 |
| My Mom, Isaac and me (center) 1945 |
Yes, I plead guilty. I'm one of the 47% of the American public that Republican presidential candidate arrogantly dismissed as
"I don't care about them." I know I've written about Romney's "47%" comment but it bears writing about again.
When I hear a plutocrat like Romney, a man who was born on third base and thinks he hit a home run, a man who was born into wealth and privilege and had every door of opportunity opened to him, a man who was fortunate enough to be born without any physical maladies and a handsome appearance (not my type though, to me he's ugly), I think of this story my late Mother often told me. That my Mother told me this story is ironic because she was one of those right wing nuts who would only listen to and believe everything Fox News said.
Here is the story. I was born in 1941 and in the following two years both of my younger brothers were born. This was during World War II. My father, who was 4-F and turned down for the draft, was a long distance truck driver. My Mother, who married my father at 16 years old (I was born when she was 17 years old) was left to raise me and my brothers in a rented, small house in the country. The house had no plumbing or running water. Her only source of income was what my father gave her after one of his long distance truck trips.
She said one day during the summer of 1944 she was walking down the country road with me and my brother Isaac We were crying because he had no food and were hungry. She did not know what she was going to do. Finally, at her wit's end, she swallowed her pride and asked her father for money
"to buy milk" for her "boys." Her father gave her $5.00.
Every time my Mother told me this story I asked her why she didn't go on welfare. Her answer was always the same.
"I couldn't do that. Only bums do that. Our family weren't bums. We were just poor."
Knowing how solidly Republican my Mother was later in life she would probably agree with the now infamous quote from Romney on the hidden 47% video:
The Quote "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
 |
| My Mom receiving her 25 year award from Pepperridge Farms |
Well Mitt Romney, I guess my Mother would pass your test. She did take
"personal responsibility" and care for her life. My Mother raised her three sons and they worked most of her life for Pepperridge Farms in the frozen foods division. Did she pass your test Governor Romney?
