It’s A Blog People!

IMG_20180102_012548_576People don’t seem to understand  what a blog is! It is an online opinion piece. Which means I am not a news source nor should you use my blog as a news source. You want a news source go to CNN, ABC or FOX or National Compass

It also means unless I feel compelled to do so I do not owe you any sources. Look it up yourself. Also because it is my opinion I believe what I say to be absolutely right…for me. You can believe I am a bigot, but all that does is show how small minded you are to other people’s opinions. It does not prove you are anymore right than me. If anything it proves you immaturely resort to name calling when you do not like another person”s poimt of view.

A blog is a reflection of person’s life. It comes from the heart and how they feel about a certain subject. You are not owed political correctness  on a blog nor will you ever find it on mine. It is my blog, my opinion and if you do not like it no one is forcing you to stay.

 

The Immorality of Abortion

Abortion, put simply, is murder and therefore cannot be codified by our government. Thereby, allowing it under Medicaid and other measures they are not only doing the immoral thing, but an unconstitutional one as well. In fact the fifth amendment of our constitution reads: No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;  (Constitution 5th amendment, 4th clause)  This is why pro-choicers get hung up on them word life. They know that they don’t have a leg to stand morally so they try to act as if they have one constitutionally.  So what makes abortion immoral?

  • It is the taking of an innocent human life.  While many religions, cultures and nations have standards for the taking of a human life, all of them repel at the thought of taking an innocent life.  No one celebrates when an innocent person is executed. An unborn child is completely innocent. It has not incurred any wrong and to take the life simply because you don’t want remains the heart of true evil.
  • It is not your body. You will hear pro-choice people say it is their body so they can do whatever they want. But it is not your body, it never was or will be. If that is the case you do not exist, because you are part of your mother’s body, who is part of her’s mother’s body, all the way back to Eve (or Mitochrondrial Eve, if you are an evolutionist)  So every man, woman and child is thereby Eve and you have no rights or consciousness because it all belongs to one body. Even as a Creationist that sounds like absolute nonsense, so if you exist then the body inside you exist as a separate entity and though it is coming through you it is not of you! Both of you are separate individuals and do not deserve to die because of someone else’s comfort.
  • Lastly, it is immoral because murder is not a solution to life’s problems. Whether those problems be poverty, domestic violence, rape, etc. You don’t get to solve your problems by killing someone else especially when they person you are killing had nothing to do with your problem. It is heartless and barbaric. If you can’t solve your problems yourself, that is unfortunate, but you do not get to pick murder as an option.

Why I Voted Against a Proposition to Help the Homeless

Now you may think I am a special kind of stupid for being homeless and voting against a proposition that is supposed to help me. But once you hear me out, you may understand why.  First of all, I am not a pocketbook voter.  When I walk into the voting booth, my thought is not how this will affect me personally but how it will affect society at large and if it will hurt them even though it will benefit me, I will not vote for it.

This week we had two measures that dealt with housing in Los Angeles City and County. I voted no on both of them. They were Proposition H and Measure S. I will explain what each one  was and why I voted the way I did.

Proposition  H:  Homeless-services advocates on Wednesday cautiously celebrated the apparent victory of Measure H, a quarter-cent sales tax increase that would fund housing and support for thousands of people currently living on the streets. That sounds all well and good until you take a closer look at it. 

  1. We already have have the one of the highest sales tax in the nation. Right now it is 9 percent and the tax would make our tax 9.5%. However you also have to remember we have to pay for our grocery bags which are 10 cents each and don’t go for helping anyone but the grocer. We are taxed to death in California and while the homeless population doesn’t pay income tax,  by and large, (though you would be surprised, a lot of the homeless do work and do pay income tax) we pay every other tax. Enough of it already.
  2. Years ago we voted for the lottery because it was supposed to help schools. All these years later, we are 41st in the nation.  We have not climbed up the ladder of educational success. And even though we have some of the best universities in the world in California, our K-12 public education system is failing our students. So why would I believe that is going to be any different with the homeless? They have not proved themselves with me with education, I am certainly not going to trust them to dispense that money wisely to curb the homeless situation in Los Angeles.
  3. They talk about independent audits as if that helps. The lottery has independent audits as well, still don’t see it helping the schools. I have heard the “independent audit”tune ad nauseam, yet somehow the money manages to become mismanaged. Until I see more ethical behavior with politicians I am certainly not going to trust them with more money.
  4. I  will be fine, others will not. I am by no means rich or even middle class but I will get by. I always do. However, there are those who make far less than I do who will impacted greatly by this.  For instance, since only 10 percent of homeless live on Skid Row and the funds will be distributed more “evenly throughout Los Angeles County.”  Translation: The richer areas will get their “fair share” while the people who desperately will still receive less funds.  Basically Proposition H gives the finger to the Skid Row residents.
  5. They had just voted on a proposition to help the homeless in November (HHH). Proposition HHH gave money to the city of Los Angeles for the homeless while Proposition H gives it to the County of Los Angeles. In either case, it hasn’t been that long since we taxed ourselves to help the homeless and even though I became homeless in December, well let’s say January that is when I showed up at URM, there hasn’t been enough time for Proposition HHH to take effect and we are already looking for another handout? That is absurd.

