The Adventures of Superwife

Veganism changed so much more about me than what I eat. It opened my eyes in so many ways, I can hardly comprehend them all. Most importantly, it made me see the world for what it really is- a living, breathing, and unfortunately mistreated organism. This, in turn, has made me more aware of many of the politically based injustices and how we are all affected by them. Things like the farm bill, health care, alternative energy sources, medical research, same-sex unions and so on and so forth. I feel like over this past year, a filter of compassion has been put in front of my eyes, and has really given me such a different perspective on so many things.

Anyhow, getting to the point- being politically active is something that has never really been a big priority in my life. I’ve always sort of saw the Government as a kind of homeostatic biodome that exists with no interaction- I do nothing, and the world keeps on a turnin’. Lately though, as I see the world differently (as stated above) I’m seeing how my interaction is more important than I thought. This takes me to the upcoming presidential elections.

Flash back three years, and I’m a wide eyed 22 year old quazi-republican. I did what most young people do, just adopt the political views of their parents and assume that naturally, they’re correct. Parents are infallible, after all. I have opinions on all sorts of Alaska based special interests, and that’s about where my political conscience ends. Coming back to the present, I’ve started to scrutinize what I once held to be gospel. Started to look at the ‘WHY’ factor. Let’s take the Alaska National Wildlife Refuse for example. Much of Alaska and most of the republican party has been advocating to drill this area for oil. I was one of them- I mean, the home that my family lives in was paid for by oil money. I thought all people who opposed the drilling were tree-hugging hippies who didn’t want us disturbing a one square mile patch of tundra they had never even laid eyes on. Now, while I can’t necessarily say that I’m against it, I finally see their point. It’s not only about that patch of tundra, it’s about the concept of why are we still depending on fossil fuels in the first place? And even that patch of tundra completely aside, the environmental impact isn’t on that patch of land, it’s on the entire world when that oil is drilled, refined and turned into gasoline to fuel some soccer-mom’s SUV. When push comes to shove, my family still survives on oil production, so if I were put to vote on it, the places would get drilled. I just hope as a society we start investigating alternatives. The oil wont be there forever, and if we burn it all up, there wont be much of an Earth to speak of either. I’d hope anyone, regardless of political party affiliation, can appreciate that we need to be spending money on researching alternative energy sources to get those in places before we run out of non-renewable fossil fuels.

Government funded health care is also something I’ve started to feel passionate about. It started when my grandmother (who is arguably one of my favorite people in the whole world) was forced to sell the home she built with her own two hands because of mounting property taxes and the costs of her medical expenses that weren’t covered by her social security pay or Medicaid. The fact that my grandmother had to pick between her home and her medical expenses infuriated me. How is it that we can send BILLIONS of dollars away in foreign aid, but we can’t pay for the health care of the elderly and less fortunate? We give just as much away in tax credits and subsidies to innumerable special interests, but we can’t take care of the generation that gave us life? For a country with so much wealth and power, we have so many people who live without life’s basic needs.

Some newscaster was trying to articulate why Barack Obama is so well favored across party lines, and to me what they said made perfect sense- “He is a living representation of how far the country has come, and how much farther we can go.” That phrase almost made me choke up, which sounds silly but I am so moved by that sentiment. We really have come this far. It only gives me hope as to what is within our reach, and what will be achieved for future generations.