"We Have to Go Together"

As you know, in my last post, I whined a lot and somehow managed to take out my winter blahs on the two Senators from Kentucky. At the time, I anticipated Mitch McConnell's appearance on Meet the Press would be a sharply critical, obstructionist attack on everything President Obama laid out in his January 25th State of the Union address...

However, Egypt changed everything. I can only assume McConnell's booking was cut short so that David Gregory could talk with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton about the continued unrest in Egypt -- and rightly so.

Still, McConnell made an appearance* and even moved on from talk of Egypt to domestic issues. True, he did not once utter the words "Kentucky" or "Kentuckians," but he did make one compelling statement that I can't seem to forget: "We have to go together."

He said this not once, but twice: "We have to go together."

McConnell was responding to the question of entitlement reform, which folks all across the political spectrum agree is an essential component of cutting back on the U.S. budget deficit.  (According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid comprised more than 40% of the Federal Budget in 2010. The Department of Defense adds another 20%. These programs are often seen as untouchable, but it is becoming more and more clear that we will not be able to bring down the deficit if 60% of the Budget is untouchable and, therefore, cannot be cut.**)

Republicans promised to cut spending in the 2010 Midterms. The problem is, now that a majority of them have been seated in the House, they are much more cautious about tightening the federal government's belt.  You see, spending cuts are not so popular with constituents who don't want their benefits slashed, making such legislation a risky move for representatives who want to get re-elected in 2012.

And it's not just Republicans; the hesitancy to enact unpopular, but necessary reform exists for Democrats as well. No one wants to be attacked as the politician who stole from senior citizens...especially in a 30-second TV spot during the next election cycle. 

And yet, the fact remains: We cannot afford to continue down this path. 

On Sunday David Gregory alluded to the political maneuvering that ensues. Who will present their plan for entitlement reform first: Republicans or Democrats? In typical Washington style, it is projected that whichever side goes first will have the disadvantage of being cast by the other side as the party who robbed the American people of benefits -- even though both parties believe that benefits must be cut to sustain programs like Social Security. The hypocrisy and double-dealing turns my stomach!

The solution to this strategic dilemma? As McConnell wisely asserted: "We have to go together."

Only time will tell if my Senator (or anyone else in Washington) will stick to all the good faith that's been percolating about Capitol Hill in the wake of the Tucson Massacre...but here's one Kentuckian, one hopeful citizen who would like to see Congress and the White House "go together" on entitlement reform and many of the other big issues we face.

So, enough of the political maneuvering, Congress. Enough strategic power plays. We did not elect you to acquire power for yourselves or your party. We elected you to solve problems. So do it! Go together. Get in a room, figure it out, and then tell us all about your plan -- your bipartisan plan to make Social Security sustainable for another generation.

Now...is that too much to ask?

Jaelithe, the Librarian @ Home, (who has become a little more politicky than she ever intended to be)

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*Click here to read a transcript of the January 30, 2011 broadcast of Meet the Press

**What's a Librarian to do? After about 30 minutes of plowing through the 2010 Federal Budget, I gave up on my quest for a primary source of this data and succumbed to the CBPP's data. The CBPP describes itself as "producing materials that are balanced (and) authoritative" and even have a shout out from Ezra Klein on their webpage. So...I am using this source and moving on. If I were your friendly neighborhood reference librarian, being paid by the hour and benefiting from ridiculously low premiums on health insurance, then believe me, I wouldn't give up so easily! However, this SAHM has potatoes to peel and laundry to fold...

Lost in Space

Last week I had a long conversation with an old friend, during which I confessed that I've been a little out of touch these days.

"I'm not sure where I've been, lately.  Just lost. Mentally lost in space."

I've been bored. Restless. Snowed in. Tired. And did I mention...bored?

"You've just been so...itchy," the Husband said a couple weeks ago. Which is quite an interesting word choice because we celebrated our seven-year anniversary last August. Could this be the Seven-Year Itch? I'm pretty certain my restlessness doesn't have anything to do with my marriage.

Before I track down a DVD of the Marilyn Monroe film for research...maybe I should revisit Betty Friedan's classic, The Feminine Mystic, in which she discusses the "problem without a name," a sense of dissatisfaction experienced by American housewives in the 1960s.

Is my current state at all similar to that of housewives 50 years ago? Educated women spending their days at home with dirty dishes, dirty diapers, and dirty laundry? Isn't it different for us now, after the Second Feminist Wave, now that Dads are more involved, now that we have the Internet, Facebook, and cable TV?

Anytime I mention my boredom to another at-home mom, I am invited to another play-date. And while I'm so grateful for their generosity, for their offering of time and company (really I am), I think the last thing I need is another play-date.