Measure SMeasure S: An initiative to change the city’s laws governing changes to the general plan and development projects, Measure S, was on the ballot for voters in Los Angeles, California, on March 7, 2017. It was defeated.

This initiative was known as the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative. A “yes” vote was a vote in support of imposing a moratorium on construction that increases development density for up to two years, prohibiting project-specific amendments to the city’s general plan, requiring a public review of the city’s general plan every five years, requiring city staff—not developers or project applicants—to perform environmental impact reports, and establishing other changes to the city’s general plan laws.

  1.  When I first heard of this, that whole pocketbook part of me came out: “Are you kidding me? I am homeless and you want to stop construction on building homes, are you insane!” Then when my unselfishness ended I started thinking about how this would affect people worse off than me. And I grew more enraged. According to Measure S affordable housing would not be affected:
  2. More people will be homeless. According to Measure S, this was supposed to help with evictions but they didn’t really incorporate how. Yes, we have a pretty corrupt housing system, but the plan didn’t do anything to stop the corruption. Putting a ban on housing when we are in such desperately need of housing doesn’t do anything to stop corruption but it will drive people out of their homes as rents go up.

    Freezing construction—even temporarily—in one of the priciest housing markets in the U.S. would only worsen LA’s affordability crisis, housing advocates had warned. And, critics said, Measure S would have hampered efforts to build more affordable units.

    Construction in Hollywood.
    JENNA CHANDLER

    3. The endorsers were Progressive Democrats.  The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is the main financial backer of Measure S, an effort to block some real estate development projects citywide in Los Angeles. Those behind the measure have claimed it would benefit AIDS patients, many of whom are struggling to pay the bills as LA’s housing costs skyrocket.

But on Friday [March 3], the Los Angeles City Controller and the head of the Los Angeles LGBT Center pushed back, arguing the March 7 ballot measure would only exacerbate the area’s affordability crisis. It wasn’t just Michael Weinstein of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation that was pushing for it but people like Diane Watson who is a former Congresswoman.  Along with groups like  Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles Grassroots for Obama (LAG4O) and Progressive Democratic Club

With all these progressive Democrats saying this was a good thing for poor people, I knew immediately it was not and I could not in good conscience vote for a bill I knew would only create more homelessness in Los Angeles.

4.  Lastly,  the majority of the  people who endorsed it were rich and therefore the two moratorium would have little impact on them. Now, I am not some rich-hating Dem but the first thing you learn in Poli Sci 101 is to follow the money. So if you  have a lot of rich people backing legislation, it is obviously going to benefit them.  The same would hold true if it was a bunch of poor people, Hispanics or gays. Once I saw that the majority people were neighborhood councils from Beverly Hills, Encino, etc. Once I saw they had pretty much every environmental attorney in the state on board, I became more suspicious about its intent.

Measure S bannerMichael Weinstein mentioned how many AIDS victims are struggling to pay the rising cost of living because of their medical bills. However, one thing you have to remember about gay men (who are the majority of people with HIV/AIDS) is that they  have higher incomes than straight couples. Married gay couples, with an average household income of about $115,000, make slightly more money than unmarried gay couples, whose average is $111,223. For straight couples, the gap between married and unmarried couples is much higher. Married straight couples make $101,487 per year on average, compared to just $69,511 for unmarried straight couples. This was taken from the Census. While there might be plenty of low income people with HIV/AIDS, knowing this fact does make me doubt his credibility that he is trying to help low-income people with HIV.

So for these reasons I voted no. So did the majority of Californians. Measure S was defeated. We will see how Proposition H works out but I am not holding my breath that the homeless  that need the money will see a dime of it. However, this I know when I walked in that voting booth, it wasn’t just about me, it was about what would benefit all. People call me a purist as if that is some kind of insult. I find it the highest compliment. It means I will not compromise my ethics for the Almighty dollar. Even if I am in desperate need of that dollar. It feels good knowing that.

