This is a blog-in.
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Dear 2012 Presidential Candidates,
We are your future constituents and we are parents.
We are American mothers and fathers and grandparents and guardians. Our
families might be the most diverse in the world. Blended and combined in
endless permutations, we represent every major religion, political
ideology and ethnic culture that exists. We are made from equal parts
biology and choice. Our children come to us in every way
possible—including fertility miracles, adoption, and remarriage.
Our very modern families embody the freedom that defines America. We
embody America. We are rich in diversity, but we are united in our
family values. We come together today, with one voice, to express our
grave disappointment in the national political discourse.
The 2012 countdown has barely begun and we are already bombarded
with the warmed-over, hypocritical rhetoric of 2008. We are living in a
time where
15.1% of Americans now live in poverty, the
unemployment rate stands at 16%, and we are spending close to
$170 billion annually between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Given the current state of affairs we would expect every candidate to
focus on the issues that truly matter: job creation, debt-relief, taxes,
education, poverty, and ending the war(s). Instead, it is already clear
to us that the conversation has been hijacked, with the goal of further
polarizing our nation into a politically motivated and falsely created
class-war.
We will not stand for another campaign year in which politicians presume
to know what our family values are as they relate to the nation.
To be clear, here are our family values:
• Affordable health care, including family planning, for all
Americans. We will not tolerate any candidate using the shield of
“Choice” to blind us from the issues that really matter. When funding is
stripped from organizations like Planned Parenthood, access to
sliding-scale health care (including yearly pap smears &
mammograms), comprehensive sex education, and family planning is blocked
from the poorest of the population.
• Access to education, and the ability to actually use it. We want
quality, affordable, federally-funded full-day, pre-K programs made available in
every State, in order to provide an even starting point for all children
enrolled in public schools— regardless of the wealth of the district or
town they live in.
• A reinstatement of regulations for banks issuing mortgages and
full prosecution for those who engaged in fraud.
We want full accountability —investigation, indictment and prosecution—
of those individuals and financial institutions who engaged in fraudulent lending
practices and who helped create the massive foreclosures that left many
families homeless or struggling to keep their homes.
• A return of strict environmental regulations protecting water,
air, food, and land that were removed in the last two decades. We want
our children to grow up in a world not weighed down by the strains of
pollution and global warming. Between BPA in our products, sky-rocketing
rates of asthma in kids, questionable hormones in our over-processed
food, and more, we need leaders who will put our needs and safety over
the desires and profits of large corporations.
Family planning, healthcare, education, economic solvency and
environmental safety: these are our national family values.
Candidates who demonstrate the ability to understand the gravity of
these issues, and their impact on our families, and who can provide
actual, viable solutions to these problems will garner our support and
our votes.
We believe in our democratic system, and we'll continue to
use our voices and our votes to see that it reaches its fullest
potential.
Sincerely,
Your future constituents,
The Mothers & Fathers of America
If you would like to forward this letter to your elected officials, you
can find their contact info at the following links:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtm
To see who else is participating in #BlogIn2011,
please click here.