But what do I need? That is what I don't know.

So what do you think? Is this just the winter blues? Is it time for me to go back to work? Or, is it time for another baby?  Maybe I should just blog more, and whine less.

Truth be told, I am bummed about a few things: Keith Olbermann's split from MSNBC last week was a bit disconcerting, especially considering the fact that I was not tuned in last Friday night and didn't even get a chance to witness the live goodbye. I have been a Countdown viewer for nearly three years, and now, with little warning, it airs no more.

While I'm on the topic of politics, I've got to admit I continue to be bummed that during this time when our nation faces such huge problems, when so much is at stake...I live in a state where both Senators seem more interested in the agenda of their political parties (GOP and TEA) than the welfare of Kentuckians. Seriously, I never hear either of them say anything to the national media about what they intend to do for Kentucky. It's all "Tea Party" this and "ruin Obama" that. McConnell is scheduled for Meet the Press this Sunday, and I intend to tune in and see if he has anything -- anything at all -- to say about Kentucky, or if it'll be more of his grumpy talk about ensuring that Obama doesn't get a second term.

Like any good wife, I can also "blame" the Husband for bumming me out. I've got two beefs with him right now. First, a few weeks before Christmas, anticipating the flood of new toys, the Husband turned our dining room into a playroom. It is magic, pure magic, to have the Bear gated in there, flipping through her books while I'm working nearby. But it is also devastating (just a little), because my dining room is now a friggin' playroom!!! It's as if we have admitted defeat. We have surrendered, and the toys won...the kid stuff won!

My second beef with the Husband is that he put us on a money diet. It is just what we need after the gluttony of the holidays; it is just what we need to pay for college (ours first, then the Bear's) and reach some other financial goals. Generally speaking, I enjoy a little belt-tightening and penny-pinching, and I am well aware that people all around me are struggling financially in ways that we have never struggled. But when your personal allowance is slashed by 66%...you tend to feel a bit devastated (just a little). And so, if teasing the Husband, (say, calling him the Rand Paul of the household) helps ease that devastation....Well, it does.

All in all, I love my life. I love, love, love the Husband and I love, love, love the Bear. My gut just keeps filling up with a mix of euphoria and dread, with this sense that there is so much to do and say...and yet, I'm not acting on it because I'm not sure what it is I am supposed to do or say...

Any ideas?

Jaelithe

Me, Sarah Palin, and The Universe

I’d jump at the chance to sit down and have a beer with Sarah Palin, but that doesn’t mean I like her politics. Without outlining my political persuasions (which would probably take some research on my part!) let me just say I’m not a fan. I am not and have never been a fan of Sarah Palin.

And yet, ever since she became a household name, I have this recurring internal conflict. It’s like the Universe keeps tapping me on the shoulder, and every time I turn around some vestige of Palin is there. I’m not sure why this keeps happening. Maybe it’s the Universe’s way of reminding me that in this era of such intense political polarization, we are all more alike than I realize. 

Yes, Palin and I could probably sit down and talk about motherhood, fashion eyewear, and the media’s super lousy representations of women without getting into all that other stuff...But then, all that other stuff is what creates so much conflict for me when the Universe starts up with its Palin nudgings...

It started at a 2008 family Christmas party, when one of the Husband’s  younger cousins said what I had been bracing myself for, for more than three months. After election day, I had thought I was out of the woods. But then, on that Saturday in December, I heard it:

“Hey, you look like the Governor of Alaska.”

I was 7 months pregnant with the Bear and had just failed my first gestational diabetes test, which meant, according to the docs, no added sugar until delivery day. (Which meant, according to me, no holiday sweets...are you kidding? I will admit that I ate a small brownie and a single piece of fudge, but this, in the face of my in-laws' dessert buffet, was a Christmas miracle!)

Sugar-free me was no party (just ask the Husband), but I managed to keep my cool with the kids, who began calling things like Hey Sarah Palin! every time I was near.

Just to be clear, I don’t think I look like Sarah Palin. But I’m a brunette who wears glasses somewhat similar in style to hers, and at the time I was following the “don’t cut your hair while pregnant” rule (which I read about in the Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy) so my hair, which is usually short, was getting pretty long.  

All things considered, I think the glasses were my biggest problem. For the record, I purchased my silver rimmed Vogue eyeglasses in the Fall of 2007, long before Sarah Palin was on the radar of most people in the Lower 48. My chief concern, up until the Christmas party, was that someone would take a look at my glasses and think I was trying to imitate Governor Palin. (I wasn’t).  

The next spring I was at a family gathering when my grandmother cut me off mid-sentence with this remark: “You know who you look like, don’t you?”