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Homelessness: Men vs. Women (and Children)

by Dena Leichnitz

Homelessness is a major problem not only in America but globally.  As I read the Telegraph, a UK publication, an article talking about how men suffer so greatly from homelessness and comparing them against homeless women as if women were homeless by themselves like men. Nowhere in the article did the word “children” come up. Even though women are more likely to be homeless with children than men are.  You cannot equate men and women in this manner because WHY they are homeless is not the same. And the vulnerabilities women face than men is not the same. Especially women with children. Speaking as a woman who is homeless with her child, I found the whole article a bit childish and whiny.  That being said, let’s look at why more men are homeless than women.

  1. More men are homeless because they are more prone to make poor decisions that will lead to homelessness than women.

Even Glen Poole, who wrote the UK article, wrote:

327 of the homeless people surveyed used crack/cocaine in the past month, 76 per cent of them were male;
355 of the homeless people surveyed used heroine in the past month, 77 per cent of them were male;
358 of the homeless people surveyed used methadone in the past month, 75 per cent of them were male;

crackSo if you are taking crack and heroin, is it not too surprising you would end up homeless?  There are so many reasons people end up homeless and a lot of the time, the circumstances are not under your control at all.  Some of those reasons might be rising rents, medical issues and job loss due to failing economy. Therefore,  wouldn’t it make sense given all the unforeseen circumstances that can lead you to ending up out on the streets that you do all on your part not end up homeless? While addiction is a complicated issue, we do know this much if you don’t take that first drink or take that first drug, you will not end up an alcoholic or drug addict.

77 per cent of the 1,248 homeless people surveyed who use drugs and alcohol to cope with mental health issues are men;
83 per cent of the 751 homeless people surveyed who say they used cannabis/weed in the past month are men;

mental illnessWhile mental illness is by no means a “poor decision” and comes with its own issues, we do know not everyone who is mentally uses drugs to cope and not everyone who uses drugs is mentally ill. In fact, mentally ill people, by and large, tend to avoid using drugs of any kind, legal or otherwise, because they feel drugs exacerbate their problems. Putting them in a state of mind that is even harder to control. Therefore, my statement about men being more prone to make poor decisions that lead homelessness than women still stands.

In fact, if we are too assume none of the men doing crack, heroin or on methadone are also mentally ill, then men being homeless would drop nearly 80 percent just by not doing drugs! And since doing illegal drugs is a choice, that makes homelessness for men almost 100 percent preventable.

2. Women are not homeless by themselves like men. And most of the resources women get are to help their children not just themselves.

This report on a study of 600 homeless men and 300 homeless women in St. Louis presents comparison data on these populations. The pivotal difference between homeless men and women was that unlike men, most women had young children in their custody (Emphasis mine) 

The study goes on to say: Compared to men, they [women] had less frequent histories of substance abuse, incarceration, and felony conviction.

Which just proves my point, women make less poor decisions that cause them to be homeless.  Women are more likely to be on welfare than men. Which means they are more likely to seek out assistance, go to the office, fill out the countless forms, wait in line for hours, talk to a representatives, get the documents needed to get assistance, and keep up with the appointments in order to maintain it. They do all that because it is not just about them, they do it to take care of their children.

13235489_10208401585549203_5456536628098343790_oSo if if seems there is more help for women than there is for men, it is because there are more people involved with helping women than there with men. This is not say there are no single men with custody of their kids fighting homelessness but just like single women are the rarity, so are men with their children. In facts, parents with children regardless of gender, should get a bigger portion of the resources because you are trying to save a child’s life in the process.  A single woman or man can fend for themselves much better than a single parent taking care of young children.

The study also states the following: The population of homeless women is therefore heterogeneous, with at least two subgroups. These groups are likely to benefit from intervention programs that are designed to address their specific problems and needs, which are notnecessarily the same as those of homeless men.

I am in a homeless shelter with children as young as four months old and a young man who just celebrated his 18th birthday and everyone in between. From young children, school age children, to those who are entering adulthood. We had one family who had eight children and then there are mothers like me with just one. It is not a one size fits all kind of thing.  With men, it is not as much as a case by case basis, as it is with women.

3.  Let’s be real, even when men need assistance they are less likely to seek it out than women are. My brother died in 2015 because he didn’t go to the hospital soon enough even though he knew he needed to see a doctor. How many stories have we heard like that?

drugs and alcoholIndeed, dozens of studies and surveys over the past several decades have shown that men of all ages and ethnicities are less likely than women to seek help for all sorts of problems–including depression, substance abuse and stressful life events–even though they encounter those problems at the same or greater rates as women.

