Two Families: So Different

One woman of a family thinks of entitlements for having sex with a wealthy politician; the other is a recent widow and has two sons with cerebral palsy. For the second family, my workplace raised over $1200 and bought most of this following wish list:

Mom

Tide laundry soap
Baby wipes
Shampoo
Cascade Action packs



Oldest Son, age 24, confined to wheelchair

Shirts, adult size L
Jeans, 32 W, 32 L

More visual, can’t use hands very much, enjoys animated movies


Younger son, age 12, also confined to wheelchair

Shirts, child size medium or size 8
Pants or jeans, size 10

Hotwheels, just the cars
Transformer toys
Transformer II movie


Household

Both boys could use new sheet sets for bedding, twin size, no flannel

Bath towels, wash clothes

Kitchen towels

Pots and pans


In addition, staff brought cards, postage stamps, etc. I bought for them one of the sets of sheets (some nice all cotton ones).

Can you imagine wishing for laundry detergent and shampoo as personal gifts?


BW readers, we asked what the mom wanted for herself. She said she liked scented candles.

Mind you we are facing furloughs and layoffs.

The Gold Dust Woman in JRE's life is something else to demand 18K a month and doesn't even try to work. She is selfish and lazy.

I call her that based on this song by Fleetwood Mac:

http://www.kewego.com/video/iLyROoafteck.html

Poverty will always tug at my heart strings. I will not understand why John got involved with such a low class (in spirit) woman and put his family through the tabloids. This woman is capable of working and chooses not to. She is not the working poor when she demands $2100 for babysitting expenses and doesn't try to work.

Standing on the Side of Love and Competence: Annise Parker Wins Mayor Elect in Houston

(photo courtesy of the Free Press Houston)

This morning, I awoke to several e-mails from our GLBT friends in which they were estatic about Annise Parker's victory in the mayor election last night. Ms. Parker did win in a similar way to Harvey Milk as one of the supervisors in the sense she proved her competence first as being a member of the city council, then became comptroller (the bean counter).

From the Houston Chronicle:

Annise Danette Parker was elected mayor of Houston on Saturday, winning her seventh consecutive city election and becoming both the first contender in a generation to defeat the hand-picked candidate of Houston's business establishment and the first openly gay person to lead a major U.S. city.

Parker, Houston's current city controller who first emerged in the public arena as a gay rights activist in the 1980s, defeated former City Attorney Gene Locke on an austere platform, convincing voters that her financial bona fides and restrained promises would be best suited in trying financial times. Parker, 53, will replace the term-limited Mayor Bill White on Jan. 1.

Annise is gay and has been with her partner for 19 years. They have 3 adopted children. Unfortunately, social conservatives, including many pastors in town tried to make Ms. Parker's sexual orientation an issue. I was heartened to see that the First UU in Houston (my former church) invited her and other ministers to join the congregation for fellowship last Sunday, and she/they accepted the invitation. I suspect this spurred many UU'ers to get out the vote about Houstonian issues, not just the focus on being gay. Ms Parker earned her spot.

I'm thinking Molly Ivins and Ann Richards are smiling today, and I bet Jim Hightower is too.

Congrats to Mayor -elect Parker and her family.