Preserve Life, All of It - a Political Post

By débora Ewing
Preserve life.  We all agree on this. We do.

Remember that tadpole you found as a kid? You brought it home and put it in a jar and it died. You bawled your eyes out and your mom threw jar and all into the trash bin.

Abortion laws are big news this week. So are floods along the Mississippi River (it's a really big river - check out a map.) Universal Healthcare and international trade tariffs have sort of taken a back seat. Government subsidies for farmers are barely making headlines. These things are all tied together.

If you can't take a shower, keep your clothes clean, and show up on time every day, you won't be able to keep a job. If your front teeth don't look nice, your job options are severely limited. If you can't have a job, you can't have a roof over your head. You see the circle yet?

Once you preserve life, it's alive. It has to eat, sleep, breathe. You have to take care of it.

Quality of life is not always rooted in personal decision-making. Affordances are things in your environment that you perceive as useful to you:  public transportation, dentists, vegetable gardens; clean air, water, dirt.  Your environment's affordances dictate what you can afford financially. What doesn't seem to affect you may be someone else's affordance.

A person who rents a house beside the levy probably hopes to get a raise and afford something better one day. Working hard does not guarantee a raise, nor dental care. Missing teeth aren't a guarantee that someone didn't brush and floss. A person who suffers a congenital deformity did not choose it. Sometimes a family member needs help and sleeps on the couch. Not everyone has a safe place to live while they study to become a doctor or engineer. Or politician.

Education, healthcare, tax laws, and weather are all tied together to predict how much life each American is allowed to live. 

Evangelical society says if you can't afford a baby, you can't afford sex. (Also, masturbation is evil. Sorry, kids.) Capitalist society promotes Caveat Emptor:  Let The Buyer Beware, in other words, it's your own fault if we tricked you. People who can only live beside the levy are more likely to be affected by abortion laws and the Chinese Tax War. However, if you benefit from the current tax laws, you may be rich enough to be exempt from both of these policies. You are probably also rich enough to afford sex - congratulations.

If you vote for laws requiring people to live (something everyone wants to do anyway), then also vote for laws that ensure people can receive education, healthcare, and fair pay - even for those lives you can't see with your eyes, because your vote affects them, too.

Vote for people who will live by the laws they enact.

Further reading:

Arkansas River Flooding Threatens... - Weather.com
The US-China Trade War - What to Know About Tariffs - Council on Foreign Relations
Report: The DOE Has Pent $1 Billion on Charter School Waste and Fraud
Abortion Bans: 9 States Have Passed Bills to Limit the Procedure...
NOAA Satellite Images Show Major Flooding...
Federal Judge Rules People Can Record Police
*POETRY WARNING* Something Palatable - This is how capitalism gets you.
Rubber Shoes in Hell: Why are we Fighting?  - not news, but a perspective of decency.

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