Oh please - Madoff anyone ?

The rich contribute in large amounts to politicians who will insure their interests. Their firms hire lobyists to ensure that their corporations are finacially assisted. They cry to high heaven if they should be taxed and that is after parking much of their money in secret Swiss accounts, untouchable, while they prosper from the infrastructure created by those who pay.

They run whole campaigns like Prop 13 to make sure their extravagent beachside properties are taxed at a rate of small bungalow by the freeway.They incorporate the neighbrhoods they live in, so as not to have to pay for city school districts.

They fight minimum wage and healthcare reform in order to avoid one penney being given to others WHO ALSO WORK HARD.They think laws are for other people,not them, and prey on the poor and less well educated in order to fill their coffers.

Yes they may work hard,but doing what?

Ensuring they get the breaks and others get the obstacles.

LW deserves an answer that addresses him as a human being but the statement made above just cannot pass unaddressed!

You need to work on a neonatal unit so you can observe the awful limbo reserved for the parents of a child born with multiple anomolies,an infant that requires several surgical interventions

to maintain life,yet surgeries that are unable to ensure a future for the child.

These are people who cannot have another child or give the attention deserved to the children they have as long as the they are stuck in this awful hell. Since laws were passed which forbid the families and physicians from withholding treatment they often spend 1- 2 years with a child in the hospital, watching their child tortured while their child is essentially a guinea pig to be practiced on.In the meantime the child is subject to hospital infection, med error,incomprehensible pain and the nurture needed to get thru such a situation psychologically.After witnessing a few of these cases,I think there are few people who would consider these infants fortunate to be alive.

during the election that was my first clue that he was seeing us from a very different vantage point than most people assumed.

David Axelrod ran a very effective Colors of Benneton campaign for corporate America.

Obama received more contributions from the healthcare industry than any other candidate and if he can get something "called" reform passed, the insurance and pharmaceuticals corporations can rest easy for another few decades.

The so called "public option " with its mandatory insurance obligation for every citizen will guarantee they never have to compete for business.That insurance payment will be required from every mother and father before decent food or shelter.

famous words from Obama -Let them eat Prozac.

exposed to a whole paradigm of choices that make up a different lifestyle I think escaping her background into another will be almost impossible. It may not be as intrusive as you imagine, after all college kids typically spend a lot of their time at school, socializing, and hopefully studying.Without exposure to the many choices available in life such as how to use a bank book,prepare for interveiws,budget money wisely,deal productively with bureacracies and observe how much time it actually takes studying to get ahead (via your spouse's example) you will just be throwing money at the problem.

The truth is your relatives seem to have survived and multiplied...in the long run this is success. And who's to say having a wide network of people to back you up won't do you more good than a degree in a globsl economy geared to turn everyone into tools of destruction to be discarded when a cheaper one can be found.

Nor do they have to worry about food,shelter or paying taxes.

Decent healthcare would decrease people turning to their priests for begging for prayers and the increased death rate will increase their donations for getting souls out of purgatory. The day the Catholic church shows compassion for anyone besides priests accused of child molestation will be a cold day in hell.

There's a lot of grief that goes with that.I noticed that you didn't mention much about your childhood,most of the bad stuff seem to have happened when you were a teenager and under the stress of divorce. Both of these circumstances can make everyone involved a little crazy. Divorce is coming face to face with utter failure in your life.It is not easy being the mother of a teenager either, nor is it easy becoming independent given a mom and dad under such rough circumstances.

Perhaps your childhood was not awful and perhaps that is why you have some remorse about cutting your mom out of your life totally. If that is true,if there are any good memories you have,use those as a way to soften your aversion to mom . I'm not saying you need to involve her in your life more but just so that when you do deal with her you can do it from a more generous space.You will feel less guilty if when you do deal with her you do so from that space ,not covering up revulsion. I guess from these letters you can see that very few of us get the parents we want or need.... and thats why we've chosen Cary! LOL

You'll have to learn to be the mom you never had,and the good thing is - that mom knows what you need-