While Greg Poole likes to think of that as a cop out for not helping men, we can’t help them if they don’t seek out assistance. How many times have you heard your friend say, “I really need to quit drinking” with a beer in his hand? Are we just supposed to force men to get help rather they want it or not? Maybe in some cases, like drunk driving, that would be acceptable, but in most cases that would be rather totalitarian.  What needs to change is the mindset that getting help is being weak, instead of blaming the services that are unable to reach them.

In conclusion, trying to compare male homelessness to female homelessness is disingenuous and resembles comparing apples to oranges.  Rather or not, you are male or female all homeless people need help and they all need help in different ways.  To say we should all give men more help then women without taking into account the children who are also homeless is absolutely heartless. Homelessness is not equal opportunity. It affects men, women and children in different ways. In the end, gender is not the issue, helping each person to the best of their ability get back on their feet as fast as possible is and we can’t do that worrying about stupid things like what is between a person’s legs instead of what is in their heart.

P.S. People in England and Australia, if you feel men are not getting help for their homelessness, try to figure out a way to come to America. I can vouch men get treated much better than women with children.

 

SCOTUS: The Weakness of the Constitution

The Founding Fathers were great men, no doubt. And they gave us a government that is unparalleled in human history. No one doubts that but even great men can make mistakes and their mistake was the construction of Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). Granted there are certain things they got right with it, but so much went so wrong.  With the appointment of Gorsuch by Trump and undoubtedly more appointments in the future with some of the judges up in age and failing health, now is the time look at SCOTUS and how we can change it for the better.

courtsWhat is RIGHT with SCOTUS

  1. There is only one court for all the inferior courts. It would be a mess if there were different courts on the same level as SCOTUS hearing and deciding cases. For instance, if one court said Loving had a constitutional right to marriage but another supreme court said they did not, then how would we ever reach an agreement. Loving would probably still be up for debate today if that was the case.
  2. We have nine judges so there is never a tie. Many cases have been decided by a 5-4 vote. While normal cases in the lower cases might do just fine with an even number of jurors deciding whether one is guilty or not guilty, the same would not hold true for SCOTUS. While initially, the number was six, with cases that would bring strong opinions on both sides like we are seeing now 9 is a far better number.
  3. They are not supposed to make law.  While the Court completely ignores this one, at least our founders had to the foresight to put in writing. How were they to know we would become an illiterate nation who spend more time voting for American Idol (yes, I know it is off the air now, but you get my point) than the mayor of a city?

And that is pretty much what is RIGHT with SCOTUS. The rest of it is a mess.

What is WRONG with SCOTUS

  1. They have “lifetime” appointments. Which they really don’t but it has been sort of been decided that they do. But let’s read what the Constitution really says:

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, [emphasis mine] and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.

How do you get “lifetime appointment” from  “shall hold their offices during good behavior?” and what are the consequences if you have “judges behaving badly?” And what is “good behavior” exactly? We assume we can impeach judges that “behave badly” but the Constitution never made it clear what to do with bad judges so we treat them no differently than Senators, Congressmen or even the president who it was made clear what to do

Declaration_independenceThe Founding Fathers were wary of men having absolute power. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Yet they set term limits for the President (4 years), Senators (6 years) and Congressmen (2 years) but according to Supremecourt.gov: The Constitution states that Justices “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour.” This means that the Justices hold office as long as they choose and can only be removed from office by impeachment.

FOR AS LONG AS THEY CHOOSE!!!! Are you kidding me with me this? So we need term limits for the House of Representatives, the Senate and the President of the United States but not the Supreme Court, are you high?  Only one Supreme Court justice was ever impeached and that was Samuel Chase in 1805. He was acquitted by the Senate. There is nothing in the Constitution is forbidding term limits of SCOTUS judges. If the lower judges can be elected then there is nothing forbidding SCOTUS judges from being elected either.

Read it again: both of the supreme and inferior Courts shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour.   That is right both SCOTUS and lower courts are supposed to have “lifetime appointments” yet we elect lower judges all the time! Therefore we can elect SCOTUS judges as well and give them term limits!
marburymadison2.   Marbury vs. Madison  The Constitution is quite specific about what cases SCOTUS           can hear and the judicial review doesn’t make a mention. Yet when Marbury vs. Madison came to the court, two things happened. One-the Court denied having authority to act on Marbury’s behalf even though they did. Two-they used that opportunity to create the power of judicial review even though they didn’t have the authority to do so. So basically the authority they did have, they didn’t use. The authority they didn’t have they took. What is judicial review? It is the ability to review by the US Supreme Court of the constitutional validity of a legislative act.  You might ask, well isn’t that just part of the check and balances?  Well, you have to remember all lawmaking power was given to Congress, not to the judiciary and the Founders were afraid of what is happening now the Court making law.

