The Importance Of The ACA

In 2008 the only job the GOP thought they had was to make sure Obama did not win the Presidency. They failed. In 2012 they still thought they only had one job to do, this time it was a new job. That new job was to make President Obama a one term President. Yet again they failed. Then comes 2013 and they try a new tactic. This time the battle cry goes up to impeach Obama. Of course they haven't got a leg to stand on since President Obama has done nothing to impeach. They just don't tell they're uneducated voters that. 

Besides impeachment, they still have one last trick up their collective sleeves. That one last trick is to ruin the legacy of President Obama. What is one sure way to destroy his legacy? Defund or dismantle President Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Some Democratic leaders have already started to give in on this subject. Don't allow that happen. The Democrat's who are starting to back down are ones who will be up for re-election in the upcoming elections. Let them know you will support them if THEY support POTUS and the ACA. Let them know that they will have people running against them in the primary and you can just as easily support another Democrat as easily as you can support them. Call them, write them, email them, Facebook them, text them, or tweet them! We have more access to our politician's than we ever in our history. Let's put that access to good use. We cannot allow millions of poor and middle class American's to remain uninsured while the wealthiest 1% have whatever insurance they need. I'm sure they even have health insurance for their pets, which is great, except when you don't even care if most American's have health insurance. 

The Republican's have had plenty of time to come up with a plan for health insurance for America. Years in fact. They still have no plan. Oh yes, they do. Their plan is if you get sick, are poor and have no health insurance, go to the emergency room. Don't worry about the bill that you cannot afford. Just let the hospital handle it. The ACA is not perfect, it has some kinks to be worked out. But it is the only plan there is to provide health insurance for the millions who have no access to it. Staying healthy should be affordable for even the poorest among us. No one should ever have to go to the emergency room if they are sick or die due to a lack of economic security and lack of health insurance.

Janet Lee Smith
11/21/2013

A Cabin In The Woods

A cabin in the woods, yes, for me, the wife and our baby boy please. Because I truly don't know how much longer I can live in this society. Where we kill people because we are bored, we kill 80 something year old men, veterans at that (although I'm sure the killers did not know he was a veteran, but still), we believe that people are better than others simply by virtue of their race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, social standing, etc, we stop people from passing out sandwiches on a Sunday morning to hungry people, we don't take care of our mentally ill, we begrudge people who cannot afford insurance finally having insurance (why do they need insurance? just let them live sick or die, that will work), we don't want abortions, and if we overturn Roe V. Wade that will stop abortions. Sense my sarcasm there? It won't stop abortions it will bring us back to back alley abortions where many, many women were killed. A society where we don't want to kill fetus' but once they are born screw them, because we sure as hell don't want to give their parents food stamps, so they can starve. Or housing, so they can live in their cars with their parents, that is if they are lucky enough to have cars to sleep in. When they grow up God forbid we help them get an education so they can possibly do what every parent wants for their child, for them to do better than they did. When will we start sticking together??? When will we start helping each other???? When will we stop begrudging people getting the help they need???? When will we start doing right by our homeless, our mentally ill, our children, our elderly, our veterans, OURSELVES??? When will we stop judging people by their race, sexuality, gender or how much money we have, etc???? When will we become a UNITED United States??? That is what I want to know. And if we can't come together, I think I just want to leave society all together, go someplace in the woods, just me my wife and our fur baby. I'm tired of the hate. I'm tired of the fighting. I'm tired of hearing about another murder in my city, my state, other cities in other states. I'm so, so tired of the senseless life taking that happens and no on cares. No, I should not say no one cares, I have a lot of friends that care. I should say NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE CARE!!! We need to stop being selfish and start caring about what happens to our neighbors. To their families. We don't live in a bubble, we live in a society. How about we step outside of our insulated bubbles and start acting like it??

Janet Lee Smith
8/27/2013

My Life As Part of The GLBT Community

     I'm not sure where to start here, but with so many people coming out in support of marriage equality, I thought I would share part or, most of, all of, who knows, my story. I think it is important for people to know that people in the GLBT community are just the same as everyone else. Even our relationships are the same with the simple exception that we have relationships with the same gender. Only difference. We all still love, argue, some raise children, we go to work, pay bills, enjoy time with family and friends. We spend our weekends doing housework, laundry, groceries. Sometimes, hopefully most of the time, we feel an extra special love for each other, a love that is often indescribable. Of course there are the times where we want to strangle each other like in any relationship, then we get over it. Until the next time. This is my life. This weekend it is exactly the life of my wife and I. We spent yesterday grocery shopping, running errands and paying bills. Today we are doing housework with a break right now watching Breaking Dawn Part 2 (did I mention we are major TwiHards?) and tomorrow we will be doing laundry. Exciting stuff right? Similar to a lot of your weekends I'm sure.

