Redistribution of Wealth Starts With A Bus Pass

     Yesterday, I got my first taste of what it would be like with Obama in office another four unbearably long years. My eldest daughter is in college, and in the process of making a tuition payment, I discovered that she was being charged all kinds of silly fees. If you've ever been through Escrow, you know what I'm talking about.

     Anyhow, she was being charged a $27 Transportation Fee. Huh? We just bought her a car this summer so that she would be able to get to and from school on her own. We 're paying for her car insurance, too -- and we even threw in a AAA card for roadside assistance. The girl is completely dialed in to get to and from school on her own.

     So I called the college and discovered that the "Transportation Fee" was to help offset the high cost of bus passes for all the other students who had to take the bus. As the traffic czar told me, "Bus passes are about $340 a year, and most of our students can't afford that. So this helps bring the cost down."

     I explained to him that my daughter had her own car and wouldn't ever need to take the bus, and that I wanted the $27 fee waived. Call me heartless (or a right-winger, some might say) but I don't think we should have to pay for the cost of other students' bus fare. That's THEIR parents' expense, not mine.

     So I suggested that perhaps some of that collective $27 per student go toward helping to offset my daughter's gas costs getting to and from school. That seems fair, doesn't it?

     Complete silence on the other end of the phone. -->

Ebony And Ivory

Image via Wikipedia

OK, OK, so Obama won the election. Convincingly, I suppose. OK, OK, so it was a slaughter! Whatever, Dad! Clearly, this country is demanding a change, although, as a Republican, it feels more like a revolution today. I am willing to give him a chance. What choice do I have? Who knows? He could be great. He’s young enough, he’s smart enough and he has a phenomenal speech writer. Let’s just pray he surrounds himself with the right people. Rather, the right LEFT people.

I was devastated when the electoral college tally put him over the 270-vote target. But I have to tell you, what did soften my granite heart a bit was when I saw Obama’s family and Biden’s family on stage together after the President-elect’s acceptance speech. White Biden relatives hugging and kissing black Obama relatives. Forty years after the Civil Rights movement, the symbolism was hopeful and uplifting. Blacks and whites visibly uniting, centerstage, to move our country forward.

Whatever comes out of Obama’s presidency, good or bad, having a black President should go a long way in repairing race relations in this country. Hey, it’s a start, anyway. And as a mother, I like knowing that my children will be growing up in a more racially tolerant country.

Oh, if I can just be a little petty for a moment . . . what was up with that black and red disaster of a dress that Michelle Obama was wearing? She may want to borrow some of Sarah Palin's designer suits.

Get out and vote, you McCainiacs!

Image by It's Our City via Flickr
My father is an extremely annoying man. He stirs up controversy and trouble wherever he goes because all he ever talks about is politics. Today, my annoying father will be at the top of his game. He has been waiting, rabidly, for this day all year because he is convinced that there will be a dramatic and righteous change of the guard, that Obama will be victorious and that the radical, right-wing extremists will no longer be in charge. His words, not mine. Simply put, my father hates Republicans. It’s a blind, all-encompassing hatred and needless to say, I am a huge disappointment to him.

I want McCain to win, not because I think he’s the right man for the job. There really is no “right man” this time. But because we don’t know enough about Obama, this junior Senator, this inexperienced politician who came out of left field. And I blame the media for this. They are the target of my rage today.

The media did not do their jobs during this election process, they didn’t ask the right questions of a man who has questionable associations with radicals, they did not dig deep enough into some troubling facts about a man who is poised to be the most powerful figure in the world. Probably because they spent too much of their time publicly eviscerating Sarah Palin, who isn’t even running for the presidency! They criticized her mothering, said she cheated on her husband, claimed she abused her authority as governor of Alaska, minimized her political popularity, devalued her executive experience and demeaned her intelligence. Nothing was safe with Sarah, not even the designer clothes on her back. And why the hell didn’t the media give equal time to bringing Biden down? He really stayed under the radar, didn’t he?

Back to my father. I really don’t want Obama to win today mostly because I will have to listen to dear old dad gloating for the next four years. God Bless Caller I.D.