3. They have an abysmal human rights history! For every Brown vs. the Board of Education which upheld human dignity, they have plenty more Plessy vs. FergusonsDred Scott vs. Sanford and one of the worst cases decided by SCOTUS  Korematsu v. U.S., which said that the Japanese internment of Japanese Americans was not unconstitutional.  The Supreme Court has been on the wrong side of every human controversy during their tenure from slavery, segregation, abortion and marriage (save Loving vs. Virginia)  and because of Marbury vs. Madison,every decision unconstitutionally was creating laws.  From Lawrence vs. Texas which legalized sodomy to the Obergefell vs.Hodges decision which redefined the institution of marriage.

In fact, we see the change from when SCOTUS was at least pretending to be constitutional to where it all got thrown out of the window in 1938. That is when the US vs. Carolene Co. case took place and that famous footnote would change SCOTUS forever:

Nor need we enquire…whether prejudice against discrete and insular minorities may be a special condition, which tends seriously to curtail the operation of those political processes ordinarily to be relied upon to protect minorities, and which may call for a correspondingly more searching judicial inquiry. Compare 17 U. S. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 17 U. S. 428; South Carolina v. Barnwell Bros.,303 U. S. 177, 303 U. S. 184, n 2, and cases cited.

As a Black woman I certainly have a place of admiration for it intention but what this did was two things 1) It involved SCOTUS in cases they were not legally and constitutionally allowed to hear otherwise 2) It created a class of victims that would go far beyond “race” to include, gender, sexual orientation, etc. It also set up strict scrutiny.  What that means is if the government is to violate your constitutional rights it has to an overwhelming reason why it must do so. This would be especially true for racial minorities because they had no real protections otherwise.  From this point on, SCOTUS would hear nothing but civil rights cases.

For all these reasons, SCOTUS is the weakest part of the Constitution and needs to be changed. If we continue down the same road we are on, it won’t be long until our republic is lost and we are ruled by a mad judiciary instead.

Bill Paxton Dead at 61

bill-paxtonPeople Magazine has reported and confirmed that film and television star Bill Paxton has died at age 61.  He was undergoing surgery at the time of his death but it hasn’t been confirmed what kind of surgery or why it was being performed.  Bill Paxton was best known for his roles in Twister (1996),  as well as minor roles in films like Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986) , just to name a few. 

According to Yahoo news,  he is also an Emmy winning actor and his final role will be in the movie, The Circle with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. He will be playing Emma’s father.  Here is a link to the trailer from his last piece of work:  The Circle  Bill was also working on a sequel of sorts to Denzel Washington’s “Training Day” that takes place 15 years later after Denzel’s 2001’s version.  His son even appeared on the CBS Drama.

Bill Paxton is survived by his children, Lydia and  James and his wife, Louise Newbury.

 

 

Jane Roe aka Norma McCorvey Dies

norma-mccorvey

Norma McCorvey of Roe v. Wade

Norma McCorvey who is better known as Jane Roe in the famous abortion case Roe v. Wade that helped to legalize abortion in the United States, along with Doe v.Bolton, on January 23, 1973 died today. Norma admits that Roe was based on lies. Lies from her, lies from Sarah Weddington (one of the attorneys involved in the case) and lies from SCOTUS themselves who believed they had the right to take the lives of 60 million innocent children.

One of the lies that Norma told originally is that she was gang raped and that she wanted an abortion because of it. She never had an abortion, however. She put the baby up for adoption. Norma would repent for all work in the pro-choice industry  including Roe and her less than truthful statements prior the court decision. She would become Catholic and spend the rest of her days trying to get Roe overturned.

They “were looking for somebody, anybody, to use to further their own agenda,” McCorvey said. “I was their most willing dupe.”

“For their part, my lawyers lied to me about the nature of abortion,” she went on. “Weddington convinced me, ‘It’s just a piece of tissue. You just missed your period.'”  Roe dies

Roe tried to get her case overturned based on the new evidence that abortion adversely affected women: The high court’s justices, without comment, declined to hear an appeal of a federal appeals court decision throwing out McCorvey’s Rule 60 case. A Rule 60 motion allows an original litigant in a lawsuit to ask a court to overturn its decision if new information is discovered in the case.

