Ride In The Middle Of The Road......

.....and you might get hit, get a ticket, or both. When you take the center of the route, you can get hit from both sides. Better to choose a side and then you know what will be coming at you.

We often get our hands slapped by "moderate" factions in this battle for justice for Senior Mothers and for our opinions concerning a lot of things. While I am not particularly dogmatic, and I can listen to reason if it makes sense, I also know that when I take a stand, it is important to stick to that stance and be strong in what I believe. How can we make a difference in the perception of Mothers from the EMS and what it has caused in today's world if we are constantly softening our beliefs to keep from seeming "too militant" or "polarized?"

Those of us who suffered the injustices and indignities of the EMS know who the enemy was and is. They are recognizable for their eagerness to promote infant adoption, to label young, single mothers as unfit, to want to change the law of the land to take away a woman's right to choice and to birth control, and to invoke God as their authority in adopting, campaigning for barriers to women's reproductive rights and any other pet cause that furthers their agenda.

Decades ago, we listened to our elders and (so-called "professional experts") and weakened our resolve. We allowed them to coerce us into believing that we would be toxic to our own children based on nothing more than our age, our marital and financial status and their blue-nosed, Puritanical mores. That's when we got hit, wrecked, mangled and sent to the body shop for a "make-over." Just like a car, once wrecked, never is quite the same, we never regained our virginity or, for many of us, our goals in life.

Many of us married the first man who would have us (what with us being "damaged goods") and tried to conceive "replacement children" as soon as we could. Others became the victims of secondary infertility. Some went downhill, others went, obsessively, uphill, trying to prove our worth. What was done to us was damage that cannot be fixed by outer, cosmetic means. Our hearts and souls were wrecked and scarred and would never quite function as well as before...until the light bulbs in our brains went off and we saw what needed to be done.

We have been our own mechanics. We have healed and are now out for justice. The wreck was not our fault and we are fighting the ticket. No middle of the road for us, we are taking a stance and sticking to our lane. And in doing so, we just might step on some tender toes. Too bad. To paraphrase the late, talented composer and comedy writer, Mason Williams, "they done stomped on our hearts and they mashed those suckers flat!"

So, if we seem to have a distrust of certain entities, it is with good reason. We are going back there in order to seek justice. But we'll be damned if we will stand by and allow those certain entities to take our entire society back there for another run. I have daughters, a granddaughter and a great granddaughter and I will not have them subjected to that self-righteous, arrogant judgment that took me down. If I ride in the middle of the road, there is a good chance that will happen.

So I am staying in my lane, fighting for justice for Senior Moms, voting against those who would send women back to the "barefoot and pregnant" era and naming names. We are going to be putting up a "Wall of Shame" for those who were at fault in our wrecks. Here are the names of a few that would sideswipe you if you are riding in the middle of the road.

The "Moral Majority"

The "Christian Right"

John McCain

Sarah Palin

The church-run "Crisis Pregnancy Centers"

Adoption Agencies specializing in infant adoption

Trolling PAPs who write "Dear Birthmartyr" letters

Most of the members of the Republican Party

Some of the members of the Democratic Party

Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Pentacostal and Charismatic church leaders and their sheep

The fanatics who stand outside the women's clinics, shouting and waving Bibles

US, if we don't speak up and speak out!