The War on Big Bird

Last night Romney boldly said that he would stop funding PBS. Today the Internet is all a flutter about possibly losing Big Bird. I was a little surprised at how vehemently people have responded to the potential defunding.



If we have to borrow money to fund PBS, then I agree let’s cut it loose... at least until we get a balanced budget and the deficit under control. I see it the same way I view the space shuttle program that Obama shut down. When times are tight, you have to cut costs.

(Yes, I know it is only a miniscule amount of the budget... many many programs are. Yes I know there are other things that should be cut first, and I assume Romney knows that and will look at every program objectively.)

The whole current annual budget of PBS is $422 million. They have sponsors. They sell ads. They have donors. And Sesame Street in particular is known for its extensive merchandising. Licensees include a variety of companies which manufacture books, magazines, video/audio media, and toys using the characters and themes of Sesame Street.

Sesame Workshop, the licensor of these characters, is a non-profit organization. A percentage of the money from any Sesame Workshop product goes to help fund Sesame Street. Along with government funding the Workshop receives funding from a variety of sources, including charitable foundations, corporations, program sales, and product licensing.

I honestly am not convinced Big Bird needs tax dollars to survive. With all the books, toys, dvds, Sesame Street Live shows, Sesame Place, Sesame shows at other theme parks... I kinda think Big Bird is a big money maker. That dang bird is probably in the 1%. (Here is where half my readers Google it and come back to slam me :-)

But even if Big Bird did need government funding to survive... there are so many underfunded programs that frankly mean as much or more than Sesame Street to some kids, and at some point with a yearly trillion dollar deficit, we have to choose to cut somewhere... at least until we get back on our feet.



What do you think? Will Big Bird rock the vote? Is he more important than say the funding of IDEA?

Pro-Choice/Life/Adoption Plea

It is that time of the election cycle when abortion becomes a hot topic again. When does life begin, and who has (or does not have) the right to end it... and where is the line drawn between the right of the mother to not become a mother and the right of the developing baby to become a full-fledged infant?

I have said it before and I will reiterate it now, I am pro-choice. I wish that every pregnant woman could choose to continue forward, but I get it... I understand the many reasons why some can’t or won’t. And as long as that decision is made before 20 weeks, I am ok with other people deciding what is best for them and theirs.

I wish the pro-life folks, those that cannot reconcile the willing destruction of a fetus with their beliefs, would turn some of that compassion and urgency to help toward those already born and wasting away in orphanages and institutions. I wish the pro-choice people, those who know how destructive it would be to force unwilling women to become reluctant mothers, would turn some of that concern and desire for personal freedom toward the existing products of those who were born unwanted. In fact, I plead with everyone to consider adopting before voting. And if like so many people you feel unable to adopt, can you donate toward to the families who are forging ahead with their pro-choice/life adoption agenda?

Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, you can make a huge difference in the life of an orphan. I know of a beautiful family who is adopting. They are taking a blind referral... which means that they do not even yet know the child they will save. They are moving ahead on faith and the belief that every child deserves life with a family to love them. The only thing standing in the way of this real flesh and blood child getting the chance to live a full life outside of the institution that awaits him or her is money. This family needs to raise $7000 in September to be able to complete the lifesaving process they have committed themselves to.

This morning while I was drinking my sweet latte, I got thinking that if every person I know who cared about either side of the abortion issue made the choice to give just the tiniest bit, even just the value of one cup of coffee, a waiting orphan could be saved. So as you get ready to vote with your heart this Fall, can you make a difference with your wallet today?

If so, please donate what you can to the Lakes family. Anything, any amount no matter how small will go a long way toward saving the life of a child who is waiting... waiting... waiting for them and waiting for you.

I remember when we were adopting... I remember worrying about funding... I remember that amazing feeling when a stranger gave a little gift toward our mission. Now because of the generosity of family, friends, and strangers, we have two beautiful little girls. Two girls whose lives look nothing like they did two years ago. Thank you for helping us pull it off, and thank you in advance for helping the Lakes family to do the same.

I See Evil People

It’s an epidemic. Everywhere I look on Facebook, I see evil people...

