Earn My Vote

In the quest for Texas delegates, Hillary Clinton will be stumping in our area tomorrow afternoon. I’m wondering whether I should take my preschoolers and go hear her.

***
Dear Senator Clinton,

I am an undecided voter with small children. Health insurance access, Employment equity, and family- and child-friendly policies are all very important to me. Could you summarize your stand on these important issues using puppets? Much appreciated.

Love, Eglentyne
***

Seriously, it would be hard not to vote for a candidate willing to explain things to children without fear of embarassing herself.

CM warns that the puppet speech should be a good one, lest mama be accused of selling out to a puppet government.

Politics, Personal

In all seriousness.

President George W. Bush will make his seventh and final (hallelujah) State of the Union Address this evening.

According to the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 3

“[The President] shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

I celebrate the State of the Union Address today, not so much because of any political motivation, but because the (generally) annual speech to the joint houses of Congress and to the nation and the world, coincides with a more personal event for me. Thirteen years ago, my partner and I set off on our first adventure together.

It started on a Friday. We worked in the same lab together, he a molecular biology grad student, me a biochemistry undergrad. Chatting over epi-tubes one Friday morning, we planned a lab-group outing. A performance art group was presenting a new piece that night on campus. I was on my way to class, and so he said he’d pass along the event to the other members of the lab group when they came in. We agreed to meet at the theater 15 minutes prior to showtime.

I showed up a few minutes late to find him waiting outside the door to the theater. Alone. He shrugged, and said that he guessed everyone had other plans. I learned later in the weekend that he had completely neglected to mention the plan to any of our friends or colleagues. We watched the show. We went out for coffee. The time we spent together stretched longer and longer. The sub-zero nighttime air of the desert in January did not deter us from ending up on the roof of the Chemistry building in the middle of the night to look at the stars. We ended up at a different coffee shop at five a.m. And not a thing had passed our lips but conversation and food.

Our waitress happened to be another chemistry student. She was due to get off work at six. We cooked up a hair-brained scheme to go to Tucson all together when she got off work. (Tucson was a four or five hour drive from where we were, across the desert and one state line, and none of us had ever been there). We waited, but she backed out, begging fatigue. Undeterred, we climbed into his truck and hit the road.

There is no rational explanation for why we did this. It was really rather stupid. For both of us. For a lot of reasons.

We spent the day in Tucson, driving around, eating again, and then drove back home late in the afternoon. Sleep-deprivation makes the next couple of days a hazy blur for me, but by the time of Bill Clinton’s second State of the Union Address in January of 1995, after a dizzy weekend, we were firmly Together.

And though we were married in July a couple of years later, each year we tend to note the passing of the state of the Union with a little bit more nostalgia and enthusiasm.

So here’s to us babe, and our Union. May we bear witness to many more presidential speeches together.

Presidentialness

Cass has nominated me for President. Of the United States, I think. (Note to Cass: you should let me know if you meant president of something else, like the National Dairy Farmers Association or Geeks Unlimited or whatever).

I am nodding politely in her direction and smiling. Thank you my dear. I think though that your poise and charm make you the better presidential contender. I see myself more as one of your back room deal-makers. Or perhaps a cabinet member. I could be your Director of Homeland Security, only I’d rename it the Department of Domestic Bliss. More Scope For the Imagination* in that one.

OK, maybe that’s just silly. But I realized as I thought about my presidential aspirations that by election time later this year, I will actually be old enough to run for president legally. The U.S. Constitution suggests that 25 is old enough for the House of Representatives, 30 for Senate, and 35 for President. The first two passed me by without a thought to running for elected office, but as 35 approaches (thoughts of Dante* drift lazily through my mind), I see that I should start taking this president thing seriously.

How to get started?

Realistically it’s too late to enter the race for one of the major parties. The Republicans and Democrats are already duking it out around the country to choose their nominees (this weekend, most notably, in Cass’s South Carolina for the Dems, and Florida for the GOP). So I guess I need some independent party.

So I guess that’s my assignment this week: Find a political party to lead to the White House.

Next time: More lame political jokes.

*Can anyone identify my two obscure literary references here? Snickerdoodles for anyone who can get both.

Roe v. Wade

I want to live in a country where my children have equal access to education and opportunity regardless of their gender, their sexual proclivites, their race, their class, their religion (or lack thereof), or any other traditional or innovative marker of identity. I want to live in a country where women have strong reproductive rights with meaningful reproductive choices.

I believe that these two guarantees—education and reproductive control—will continue to make ours a stronger and more democratic nation. Not since the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion has the threat to reproductive rights in the United States felt so dramatic. If not in terms of literal limitations governing a woman’s options (of which there are many), than in terms of actual access to physicians and facilities willing and qualified to offer those options.

Regardless of outcomes, it is a rare individual who has not been directly or indirectly affected by unintended pregnancy. Let’s try not to presume that we know what is right or wrong or reasonable or feasible in the lives of others, and let’s simply try to be supportive of each other as human beings. And let’s try not to go backwards in the building of our freedoms and independence.

Polish This

If I am ever accused or convicted or a crime, especially something as serious as allowing a child in my care to die, feel free to defend or condemn me as you find appropriate. I hope that you use sound judgement and rational reasoning in your opinions, but it’s really your right to think what you wish however you wish. Yell if you feel like it. Write if you think it’s appropriate. But please. Please. Save the shoe polish for Saturdays at the sports complex. This is not a soccer match or football game. This is the death of a child and the destruction of a family.