I shrugged, thinking she would mention a family member as we were in a room filled with relatives.

“The Governor of Alaska,” she announced proudly.

If there was a smile on my face, it faded. “Really?” 

“She’s a very smart lady.” my grandmother replied quickly,  as if she sensed my discomfort with the comparison. “Very smart.”

“Really?”

I’d like to assert right now that I love my grandmother dearly, and I don’t have any particular beef with Sarah Palin, but I’m not sure she’s a very smart lady. I’m glad she’s not the Vice President (because, as suggested above, I disagree with a lot of her political positions and tactics). I’m also not impressed with her early resignation as Governor, but I don’t live in Alaska, so she was never my Governor to begin with. 

(And then again, maybe she is very smart. ABC News reported that she earned an estimated $12 million in the nine months following her resignation).

Look, I’m not writing this to call Palin an idiot. (After all, isn’t that Keith Olberman’s schtick?) It’s just disappointing that this history-making female politician (first female on the Republican presidential ticket, and all...), lacks the intellectual chops. I know this is why so many people like her. We can relate to her, they say. She’s one of us.

I guess I just don’t want “one of us” in the Whitehouse running the country, you know? I’d prefer to have someone who was better educated and in possession of sharper critical thinking skills than most of “us.”

And so, I find myself a little troubled by the idea that someone (anyone) might take one look at me, notice some physical similarities with Palin, and then make the leap and assume that these physical similarities translate to political similarities...Or (heaven forbid) assume that my likeness with Palin is a consequence of efforts on my part to resemble her.

A few months after this exchange with my grandmother, The Husband and I started watching Thirty Rock on DVD and by the end of the first season, he confessed “I think I might have a little crush on Liz Lemon.” 

So okay...maybe being compared to Palin is not all bad, especially when it aligns me with the likes of Tina Fey. 

(Just for the record, The Husband claims he never said he had a crush on Liz Lemon or Tina Fey...but I swear, he totally did! Although...at the time I was a bit sleep deprived, nursing my sweet young baby who refused to sleep through the night, so I guess you’ll have to decide who you want to believe...)




Several weekends ago, The Bear spent the night with my parents and a pesky sore throat sent The Husband off to the doctor, leaving me with the opportunity to pull up the Sarah Palin cover article from October’s Vanity Fair, curl up with my iPad and a cup of coffee, and read quietly while the sun streamed into our living room.


This article, by Michael Joseph Gross, has been quite controversial since it hit the newsstands in early September. Even the Huffington Post called it “somewhat questionably sourced.” Still, I tend to have faith in the integrity of journalists. (Perhaps as a result of my B.A. in journalism?) I read Gross’s response to criticism of his article and also caught an interview with him on Morning Joe, during which he made the case for the integrity and accuracy of his reporting. And while I have no intention of defending Gross or proclaiming the veracity of his work (after all, I’ve never met him or any of his sources), I can say that I found both his response and his spot on Morning Joe highly plausible and compelling.

When I finished the Vanity Fair article, despite the fact that I am not at all a Palin fan, I felt something I wasn’t expecting to feel: sad. One paragraph in particular really tugged at me:

After starting her new career as a national figure, Palin disengaged from the community. When in Wasilla, she rarely leaves the house. At her favorite coffee shop, Mocha Moose, Palin has been seen only once in the past three months. On those occasions when she goes to Church on the Rock, she usually arrives late, leaves early, and sits in the back. For runs to Target, she waits until it’s almost closing time...Her Wasilla social circle has narrowed practically to nothing.

Despite my dislike of Palin the politician and regardless of my discomfort with being told I look like her, there is something almost heartbreaking about a woman thrust into the national spotlight without her community behind her all the way. A mass of Birthers, Deathers, and Tea Partiers has jumped aboard, but many of those nearest and dearest friends from her formative years are no longer on the bandwagon. It’s just a little wrenching...don’t you think?




Beside our house runs an alley that remains incomplete since our homes were built in 2006. Thanks to some gravel, it is passable, but it is not complete (if you’re reading this City of Louisville, step on it! We’ve been calling and emailing for years!). Last summer a mechanic opened shop in a garage that faces the alley, and he is a super nice guy who does quality work at a fair price.


But seriously, out of all the alleys and all the mechanics in all the cities and towns on this planet, it turns out that the guy in my alley is from...Wasilla, Alaska. 


Small world, huh? So someone who grew up in Wasilla and knows the Palins and considers them a “very nice family,” is now oh so close to my pin on Google Maps. How about that?


I’m not sure the significance of this. There is none, really. Still, I cannot help but think that the Universe is trying to tell me something.


Jaelithe, the Librarian @ Home