 

McCorvey’s new information consisted of thousands of affidavits from women who had abortions and regret their decision. The women say their abortions subjected them to considerable emotional and physical damage. That was in 2005. 

sandracano3

Sandra Cano of Doe vs. Bolton

It is interesting that her counterpart of sorts, Sandra Cano, who was part the Doe vs. Bolton case that gave use abortion all nine of pregnancy, also didn’t originally want an abortion and was lied to by her lawyers, she started fighting from the very beginning against the law that also bared her name and ended up dying without having any success either in 2014.

Despite Norma McCorvey hard work in the pro-life community and even writing a book called Won by Love and starting a pro-life initiative called Roe No More she didn’t get her dream to see the law baring her name overturned. She died of cardiac arrest on Saturday, February 18th, 2017.  Norma, we promise to continue on where you left off, fighting for the lives of unborn children.

Two Conservatives on Skid Row

“Conservative people are not homeless!” I told or rather screamed to myself as I walked into the Union Rescue Mission with my 13 year old son in toe. My soul was having a meltdown. I felt alone and scared. I never knew I would find another conservative in the least likely place-a 16 year old Hispanic boy, whom we will call L.D.

shapiro4x3_0_12

Ben Shapiro-author

I had walked by his bed  in the dayroom many times but we never spoke except for the occasional “Can I help you, ma’am?” Or “How are you doing, ma’am?” L.D. was the most respectful and polite young man I have ever met. He was always willing to be of service to others. But beyond that we didn’t speak. After all, we had nothing in common (or so I thought).  I was a 47 year old single mother with a failing body and a tired spirit and he was a 16 year old boy with his whole life ahead of him. What possibly could we have to say to each other?  But that all changed with four words,  “You like Ben Shapiro?”  He was on his bed reading Ben Shapiro’s “The People vs. Barack Obama.” and I just thought that was so cool.

obamacare-hurtWe started talking from that point on. I found out he hated Obama, liberals and “social constructs. I had found my refuge of sanity in otherwise insane world. I had finally found someone I could talk to about politics. Someone who wasn’t a flaming liberal or some evangelical who thinks I was some kind of Satan worshiper because I was Mormon.  After that first night, he started seeking me out to talk to me further. He told me, “I want to learn from you.” So I would tell him all my life lessons, it was almost addicting having someone to share that knowledge with.  With my son, he assumes I know nothing so we tend to have more arguments than discussions. However, as our conversations continued Adonai (or Mathew as he likes to be called in here.) would jump in and put in his two cents. He found out his mother is not the idiot he thinks I am.

the-heavenly-family

The Heavenly Family

Every night we would have the best talks. We mostly talked about religion and he liked my take on Heavenly Mother. I will not get into all the details because this is not a theology debate but rather a description of what we talked about. In any case, as I described who I thought Heavenly Mother was he thought about it and was like, “Yeah that makes sense.” During our talks I always made sure to clarify what was doctrinally sound and what was just my opinion. Heavenly Father was not going to accuse me of  being a false teacher. Even so, it felt good to share my vision, what I knew absolutely to be true and what were just my wishes.  Wishes that for once didn’t get mocked and ridiculed. Wishes that were understood for what they were-dreams of a shattered, Earthly mother.

no_cpsThen that awful night happened. The night that Children Protective Services (CPS) came and got him. I came back to the shelter right before the cut off time.  I didn’t see L.D. around but figured he might be at work. Sometimes he came in after the regular cut-off time because he got permission from the URM to work later. I was told there was a “situation” going on. Unfortunately, I had grown accustomed to such “situations” transpiring here at the URM. I had seen too many children get taken from their parents here but I never expected L.D. would be one of them. His mother came in the dayroom where we all slept and was making a fuss. However, when CPS comes to take your kid you don’t exactly act rationally. If you did, I would be worried about you. She was separating his clothes from her clothes and the staff was telling to hurry up before he left. She never got to say good-bye to her own son. And I didn’t get to say good-bye to my conservative buddy.

broken-heartWhen the staff told her that he was gone, my heart dropped. If my heart didn’t understand this situation, my head understood even less. After all, it wasn’t like he was my son though I was starting to feel like he was “my other son.” It also wasn’t like we knew each other all that long, so why the sorrow? I didn’t get it. All I could figure is that there are certain people you meet in your life, even for a moment, who restore your faith in your fellow man. He was one of those. He didn’t need to be taught to be Christian-like, he already was. He didn’t need to be taught to see people with compassion and mercy, he already did. I am just glad that on this awful journey that I am on that I got a glimpse of Christ. I am just sorry CPS took his representative away.

