2 posts for 1 (Mitt Romney and a pregnancy test thought experiment)

What’s up fam,

2) If you have been to this blog before you know that I am from Detroit, Michigan. Right now, the Republican candidates for President are making their rounds across Michigan to strike up votes. Its hard often to not get caught up in the most recent flare up/verbal mishap/optic fumble but if I may, I want to revisit Mitt Romney’s comment about not caring about the poor because they have a safety net. This comment really struck me at my core because I thought that the recent and current economic catastrophe would expose the hoax of “everything will be alright if we just shore up the middle class.”

What we often fail to include in our national discussion is that of the working class and poor. The distance between being middle class and working class/poor is disastrously close. In this country, the middle class is akin to being on thin ice. Soaring health costs, college loans, downward housing values, retirement, caring for sick parents, helping or leaning on friends to make ends meet, you name it, there is little security in being middle class. Given this reality, can you imagine how precarious it must be to be poor NOW? The politically expedient response is to create the appearance that the government will create an impervious floor that will prevent the middle class from falling through the cracks. The problem however is that this will likely make it more difficult (both direct and indirect) for the working class and poor to make it up the economic ranks as it were.

When people are scared, they look to the government for answers and the answers we are getting from state and national governments are not sufficiently viable. The answer must come from us, the people. A great example of this ideal was encapsulated by Martin Luther King’s vision of the Poor People’s Campaign. Video below. What do you think the current Republican candidates for President would say about the Poor People’s Campaign?

2) Question for the day. Assume that there is a medical test applicable to both men and women that will allow you to determine whether or not you can have children.

Before you got married or plan to have children, would you want to take it or have your partner take it? Why or why not? Here is why I bring it up. The trend of people getting married and/or having children is getting older and older. Therefore the complications of having children become more complex whether you are talking about issues involving men or women.

Our society often associates children and marriage so closely that they become indistinguishable. Case in point, what is often the first question that people are asked when they get married? “When are ya’ll going to start having kids?” Given this association, the expectations about having children become complicated in a society where getting married past the age of 30 is normal. Let me stop here. This post is not about the dire straits of being single and/or childless after the so-called Big 3-0. What I am saying is that there are risks involved with having children later in life. And for those in my generation that do want children, the thought and planning process is a bit more sobering when one considers the risks.

Therefore, is there any reason to think that the availability of such a test would help this process? If not, why not? Let us know

Stay up fam,

Brandon Q.