Just last week I found out that the Waltons (of Walmart) are evil. I did not know that they enslaved poor people everywhere, and are the reason poor people stay poor. I had no idea that they force people to work and shop at Walmart, thereby condemning them to a life of poverty. They make people wear cheap clothes (made in China) and they make people eat unhealthy foods (made in ?). Walmart stole more from us than the combined wealth (can you call it that when people are poor?) of the lowest 40% of our country. Those bastards.

 And then there are those evil fast food CEOs who are lining their pockets by blocking people's arteries. Thankfully New York’s Mayor Bloomberg is taking on those demons... if we are lucky he will protect NYC from 20 ounce sodas. But who will save us from Chick-fil-A? Those bigoted hatemongers, with values and beliefs that we do not agree with, use their profits (that they steal from us by force) against us. Thank God (um I mean thank nothing) that there are local politicians in Chicago, Boston, New York, and San Francisco who will block the expansion of evil businesses into their cities... because you know, I heard that if you buy a chicken sandwich from a hatemonger that makes you one too (unless of course you balance it out by picking up some Starbuck’s afterward).

Damn, it seems like no shopping trip is safe anymore. Drop a dime in the wrong place and I just might be keeping my friends from getting married or I may be helping to hold down the poor. This kind of stress might drive a girl to drink (hopefully not imported Vodka) or even to...

Bring on the smokes! Go Big Tobacco! 20oz sodas, clothes made in China, and greasy chicken sandwiches ain’t got nothin’ on you. Thankfully your CEOs know enough to shut up and pay up. Thankfully our politicians know enough to line their coffers (our coffins?) with people’s addictions... to the tune of more than $24.3 billion in gross cigarette excise tax revenues in FY2009 alone. Thankfully we all benefit from the death-colored revenues generated by Big Tobacco.

So skip the chips at Walmart, skip Chick-fil-A, skip Mac D’s and give your kid a smoke instead. You will be doing us all a solid.

Drama 101

One of my best girlfriends is a Taylor Hicks fan. She is single, no kids, and well-resourced which positions her to be a very good fan (not to mention the fact that she is a type-A personality and rocks everything she sets out to do). After all these years she is pretty deeply rooted in the “fandom”. And let me tell you, there is serious drama therein.

I have always thought her drama stories were funny, even the ones that pissed her off. (Ok, at this moment my phone starts ringing and I get reamed out by said best friend ;-) Because I always thought drama was a waste of time.

But for the last couple months it has been me dumping my stories on her.

Usually I ignore drama, and if something annoys me I write about it in my own subtle way, like a couple years ago when a particular blogger wrote a birth story that went viral. She claimed to be over her child’s diagnosis overnight. She subsequently wrote a few posts that seemed dismissive of the community. But based on the undertow of her posts and her presentation during interviews, I wasn’t completely sold on the picture she was painting (or should I say photographing). So I wrote about how it made me feel, and that was that.

But recently there was a new children’s story published. I did not like the message it promoted about Down syndrome. I stood up for my daughters by writing a joint letter to the author, as well as a private letter to the author.

And then there popped up a blogger who is bent on publicity. He has worked very, very hard and relentlessly to promote his blog. And, finally when the right opportunity presented itself, he jumped on board and hit the news circuit. Some things he said in interviews were offensive to the community. I wrote to him privately and shared my thoughts, concerns, and unsolicited advice with him.

But not everybody chooses to deal with their feelings and concerns privately, and that is ok. So lately the blogs and FB have been abuzz with pro/con this one or that one posts. And that’s ok too. What isn’t ok (to me) is the backlash in the comments.

The comments... filled with sarcasm, bitterness, anger, frustration, defensiveness, and denial. I want to say I am shocked, but I am not. Even the nicest, most levelheaded, most Christian, most thoughtful, most whatever people tend to let their worst side out in the anonymous world of the Internet.

Rather than sharing my opinion of this blogger or that writer, I will ask myself, what is the common thread that has so many people I like and respect bothered (including me)?

I think I know what it is. Each of these people I mentioned has stepped up and taken a very public role in the Down syndrome community. Each one of them is making money off that role. Each one of them is spreading their message far and wide. But the problem is that it is just that, their message. Not my message, not my daughters, not my way. They are not the Lorax and they don’t speak for the trees, know what I mean? But the outside world perceives them as if they do.

