Judgment Day

So I get this offer in the mail a few days back, telling me what a fantastic cook I am and informing me that I'm being given the wondrous opportunity to test drive some kitchenware because my opinion of the goods is so very important to their manufacturers. All I'm asked to do is write a short report on the performance of each item, after which I get to keep whatever it is I've evaluated.

Now writing reports is about as tough for me as breathing, and I do love to collect kitchen goodies, but beyond the thoughts that "this is a club that will never stop sending me stuff" and "I'm dubious of presorted junk mailings", there was one simple truth that sent me tossing the missive into the recycling: This is a job.

And while it may seem a trifling thing to give them $1 per month in order to keep all my treasures, to me it seemed that they were asking me to PAY to do a JOB. (Am I lazy, or what!?)

Along about the same time, my oldest child comes home with a nomination and recommendation to join the local Teen Court. We're one of about 1,200 cities in the country that have these peer-driven interventions for kids who've committed "smallish infractions". The kid attorneys get to train under adult lawyers, and the jurors are given specialized training as well. An adult -- usually a local police officer -- presides as the judge.

Great opportunity, right? But right after I told the child how proud I was of him, I began to worry about retribution. The program claims only 2 incidences of this in over 20 years, but Husband and I were still concerned. We talked about all the after-school hours he'd have to put in; he's already involved in student government, band, and chess. We researched the program online: It sounds terrific, important, laudable. But still, we were chickens.

He said he understood and wasn't disappointed in us, but I feared giving him the message "not to get involved" in something because there might be a slight risk. I hate to think he'll have that as the takeaway.

In this same time period, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation decided (and later reversed the decision) to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. The reason given was that Planned Parenthood was "under investigation" and therefore no longer met with Komen's guidelines.  One idiot Republican in Georgia is "looking into" Planned Parenthood on a vendetta. So what! Why aren't we "looking into" the oil companies, the big banks (finally we're doing a little on that front), the SuperPac funders. Come on.

We're talking about a society that allows its government to lie it into two wars, then ask the workers to pay for the bills it's run up. They're asking us to buoy Wall Street while we get kicked out of our houses, to pay for tax breaks to outsourcing corporations while they strip away our jobs. And they're allowing us to labor under a new McCarthyism where one idiot's vendetta is "an investigation", where credit scores can be used to determine hiring practices, and where a valid immigration policy position is that neighbors should stand in judgment of those seeking to prove their "American-ness". (Not to mention the pains visited upon those trying to re-enter society after being captured in the "War on Drugs".)

Who should be the arbiters? Who should stand in judgment of their peers? Whose job is it to decide who among us are "real Americans"? John Edwards was right about the "Two Americas", certainly when it comes to laws. Money buys you a certain cache; the lack of it earns you the bill.

I applaud President Obama for making a dent in these fouls with the new consumer financial protection unit and with beginning to look into prosecuting the big banks and bad lenders. I think when it comes to the 2012 election, he is our only hope for the continued advancement of Progressive policies. I stand firm with the Democratic Party and our President.

But it was still a week of judgments: I judged the cooking club not to be worth my while, I judged the Teen Court to be more of a risk than I was willing to let my child take, and the Susan G. Komen folks briefly judged Planned Parenthood not worthy of its monies. The first two choices are personal and well within my purview to decide. The last would have put thousands of women at risk of living with an undetected cancer, something no one should choose to decide. Even if it is their money.

It's like Mitt Romney saying, "I'm not that concerned about the very poor." Sure, we know what he was trying to say, and while I do not agree with it, that's not where I'd call the Governor out. Those words should not be "formable" in one's mouth, no matter how communications-challenged one might be. You just don't think such a thing. It just isn't possible to put those words together.

Not to be judgmental, but there are just some things that you dare not do.