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 being 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 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
fraudulent lending practices. We want full accountability —investigation,
indictment and prosecution— of those individuals and 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
this democratic system of ours, and we will 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
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