I believe…
When I first started Gametes In Love my purpose was to share my thoughts and experiences on the way to parenthood with family and friends. Mostly so that I didn’t have to repeat myself 10 times over. It turned into me sharing my thoughts. Later it became a record of stories: some funny, some sad. But I’m also realizing that this blog has another purpose: a way for our sons to get to know ME (and S), my internal voice, my sense of humor, and what I believe.
So in honor of this upcoming election season, I thought that I’ll dedicate this post to my political beliefs. I’m not asking anyone to agree with me, or debate me here. I’m just sharing what I think and what guides my voting decisions.
1. I believe that every person should have access to the best education possible. If they so desire, an undergraduate degree should be accessible to anyone who wants it, for free. Education should not be a for-profit business.
2. I believe that love is blind. Whether one finds their soul-mate within the same or opposite gender shouldn’t matter. Their love and respect towards each other should be celebrated and encouraged. We should support any union where two consenting individuals are willing to put each other ahead of themselves and their personal needs.
3. I believe that access to health-care is a basic right and not a privilege. Every person: infant, student, senior citizen should have access to affordable (or free), dignified, and satisfactory treatment for preventative, prescriptive and emergency care. One should not have to decide between life-improving medication and paying for food. On that note, like education, health-care should not be a for-profit business.
4. I believe that guns have no place in the possession of anyone outside of law enforcement. If you want to hunt, fine. Get a bow, arrow, knife, and/or a big rock and go nuts.
5. I believe that reproductive rights should be a personal choice. I am wholeheartedly pro-choice, and pro-affordable contraception. However, since being assigned an “infertility” label, I’m not so sure how pro-abortion I fall any more.
6. I believe in equal rights to access to employment, pay, education, social services, and ethical and judicial treatment for any person. This is blind to gender, age, religious preference, or immigration status.
7. I don’t know how I feel about the death penalty. I’m very schizophrenic when it comes to this topic.
8. I believe that we should look at the long term environmental impacts of our actions. Choosing the easy way now in terms of convenience and personal & corporate profit, while leaving the ecological bill for the next generation is irresponsible.
9. I believe that taxes kind of suck. No, I don’t like only seeing 1/2 of what I make come home. But I do like seeing my hospital staffed, police officers responding to cries for help, and my kid well educated. I also believe in proportional taxation based on income, with exclusions at the lowest levels, and caps at the highest.
That’s all I will share for now. I have a lot more opinions than this on various topics, but I’ll stop here for now. Anyway, off to do more research on candidates/propositions for next week.
We have a lot of the same beliefs. Yours are definitely more well written than mine would be though. 🙂
Yeah, only ‘cuz I stared at it for a few days before posting it. My view on religion have been drafted for months. At some point I’ll get the balls to actually commit them to the blog.
I’m behind you on every one of those. I have a hard time seeing how, when worded the way you have, anyone can disagree.
Love it! Okay, so I agree with most everything, but still…it’s awesome that your kids will have these things to look back on.