Obama Obsession: To Anyone Who Doesn't Know

                 In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government.                                                                 –James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 51

Madison and the like set up our nation with the intent that we, as the governed, are the primary control on the government, but that only works if we keep the government depending on us. The government won’t depend on us if we’re unaware of how we “control” them. The way we control the government has very little to do with the President of the United States, and more to do with the Congress. The Obama Obsession (watching and criticizing his every move) distracts us from our responsibility to control the government because it keeps us from participating where we can make the most influence: Congress.  

Everyone has been SO concerned over Obama’s opinions and words about gun control, same-sex marriage, abortion, and war. They’ve been blaming him for our problems, and prophesying him as the Hitler of WWIII, but he-isn’t-the-one-making-those-decisions. Congress is. His powers have little to do with us little people, check it:

commander in chief

may ask each executive department for their opinion

can grant reprieves or pardons

            can make treaties with other countries 

            can choose people to fill positions while the Senate is not in session

           
            Compare these powers of the President to that of the Congress (and let me phrase it like my The United States Constitution Study Guide phrased it):

“Congress has all lawmaking powers for the nation”

As in GUN CONTROL, ABORTION, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE, DECLARING WAR, the hot stuff! Obama may have a lot to say about these things, but he’s mostly just the pretty face of our government. As far as the laws of our country goes it’s primarily up to CONGRESS.

Who makes up the Congress? you ask. Men and women elected by you and me. We elect the people that represent us in D.C. Members of the House are elected by us for 2 year terms, and members of the Senate are elected by us for 6 year terms.

If you really want your opinion to influence law making, vote for members of Congress. If you’re concerned about the laws of your society take it up with your Senators and Representatives, they’re the big wigs making the decisions. People with Obama Obsession aren’t going anywhere. People voting for members of Congress are. We will be the primary control on our government if we inform ourselves and make our opinion count by voting for members of Congress.

If I was a member of Congress reading memes on Facebook, I’d be laughing at everyone. Go Google your state’s Congress Members, or Bing it like me and get free stuff. Learn about ‘em, vote for ‘em in November 2014.

                

                

Confused at Feminism

Once upon a time I was a self-proclaimed feminist. I wore an internal badge of honor with pride because the feminist movement in America did such awesome things for women. Most of which, allowing women into a man's world. I felt like a pretty lucky gal.

            But one day I got confused at Modern Feminist Women.

            I started to feel like girls with attitudes would flash a Feminist Wild Card, then say horribly rude things; and if someone pointed out their crudeness, that someone became lumped with "woman suppresser's."

I like to respect people so I had a problem with that.

            I started to feel like being a Feminist was like joining a club. If I wanted to be a member I was required to make certain decisions, like Don't get married at 19. Don't have kids right away. NEVER postpone school. Do NOT stay at home with your kids. And, most importantly, wish and desire to be something better than just a mom.

I don't like being put in a box so I had a problem with this. (Kind of like those women from decades ago that fought to not-be-put-in-a-box.)  

            I started to feel like my fellow self-proclaimers didn't think things through very far. I would see ladies not changing their last name when they get married. I hear the roar: "We will not be owned by a man! We will not brand ourselves with his name!"

            Ok, but to those that kept their dad's name. . .?

            Cuz all I hear after the roar is, "Sorry person I'm about to marry, I'm a Woman that is too strong willed and too independent! to be swallowed up by a Man's name, so I'm going to keep the Man name my DAD gave me!"

            If I was going to show people I wasn't owned by men I would drop any and all names given to me by a man and take my own. Which means I can't keep my maiden name (it's my dad's), I can't take my mothers maiden name (it's my grandfather's), I can't choose the last name WOMAN either because MAN is represented: woMAN. Kind of like HEr, sHE, huMAN, MANkind. If MAN is going to have nothing to do with me and my name, the last name Woman still doesn't cut it.

            If I really wanted to represent and keep boys out, I would pick something as obvious as the signs from my childhood: "No Boys Allowed."  

            "First name?"

            "Meagan."

            "Last name?"

