Spawn

In college, I worked in a radio station (among other places) for a short time as a morning news anchor. After I graduated, I started to ponder on the next chapter in my illustrious career as an Italian restaurant server-cum-poor (impoverished) man’s Lakshmi Sing. The morning DJ (“Acoustic Sunrise,” y’all. Word.) suggested I read “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. A fantastic suggestion, and I make the same recommendation to you. Ms. Cameron believes that all inspiration flows from God. Or, if you prefer; a higher power. We humans are a mere conduit for this inspiration, and if we would make ourselves receptive to this inspiration in various ways, the inspiration will flow freely. One of the steps in her program of tuning out the noise (calming your monkey mind, for you yogis), was to refrain from media for a proscribed period of time. No television. No e-mail. No news. Her approach is best. And it works – not just for art – but life generally. (Religion would call this attuning yourself to the Holy Spirit.) But for me, right now – I’ve chosen to be incensed. It’s not the way of the righteous, but for this moment – it’s what turns me to this blank page.

My chosen incendiary device is a certain website, which I won’t disclose for now. But it encapsulates everything I despise about the state of the young, modern left. I can usually just sign on to the first page and – BAM. I’m pissed. In this vein, I’ve been thinking more about my focus here. Those who know me, know that politics – despite my attempts to leave it be – really gets me going. To use an analogy I’m stealing from a family member: Politics to me is like an attractive, but psycho girlfriend/boyfriend. You think you need to get away because it’s making you crazy. But it’s just so alluring, you keep coming back for more.

Let me digress from this website for a moment. When I started college, the first extracurricular group I joined was the College Republicans. I came to meetings, listened to speeches, went to rallies, etc. I remember sitting through one speech watching this 19 year-old get all red in the face, and decided – you know, I think we’re good here. Then, I quietly slipped out the side door. None of it resonated with me. I spent my first three years or so of college fairly politically dispossessed. Then, while sitting in a class on Political and Social Thought, things changed. Some remember the day they came to Jesus.* I remember the day I found out I was a liberal. (When you read this, I hope you’ll say that word in your head like Dr. Evil does in Austin Powers. “LEE-berr-all. MUAHAHAHA!” Add some thunder claps for dramatic effect.) So, we’re discussing the philosophical underpinnings for supply-side economics. Discussion ensues. Then, we look at some statistics. Since the advent of this economic policy under Nixon, the graph showed a larger segment of the population was wealthy (arguably good?), a larger segment was considered poor (undeniably bad), and the middle class was markedly smaller. It hit me: I’ve been wrong. This idea, no matter how lovely it sounds as a philosophy, is clearly not working in practice. Goodbye red, hello blue. . .ish (*an aside, I am not dismissing someone’s religious experience here. I just see a person’s relationship with God as a lifelong process, not a specific moment in time.)

Ok, back to now. I do think, from many perspectives, that this liberal ideology is more correct. However, I also think it’s under attack; not by Fox – but from within. And it’s coming from the more youthful adherents. Here’s where the website comes in. Today, within minutes of viewing it, I read a paragraph wherein someone’s children are referred to as “spawn.” Such eloquence have we. (Just accept for a moment that this website’s followers are vastly liberals, ok? Cool.) This to me is a really troubling trend: a tendency for these so-called educated, elite, free-thinkers to debase anything related to more commonplace notions of family. Maybe this is a backlash from having the Right force feed their version of family values, but it’s no excuse.

I just had a facebook-based argument with various individuals on children in the workplace. One of the more abrasive comments was from a female. Essentially she said, hey selfish parents – don’t bring your “spawn” to work for any reason. (I’m paraphrasing) And the icing on her poo-cake of a comment: “You should have thought about this before popping them out.” Then the usual suspects made their appearance: I have a right to choose not to have children. I have a right to choose to not be exposed to them. I have a right to work free from their interference. I am woman, hear me roar. And of course – “Well, some people are just not ‘baby people.’”

First of all, I had to breathe hard to stem the deluge of vitriol that struggled to fly from my fingertips onto the thread. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s feminism shooting itself in the foot. Your rights to not become a jumper-clad mommy type with a “NObama” sticker on her mini-van are getting in the way of my right to pursue my profession and be a mother who occasionally brings her very well-behaved child into the office when the need arises. Your “me” rights are potentially interfering with the rights of a broader concept of “us” in a potentially dangerous way here, sister.

This post is already lengthy, so I’ll wrap this up. Matters of family, children, and reproduction are explosive issues politically. The version of the Right that so dominates the media often implicitly (sometimes explicitly) portrays the liberal viewpoint as amoral and with an agenda that would attack and erode the primacy of the family unit. Meanwhile, this is also the ideology supporting unprecedented cuts to social programs like WIC (nutrition program for women, infants, and children) and Head Start, among other things. I realize my generation is marrying later, or not at all – and sometimes eschewing children. But let’s not make our preferences the argument. This isn’t just about us.