Five Reasons Pro-Choicers Will Never Win

A few weeks ago, the pro-choice women in this country held a women’s march that had little, if anything, to do with the problems real women face. And by real women, I mean women who were born biologically female and not those who pretend to be female because they “feel like a woman.” The women I talked to could not relate to those women, myself included. The pro-choice side is losing and this is why:

  1.  The science is on our side, not theirs. Each day we learn more about what happens in the womb, from 4D sonograms (which provide much clearer pictures of unborn children than we have ever seen before.) to providing surgery for unborn children. The science is clear and leaves no doubt, the unborn are human beings and as such are worthy of our protection. Though we already knew that, the fact science continues to confirm our side only makes them more desperate and in the end, this one fact will win the case for the pro-life side.
  2. Women do not naturally hate their children. Though feminists have tried to say otherwise for the past 50 years or so the truth cannot be denied. Women do not hate their children. By trying to pit women against their own children they are trying to set up a premise that flies in the face of nature. It is far more natural for a woman to protect her child than kill it. You can only go against nature for so long before Nature fights back. And when Nature fights back, it will always win. 
  3. They have no respect for society.  Families are the foundation of any well-functioning society. Mothers and fathers are the cornerstone of  this foundation because they are responsible for creating the next generation of responsible adults who will carry on the work of maintaining the society. If the family is weak, society will follow. We only have to look at the single parent homes in this country to see how the children fare in such an environment. Unfortunately, and I say this as a single mother myself, children tend to have a more difficulties and way too many end up in a life of crime.  Mothers and fathers are NOT as easily replaced as the pro-choice community would have you believe. And as such the impact that the loss of children has on both parents has been tremendous and has corrupted our society. 
  4. Human beings have a biological need to reproduce.  There is nothing discriminatory about biology. There is nothing “hateful” about a man wanting to be with a woman and vice versa. The need to reproduce is absolutely essential to our very existence, without it we will go extinct. There is nothing “homophobic” or “transphobic” about heterosexuality.  It is natural, normal and without it gays and so called-transgenders wouldn’t even be here to complain about how rough it is to be them. No one gets here without a mother and father. Regardless if it is a lesbian who gets inseminated or a gay couple that does surrogacy. You need  mother to carry the child and father to supply the seed, plain and simple. No amount of calling it a “social construct” is going to change the truth. Men need women and women need men, period. 
  5. Lastly and most importantly, babies are amazingly cute! Whenever women see their sonograms, even the more blurry non 4D sonograms, they are more likely to not get an abortion. Why? Because it humanizes them and they become a baby in their mind and heart. And no one can kill a cute little baby. That is why the pro-choice refers to them as fetuses, blobs of tissue, products of conception and whatever else because the minute they refer to them as a baby they will not kill their child. 

For these reasons the pro-choice community will never win the culture war. Also, as time goes on, more and more people are moving to the pro-life side. As Jeff Goldblum said in the first Jurassic Park: Life finds a way. The only truth to ever come out of Hollywood. 

 

A Homeless Woman and the Woman’s M

On December 15, I walked into the Union Rescue Mission. The place was full of of people I have tried to keep my son away from all my life, drug addicts, derelicts, etc and here I was bringing him into this nightmare. There wasn’t enough beds so a group of us had to sleep in a day room on air mattresses. This is my new life, my new existence. Which includes waking up at 5:30 to eat a breakfast, few if anyone ever eats. It is a world where mothers get their children taken away in the middle of the night and the kids are left to run around during the day with nothing to do. It is a world filled with anguish, tears and the occasional saint who wouldn’t take no for an answer and gave my son a coat that he needed. This is a world of women. No men except the young men who live here with their mothers. This is what the women’s march should have been about. I was literally a few blocks from this march and all the signs had nothing to do real problems women face.

It was literally like walking through the gates of hell. The signs had nothing to do with actual problems that affect women just the right to kill their babies and the right to have sex without having to deal with any consequences that may occur because of their decision. At the Women’s March there were 750,000 people. Yet despite having so many people, none of the real problems women face were all but ignored. None of the women here were at the rally. Instead they were buying clothes for their baby. Or they were asleep on the cold shelter floor because getting sleep during the night is almost impossible. None of the women here felt any of the woman dressed up as vaginas were speaking on their behalf.

The whole thing was a joke. From Madonna stating that she wanted to blow up the White House, to the women dressed up as our reproductive parts and the vulgarity that was widespread, these women were not about trying to secure justice for the real oppressed women around the world. They were mocking those of us who deal with these struggles, here and abroad. This was nothing but a grotesque, pro-choice rally being held in the Los Angeles. But it is understandable why they didn’t want to help us women with children because they are intent on killing their own and living a hedonistic life. They have no spirit of service within them but are totally self-serving. I literally felt sick as I made my way through the crowd. I was on my way to buy baby clothes with a friend of mine who lives at the shelter, and while were muddling our way through all we saw were signs that spouted rhetoric like “P***y grabbers” and other obscene material.

