The Politics of Being a Woman (and Parent)

I need to step out of my blogging about being a parent for a moment.  Tuesday was a tough day in our house- there were two significant political situations that made us both wish that the day never happened.  First, the WI recall vote.  As former residents of WI, we both had so much hope that our brethren would choose the common good over self interests.  Second, the US senate voted down an equal pay bill for women.  I was most disheartened to learn that none of the Republican senators voted for this bill. I have a hard time believing the rhetoric from that party that the aren't trying to attack women when there has been an assault on women's rights this year- several state bills to outlaw abortions and family planning, the push back on Obama's decision to require all organizations to provide contraceptives to female employees through their health plan, and now this bill being voted down. I'm at a loss on how any woman could believe that the Republican party is concerned about their interests, when every couple of weeks there is yet another example of some political measure to limit women's rights.  At this point, I'm pretty sure the 50s would like their issues back! 

I've spent some time reflecting on both in the past 48 hours and really wonder what happened to the concept of making decisions based on the common good and not personal interest.  I'm concerned that our culture has shifted so far to the individual side of the spectrum that we now are completely ignoring being concerned for the good of our neighbors.  I'm deeply concerned that our son will not learn some of the important lessons about being a good citizen because there are so few examples of this happening around us.  We certainly will try to instill in him a sense of community and help him to understand that he needs to think about more than himself and his own interests.  It would be nice if we had a culture that sent and supported the same messages.