            "I Want My Own Last Name."

            "Excuse me?"

            "I get that a lot, don't worry. My last name is I-Want-My-Own-Last-Name, all separate words."

            Another self-proclaimer was telling a soon-to-be-mom-friend that becoming a mom is really hard because you lose your independence. She explained how it's so hard for her to be a mom because she misses the independence she had as a working woman (which was elementary school math teacher).

            I was like, Whaaaaaaat? Slow down and hode on.

            I get it, as a mom you need to start doing things for others instead of yourself, you should put their needs before yours, but as an elementary school math teacher, it is MANDTORY you work 5 days a week, 10 hours a day, with small children. You have restraints and restrictions on how you can and can not touch or speak to them. You must obey your boss’s rules or he/she will FIRE you. That’s the independence that’s missed? Cuz it sounds like following orders to me.

            No need to glorify the demands of motherhood, but to think you ARE independent when you have a job, but are NOT once you become a mother is ridiculous. Independence is a frame of mind. It's making a decision and then doing your absolute best while running out that decision. A woman's mind, abilities, decisions, and hard work is what makes her independent.

            I’m a fan of intelligence so I had a problem with these things.

            And then some Religious Feminist straw broke my feminist back. I understand that some religious women are feeling oppressed, suppressed, and incorrectly dressed; and I strongly believe they should work towards a life that doesn’t feel that way and hope they can find it. The end.

            Originally, I thought associating myself with Feminism felt liberating. It felt intelligent. But then it started to feel like there were Feminist Task Masters yelling, "Feminism is X,Y,Z, and if you're not X,Y,Z then you're against us! And you shame the name of Feminism!" So I decided to nix the word because really, in 2013 Western America, what’s a Feminist? I’ll not answer that, but instead stick with associating myself with words like:

            Respect

            Box Free

            Intelligent

            Independent

            Liberating the oppressed and suppressed

And I lived happily ever after.

Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

Murmuring. Something I've been told not to do all my life. You know, the idea that comes from John 6:43: "Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves."  But it's so hard not to murmur!! Griping, complaining, moaning, whining, it's what I do. I'd read about people in the scriptures who didn't murmur and I'd always just figured, "Welp, they're better than I'll ever be. I don't know how not to murmur. Can't figure this one out."

            The most famous murmurers are the children of Israel right? Constantly murmuring! Sometimes I get so annoyed at them, it’s always one thing after another and then another and then another. I want to yell at them in their graves, "Seriously guys?!" But then I realized, if there was a book written from the objective prospective about my life, it too would be FILLED with my constant murmurings (aka whinings, complainings, gripings, etc.)  I do it a lot, it's hard not to.

            So I thought to myself, "There's got to be a way. If the Scripture People can do it, so can I. But how?" Here are my thoughts:

            We have the poster child(ren) of Israel that have just witnessed seven miraculous events in Egypt (Exodus 7-10), run across the dry bottom of an entire sea between two walls of water! (Exodus 14:22), are given manna from heaven which will spoil if too much is gathered unless it's on the 6th day of the week (Exodus 17:2-3), aaaaaaaaand they start murmuring.

"And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Where fore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?"(Exodus 17:3). If I were Moses I think my response would have been something like, "Geeeeeese, everything that's been done for you and you're still going to complain about survival? I can't believe I have to put up with this kind of immaturity." But of course that would be murmuring and that is NOT what Moses did.

            "And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people?" (Exodus 17:4). Instead of griping, Moses went-to-the-Lord with constructive communication. THAT is the difference. When I'm put out about something and I have a thing or two to say about it, instead of huffing and puffing to myself, I can close my eyes and in the form of prayer, communicate my concerns to God. By opening up the communication we give our Father in Heaven a chance to point something out, or encourage, comfort, or teach. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it,that the people may drink. And Moses did so.” Moses was productive because instead of murmuring he went to the Lord with constructive communication about a problem he had. I may never retrieve water from a rock, but I might be able to keep the murmurin’ on the DL.

Thank you Moses for, once again, showing the way.