As I sat in a woman’s meeting today, we discussed what were going through in our individual.I brought up how they had a woman’s march and we weren’t mentioned. They were not getting our message out to the people who may not know it. No one debated me. Not one! You want a woman’s march, then come talk to the women here! Go to Saudi Arabia and talk the women there. Go to Boko Haram territory, where they are killing more people, especially women, than ISIS and talk to the women there! The war they speak about is not in Beverly Hills. It is at 545 San Pedro and everywhere else women are falling through the cracks!

George H.W. Bush Hospitalized for Pnuemonia

george-hw-bushGeorge H.W Bush, the 41st President of the United States, who served from 1989 to 1993, was hospitalized today due to respiratory complications due to having pneumonia. George H.W Bush is the father of former President George W. Bush and former Republican 2016 Presidential candidate and governor of Florida Jeb Bush.  He once served in the CIA as well. President Bush is 92 years old and was hospitalized at Houston Methodist Hospital

Bush was one of the few presidents not to be re-elected following his initial term. Though the Persian Gulf war under him was literally three days,  the quagmire that would become the Iraq war under his son, George W. was started by him which seemed to transfer to him losing ballot votes come the next election, along with his promise not to raise taxes, which he was unable to keep  He didn’t seem to be able to transfer that enthusiasm Reagan aroused in the general public (and which he was a part of as Vice President) to his own presidency.

Despite of this the conservative community still holds him in high regard. His wife, Barbara was also hospitalized following his admittance into ICU Wednesday due to fatigue and coughing as a precaution. President Bush had already told Trump prior to his hospitalization that he would be unable to come to his inauguration. Bush also suffers from Parkinson’s Disease as well. Those in the political field and around the world are sending the Bushes well wishes.

Not That Kind of Homeless

Well it has been three weeks since I have left my home of twenty years. It is still a little surreal to me. It doesn’t seem possible that I could have spent most of my working years working with the homeless to becoming a homeless person. No matter how I try to wrap my mind around that, it will not compute. So was the case when I went to the Weingart Center yesterday.  “The Weingart Center is a non-profit comprehensive human services organization that was established in 1983 after recognizing that widespread homelessness was a new phenomenon facing the city of Los Angeles.” It is also in the middle of Skid Row.

Weingart Center.jpgI took a Lyft to the Weingart Center because the buses were not coming and I wanted to make sure I got there at 7 am when they opened up. When the driver pulled up to the center, I wanted to crawl back in the car and tell him to take me out of this hellish place and fast! He must of thought I was some kind of drug addict or something, I mean who else would take a Lyft to Skid Row? I was sure I had stepped into Dante’s “Inferno.” The mother in me was screaming, “You can’t take Adonai here! Are you psychotic? You are a horrible person and mother to be taking him through this!” As I walked up to the Weingart Center, I thought to myself, “This is not me! I am not like these people. I am not this type of homeless. How did I get here? I do not belong here, my son does not belong here.”

With every ounce of courage I walked into that place. I waited patiently for them to open the doors. “Please open the doors.” I thought to myself. I wasn’t sure how long I could last with the crazy.  I looked across the street, there was a man who was walking haphazardly across it. We weren’t sure if he was going to get himself killed as he stopped mid-center his arms flailing against his chest and talking manically to himself. He made it across. “I’m crazy but I am not that kind of crazy.” I remarked in my head. It was as if I had been transported to another planet.

homelessness-and-the-freeway-0-20151225

Courtesy of LA Times

A planet full of tents. Some of them were nicer than others. Some actually had furniture in them. Others looked like small makeshift tents. But you could tell even on Skid Row, even among the homeless population, you could see there was a feel of status among them. Coleman tents and air mattresses would fill one tent while plastic and tape would create another. Rich and poor among Skid Row residents. Meanwhile I was living an apartment/hotel. It had a shared bathroom and kitchen but the room was yours. If there was status among the people with the tents then I fancied myself a Queen. I had a real roof over my head. After I would leave Weingart Center, I would be going back to my temporary shelter.

The woman told me to come back on Monday. So Monday morning I will go up there once again. All in hopes to find a place to stay. I keep telling myself “I am not that kind of homeless.” But if I want to find a home I just might have to admit to myself, I am that kind of homeless.