little hearts out trying to get people to stop long enough to pay attention to us, decide they like us well enough to vote for us, and may drop a $20 bill in the money box or donate online.

Let me take this opportunity to ask you to stop long enough to consider each candidate on both sides for any particular position. I know, I know-some people “always vote XXXX” regardless, but hear me out. There are many things different about this year and you just might want to make a change or two.

1. Women are blisteringly angry that their choices about birth control in general, abortion after 6 weeks, OBGYN care in general, post-natal care, and rural maternal care is being ripped to shreds by a few religious zealots who want to impose a kind of Christian Sharia law on them. Moreover, these people are interfering with in vitro family planning, surrogacy, LGBTQ adoptions, all stem cell work (which jeopardizes cancer and immunosuppressed patient treatments), and even whether or not medical students will choose to go into the OBGYN rotations to graduate out. THIS HAS TO STOP. The ripple effect of what they are doing will rip our healthcare system apart, not to mention what it will do to families across the nation.
2. Our public school system is being systematically torn down to nothing by people who want to privatize public education and make your children into the soulless robots of Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Baltic States so they can stuff them into the factories of the future and out on the farms on jobs they’ll hate but can’t leave because they’re not trained for anything else. They’ve blatantly said so. That’s what Betsy DeVos’s goal was. The privileged (usually white and wealthy) will go to private schools which will be subsidized, and the rest of the children (poorer white, black, brown, Asian, Native) will be funneled into these schools. That’s why I oppose school vouchers. I want our public schools to be brought up so that parents are once again PROUD to send their children to public systems like my parents were.
3. After (how many decades?) lo, these many years, we are finally seeing our infrastructure being repaired and replaced. Now I’ll grant you that this is not exactly a glamorous topic and sometimes you have to drive down side streets to go look to find it, but it is happening. Bridges on STATE highways that have been on the “to do” list for way too long have been replaced (I can think of three around me right now and one goes over the Chattahoochee River!). Schools are getting new roofs that will fix leaks. My county is getting not just new school buses, but electric ones! County water treatment places are being upgraded-and just in time. (Ask the City of Atlanta about that one.) A recreation center thought the only upgrade they were going to get was a basketball court. They got the court, yeah, but they also got a whole new building with a new pool, new meeting rooms, a splash park, new tennis courts, and more parking. Tell me again how nobody is getting any infrastructure money…
4. Let’s say that you’re a single parent and you get a job at, oh, say Walmart or Target and the pay is $10.50/hour and you are fortunate enough to be scheduled for 32 hours/week. (That’s because that’s about the maximum they’ll schedule for to avoid having to give you benefits and take out FICA taxes and all that stuff. But it’s not like you are a 1099 gig worker?) Take home check for a week =$336, or monthly pay (hopefully) $1344. Isn’t that a lovely sum of money? Go out and look for a one-bedroom apartment now. Ideally, say the experts, you should spend no more than a third of your income. That would be somewhere around $475. Somebody needs to tell the people who have the apartments. They’re asking $1100. Yeah, you can find one for less, but you’re a single PARENT. Do you want your child in that neighborhood or in that school? Affordable housing and its attendant issues of aftercare/daycare/sufficient wages all go hand-in-hand. And it is primarily single WOMEN OF COLOR who carry the burden. Raise the minimum wage. NOW.
5. JOBS JOBS JOBS This is a repeating mantra, but it hinges on the above four. We cannot expect employERS to want to relocate to an area if the first four are a problem. They just won’t. Nobody wants to move into a neighborhood based on promises that it “will appreciate” in value. They want the value to be there when they move in and they want it to stay there. Employers are not stupid. Quit treating them like they are.

If I made sense to you, then consider voting for me and/or supporting my campaign. Or support another candidate who has similar values. Thank you for reading this. I appreciate your time.

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Moms against Guns/Everytown

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Georgia Conservation Voters