Some people are ok with that, as in “any good press” is a good thing, no matter the message or the source. Others are more discerning and although they want the good press, they want more so to take those rare opportunities to spread an advocacy message that really does reflect and include the whole community.

What I have learned from all this? That I owe my girlfriend an apology for secretly believing that adult drama was found only in the Tayor fandom.

Is Kimani a Real Girl?

Dr. Logan Levkoff wrote a post, “The True Meaning of Womanhood.” Daring soul. She took a good stab at it, but her conclusion that Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin represent the “wrong” definition of woman, which seemed to be the real reason for the article, annoyed me and thus sparked my brain cells, forcing me to consider what really makes a woman, a woman.

I have to question some of Dr. Levkoff’s points. She asks, “Is womanhood measured in degrees? Are there some women who are ‘more woman’ than others?” and then answers herself with a firm, “No, of course not.” Immediately following she defines being a woman as “a state of mind and a commitment to social action.”

If that were the actual definition of womanhood, the true meaning of womanhood, then either we all have the same state of mind and are all equally committed to social action, or womanhood can be measured in degrees. Oops Dr. Levkoff.

One reason she needs to define it that way (“I think I am, therefore I am” and “I agree with Dr. Levkoff’s political views, therefore I am”) is to open the door to transgendered women. (A transgendered person is someone whose gender identity is different from their assigned sex at birth.)

She correctly makes clear that a woman is not simply the sum of her physical parts. She points out that a woman who has a mastectomy is no less a woman after, and I agree. Seeing how we have objectified and sexualized women based on a body image, I get why she wants to toss boobs to the wind, but I can’t let her.

Because according to Dr. Levkoff, Kimani might not qualify as a girl. After all, Kimani may never even understand that she is a “woman,” as her state of mind is limited. Kimani will doubtfully be committed to any social action. Rather than losing her girl parts to cancer, Kimani has lost her mind parts to meningitis, but this makes her no less a girl who will grow up to be a woman.

Dr. Levkoff’s true meaning of womanhood is flawed because the scope is too narrow, her political mission too obvious. When defining womanhood, you cannot separate the physical and the metaphysical and exclude either one or the other. The true meaning of womanhood is complex and vast, but I promise you there is a place for Kimani within it.

Can Anybody Tell Me...

1. To what degree a government can provide services to 100% of its people, and to what percent it can tax the income of its working people to pay for these services, before it has to change its name from Capitalist to Socialist?

2. Why shouldn’t capital gains be taxed at a hefty rate?

3. Why we are still fighting over abortion? Before you answer, consider this... I have a friend who is newly pregnant. She is frightened. Her IUD failed. She and her husband have no money and already have 5 children. He works and she gave up her job to stay home with a medically fragile child. Without charitable support, her only options are abortion or adoption. Wouldn’t it be great if this troubled mother could avoid turing to social programs because some pro-life family or families decided to adopt her and her family. Let me know if you’re interested.

4. Who believes that complete de-regulation would not result in massive environmental and food supply pollution, financial rip-offs, and dangerous working conditions?

5. Where do you draw the line between a social safety net and a social hammock?

6. Why are we still fighting over same-sex marriage? (Some of my favorite people are... OMG, don’t say it!!!!!! gay. I do not believe their relationships are in any way negatively affecting my life or the lives of my children. And I don’t think they can do any more damage to the institution of marriage than we hetros have already done.)

7. What annual pre-tax income for a family of 4 would you consider to be rich? Now I know where you live, or rather where our imaginary family lives, makes a difference so go ahead and use your own region.

8. What is the highest percentage of combined Federal and State income taxes that you would consider fair for any working person to pay?

9. Why are we allowing American companies to take their resources and new jobs overseas without penalty?

10. Where is all the lottery income going? (Wasn’t it supposed to fund school budgets?)

11. Who watched the GOP debate in Vegas and wasn’t left awestruck by the lack of decent leadership available for us to choose from?

12. Does anyone truly believe that Obama won’t wipe the floor with Romney’s suave grin during the debates if Romney is selected as the GOP nominee?

13. And, just to make this a baker’s dozen, would you pay $16 for a breakfast muffin?

I am honestly interested in your answers to any or all of the questions. But please keep the discourse polite... we hear enough political nastiness on MSNBC and FOX News.