     Of course my life as part of the GLBT community did not begin this weekend. I am a 46 year old lesbian I first came out when I was 16 years old. At that time I had never considered being with a woman. I was as boy crazy as they come. Then when I was 16 I met an older woman. Her dad was dating my mom, and we spent a lot together. Without going into detail, I realized I liked her, I mean liked her. She was older and I was very naive, but things happened even though she had a girlfriend at the time. We broke up, I was broken hearted, met a friends boyfriend, and within a few months we ended up married. I was barely 19 at the time. He had viciously verbally abused me days before the wedding. I thought I had to go through with it, even though I knew, I had no doubt, I was a lesbian. I don't want to dwell on this part too long because it still causes pain due to the abuse I went through. Doctor's have told me it is PTSD. We were together about a year and finally one night he held be prisoner in our apartment and emotionally and verbally abused me, I thought he was going to kill me. Finally when he felt he had me under control he decided he wanted dinner and went into the living room while I started to cook. I ran downstairs to our neighbors apartment and asked her to bring me to my ex girlfriend and her girlfriends apartment which she did. They weren't home and I hid in the hallway scared as heck that he would come to find me. Luckily they came home. I went to live with a cousin after about a week or two of living with them. Then I eventually went home. You see my husband and I lived with my mother. She just wasn't home that night, she was away for a week at a convention. We got back together, as well as my ex girlfriend and I. One night he followed me and punched me in the eye, I went to the er and that was the end. I found him and apartment and moved him in, swearing all the time we were going to stay together that I just needed time apart. That was the end of the relationship, but not the end of the fear and nightmares. OK, I wasn't going to spend much time on this part. Sorry about that.

     I'm not going to go through my whole coming out phase. It did happen when I was about 21. I mat a kid Jason at work who was real comfortable going out, even though he was not near 21. I had always been very shy and uncomfortable around other people, so he was like my gay bar support system. It became my home away from home. I ended up working there, and closing the bar almost every night, for several years. I also picked up quite a nasty cocaine habit during my time there. I tried twelve step programs several times but they never worked. I eventually stopped going to the bar and partying at home. My life was a mess and I had no idea. Eventually, I ended up in a studio apartment, by myself, on the computer all the time. Which ended up being my salvation. I started hanging around in a chat room on AOL and met a woman who was going to become very special to me. Actually, she would not only be my wife, but she would also become my biggest supporter with staying clean. We "met" online in February of 2001. She first came to visit the end of July and she moved here to Mass from New York on December 8, 2001. She is 21. I was 34. In 2004 Massachusetts made marriage equality legal. Problem was that I was still married to my now ex husband. I had never had a reason to get a divorce as I would never marry again, or so I thought, plus I was too afraid of him to try to contact him with divorce papers. Now I had a good reason, and someone to support me through the fears that I felt. Divorce was finalized on February 28th, 2007 and it was time to plan a wedding! We got married in a church, I wore a long white gown, and Shanna wore a black suit with a tie. It was a very traditional wedding. Shanna even slept downstairs at our friends house the night before the wedding and we were kept apart until I was walking down the aisle. Same as many same sex couples.
   
     On August 18th she became not only my best friend but also my wife. Just like any marriage it has not been perfect. We had a small "break up", if you can call it that since we still lived together last year. It lasted less than a month, and thankfully we love each other to find our way back to each other. Other than that one small period, we have always felt that there was nothing worth losing what we had. I have always felt that relationships were disposable for so many people, but it is not for us. We have now been together for over 11 years and are looking forward to many, many more. Not perfect years, but years in which we share our lives, loving one another. I have only shared a small part of my life and our life here, but I hope it is enough to show you that we are just like you. Other than the fact that we are the same sex, our relationship is just like any heterosexual relationship. Since that is the case, why deny us equality? Whom does it harm to allow us the right to marry? I'm pretty sure if I took a poll and asked if our marriage affected anyone else or their marriage, not one person would say no. Because even if a person is a rwnj, there is no way they could possibly see that we have affected them or their marriage.

This is just a small part of my story, of our story, but I hope it served it's purpose.

Janet Lee Smith
03/02/2013