How Did We Get Here?

I've been struggling with what to write for this week's blog post for the past week. 

First I thought I'd give a run down on how I'm feeling at 20 weeks pregnant, but then I realized, I feel different everyday. How in the heck could I summarize how I'm feeling for an entire week in one blog post?!

Then, I read this story. And it made me sick. And it made me think. And the comments on it, made me think.

You see, I KNOW what I would have done to that woman. I'd do to her exactly what she did to that innocent child. 

I can't say or even pretend that I've been the best and most perfect parent or that I will be from this point on. Yes, there were (and still are!) times that I had to just put Baby Dean in his crib or pac-n-play and walk away to catch my breath or clear my mind. Did I leave him there all day and night? No. At a max, it was 5 minutes. And these instances happened when I knew there was nothing I could do to settle his tears (not hungry, cold, hot, didn't need a diaper change, didn't want to be cuddled, etc). Do I believe in spanking? Yes. Beating a child with a broom? No. Disciplining a child over a bathroom accident? Absolutely not.

The comments I read were something I had heard before. Not in those exact words, but similar to. One comment read, 

"When we as a society began to validate killing the child rather than giving it up for adoption as a demanded "choice" for women to make, we set up a spiral effect of dehumanizing children. When we as a society began to view children as a burden rather than a gift, and pawn the daily raising of those children off to hired strangers, we set up a spiral effect of not knowing the normal behaviors of children and how to properly deal with them. When we as a society began empowering women by emasculating and negating the necessity of men/fathers we set up a spiral effect of men abandoning women to single parenthood.

It's a tragedy all around, and it goes back generations to choices made with horrific unintended side effects."

Beautifully true isn't it?

Then, there was a comment that read, 

"...until this country stops making welfare and cash assistance a CAREER option, these people are just going to keep popping out kids they don't want just for the money. I work in an OB/GYN clinic in a very poverty stricken area of Michigan. 50% of my patients come in with repeat pregnancies, don't take care of the kids they have, smack them, scream at them, abuse them, just because they get free food, cash and healthcare from our government. And the sad part is that most of these "women" make more in welfare and cash assistance that I make and I work full-time and go to school full-time along with being a single mom of a 6 year old. They come up with every excuse in the book as to why they cant work. Until this country stops giving hand outs to people who just don't want to work and pop out kids they don't want so they get more money every month, this will never end..."

We've all seen these people before too. This isn't new information for you.

Not every person that gets government assistance falls into this category, so please don't mistake me for 'THAT' type of person.

So why? Why do we continue to fall into debt as a country to support these type of people? And that woman that killed her child, we now get to pay for her to live even more! There are good and honest people that go hungry and divide up their food for a week to make sure they have SOMETHING to eat daily. People that work, and work HARD for a living, and barely get by and yet, if they were to ask the government for help, they wouldn't qualify. 

It sickens me that I raise my son and soon to be daughter in a country that will help the lazy before it helps those that work for a living. A country that cares more about forcing people to buy health insurance than it does about the schools losing money or people living out of trailers for months and years after natural disasters. A country that will put murderers, rapists and pedophiles in jail for their crimes, yet feed them three times a day, give them cable to watch, hot water to shower in, clean clothes to wear and activities to participate in. 

A country that cares more about how a man put to death for kidnapping, raping and murdering an 8 month pregnant married woman suffered because a new drug was tried on him, then the reason he's being put to death in the first place. A country that orders a hospital to take a pregnant woman off of life support before her child would be viable outside the womb, so not only one person dies in a terrible tragedy, but two. A country that forces businesses to pay for contraceptives for their employees when their beliefs would prevent them from doing so. A country that has mass shootings constantly, and now, mass shootings that take place so close to home, it gives me anxiety. 

Where are our priorities?

How have we come this far and beyond in 50 short years? Heck, even 30 years? 

How have we gotten here, and how do we get back to the way it use to be?