The 2014 Promise

Dear House Republicans,

I write to you today with the knowledge that my husband, a federal employee, is sitting at home on furlough.  He will not get paid for this time, and we don't know when it will end.  We had only just started catching up on the bills that amassed through the years of the recession, when I could not get a job.  I went back to school and found a job as a paralegal.  We have a daughter in college and a son in high school.

With our two incomes, we realized we were the lucky ones.

There was no deciding whether or not to hold a bill for an extra month anymore.  There were no more meals where beans were the main ingredient.  When our children needed something, we could say "yes," not, "Maybe, if someone left one at the thrift store."

Not that there is a single thing wrong with shopping at a thrift store.  (New Community United Methodist Church Thrift Shop in Oakhurst, CA is my case in point.)  But, not when the answer is then no, if they don't have what your child needs...like a winter coat.

But, like I said, we knew we were now the lucky ones.  We both had jobs that, when put together, gave us an existence that didn't include the stress of trying to figure out how to feed four people on $50 a week.  Think it's so easy?  Then you've never tried it. Oh, and never mind gas for the car, electric, propane, water and insurance.  Never mind all of the extras (broken water heaters, flat tires, blown transmissions, dead a/c's, braces, etc.) that just pop up in life.  We had to figure it ALL out.  But, like I said, we knew that now, we were the lucky ones.

And now we are back to one salary.  Now, we are back to all that.  Now, we are...what?  The unlucky ones?

Nah.  You know why?

Because we will make it.  And, we won't make it because of you, but in spite of you.  We will make it, not because we are tough (although, don't discount that), but because we share.

That's right.  We are going to make it through this by sharing.  Maybe we don't have a lot right now, but we have more than most, and we have a little something to fall back on.  And we are going to make sure that we get to be someone else's cushion.  And, if we need it, someone else will be ours. 

You know why?

Because that is how a civilized society works.  Not by screwing each other out of savings, pensions, or salaries.  Not by holding the most vulnerable hostage (Just what IS the average salary of the federal employees that are being furloughed?   Oh, and what is yours?).  And not by being a big, fucking baby when you lose TWO ELECTIONS IN A ROW to a guy that you have some weird, obsessed, crazy fixation on.

You definitely don't kick the poor guy down in the data entry department because YOU are upset that said guy is kicking your ass in the polls and trying not to facepalm when he says your names. 

Dudes, you lost, it's law, and it's even fucking precedent. 

But, for some reason, that didn't stop you from deciding to take the rest of us down with you.  Oh, except, YOU aren't really going down the same way as us, are you?  No, we will be a bit broke, we will struggle to hold onto our possessions, and we will even worry about feeding our children.

But, we will get past this together.  We will recover from this mess you created.  And, we will vote in 2014, I promise.

The hole that you are going down?  I am pretty sure it is preceded by a flushing sound.

Buh-bye.

P.S.  The Republican I married still considers himself a Republican, by the way.  He just doesn't consider YOU one.