The definition of cruelty: offering a childcare subsidy so parents can afford to go to work.  Then place applicants  on a 6 month waiting list. Thanks for giving me some hope that I might actually get to a catching up place and then throwing that pipe dream over a cliff.

I want to work. I can work. I started my own business and even got a job with an organization I respect and have passion for. But I can't afford childcare. Boot straps? I've been making my own damn bootstraps. But they keep unraveling. I'm frustrated and I'm angry. I vote. I participate in the economy and our so called democracy. I abide by our laws and pay my taxes. I am told by privileged pundits that I am some how responsible for this situation . WTF? These are Atwood's, Orwell's and Kafka's nightmares only I'm living it. And it's taking a great deal of meditation and compassion to not go all Dostoyevski on some one.

One of the battle cries of the conservative movement is that lefties are destroying the family and old fashioned morality when what you've described is the sort of small town, or village like atmosphere that's been destroyed by corporate greed. The idea that wealth equals stuff and so we move for the work, lose our roots and ties to family. Ironically, the very pundits that fault lefty queer commies like me for destroying the sanctity of marriage and the family are the very ones who rely on that destruction to sustain their disproportionate wealth. We are corporate-centered, not human-centered anymore. It's really bad. And getting worse, not better.  We don't live in in towns and cities any more with names like Pittsburgh or Massapequa or Passamoquody. We live in virtual cities called Highmark, UPMC, Hewlett Packard, Exxon, Beatrice, Monsanto....etc.  Let's not forget PNC, Bank of NY, Citigroup, .....a conspiracy theorist might conclude that this frustration is to beat folk in my position into taking a minimum wage job in one of these towns. Just eat the soilent green, drink the koolaid and all my troubles will be resolved. See? That wasn't so bad. except now I owe my soul to the company store.

You could call me a Socialist I won't deny it.

I"m anti war, anti monopoly, I believe there is enough to go around and that abundance is by definition not a pie where everyone has to take a smaller slice so more can be served. I think folks should be able to marry whom they love and wish to publicly declare as their family, I believe that spirituality or religion is very important but has no place in government; that said, morality does. I don't like to see the Ten Commandments posted in courthouses and I believe if one really wants to they should be able to burn the flag. I believe in a woman's right to choose, not because I don't love children but because I KNOW women will choose to have abortions whether they are legal or not and it behooves us as members of an "enlightened" society to allow for a safer alternative. I believe the real issue regarding abortion in this country is about the fact that our puritan background still has a huge hold on our culture. Everyone is having sex but most people are whistling in the dark.That said, I believe monogamy is unrealistic given that we live much longer than we did even 50 years ago. I do not believe Jesus died for my sins but if you do that's awesome. I believe in religion as allegory and not literal truth. I believe in diversity, not just in the color of our collective skins but in our collective thoughts. I believe the cause of all evil is pure unmitigated FEAR. I believe that each of us is part of a divine whole and that we are here to learn how to come together and reunite with Divinity. I believe it is immoral to live in a palace when others have no homes. I'm not asking you to move out of your mcmansion, I'm certain you earned it, but who needs a 20 car garage? I believe it's immoral to charge and or to pay a car payment that is bigger than a mortgage payment. Really do you *need* an Pick up truck made by Cadillac? Now I'm not saying, if you have earned the money and can afford to pay for luxury that you shouldn't. By all means enjoy the fruits of your labor. That is if the fruits of your labor really *are* the fruits of your labor. If your monetary wealth is made off the back of someone else then the least we can do as a nation that provides us the opportunity to earn unlimited wealth is to provide for the least among us to have a minimum standard of living.