A note: I started writing this blog on March 8th, the day after the State of the Union Address and the Republican Response by Katie Britt. Much has been said about both by people with much more education, experience, and knowledge on politics than I have. But I still want to post this. I’m still angry and I’m still hurt by the way some people (women especially) view women like me. So here ya go. Some angry ranting…

I want to shut off my brain to politics sometimes. I want to completely stop and exist in a bubble made of cotton candy and rainbows. I want to think that we’re all going to ultimately get along and the values of our Constitution and democracy will be valued and respected and ultimately upheld in perpetuity. But, for many, many reasons, I can’t do that. 

Today, I watched Senator Katie Britt’s response to President Biden’s State of the Union address. I don’t want to address party allegiance here. I don’t want to discuss my beliefs on Ukraine, Israel, education funding, taxes, or the border. I want to talk about how words have meanings. I want to talk about how watching and listening to Senator Britt’s speech reinforced the feelings of being othered that that I talked about briefly in my previous post. And, please don’t get me wrong, there are so many things about both the State of the Union Address and the Response that I think need to be addressed, but so much of it already is and I don’t know that I can add much more to it that people smarter and more eloquent than me haven’t already said. So instead here are my straight up feelings and reactions, no political science degree, no office held, just a genuine American citizen with some feelings. 

I feel like in order to keep myself from ranting too much, I will respond directly to Senator Britt using excerpts from her response. Her words will be italicized.

Just think about Laken Riley. In my neighboring state of Georgia, this beautiful, 22-year-old nursing student went out on a jog one morning. But she never got the opportunity to return home. She was brutally murdered by one of the millions of illegal border crossers President Biden chose to release into our homeland.

That could’ve been my daughter. It could’ve been yours.

Women exist outside of their relationships with other people. Laken Riley was a human. Why do you have to imagine her as your daughter in order to understand the situation? Is your empathy that lacking that you can only feel pain when you imagine a woman, a human being, as your daughter? Do those of us without daughters not have that same empathy? Guess what! I don’t have a daughter and can still be heartbroken and about a 22 year old woman being murdered while out exercising.

I hear similar concerns from fellow parents when I’m walking with my friends or at one of my kids’ games.

How about we use the phrase, “fellow Americans”? If your thesis is that Americans are struggling because of President Biden and his economic policies, why stop at parents? Is it because you are subtly implying that the families you are focused on are the ones with one mom, one dad, and multiple children? Or is it because, once again, you forget that people exist with experiences outside of your own. Another point where you show your lack of empathy.

We are the Party of hardworking parents and families. We want to give you and your children the opportunities to thrive — and we want families to grow. It’s why we strongly support continued nationwide access to in vitro fertilization. We want to help loving moms and dads bring precious life into this world. 

So much to unpack here. This entire response is directed at parents and “families”. I put families in quotes there because based on everything else in this speech, I’m not convinced that you,  Senator Britt, would identify the household that my husband and I form, as a family. You say you support IVF because you want families to grow. But, not all families, right? Because you follow it up with a very distinct definition of family. Mom and Dad. Are you willing to admit other types of family into that? I doubt it. And let’s look back at the statement that you want families to grow. What if they don’t? What if they choose not to? What if they don’t want to bring children into this world only to put them into daycare at six weeks because they have to go back to work? Will you help fix that? Or is that a pull yourself up by your bootstraps situation?

And that’s why tonight, I want to make a direct appeal to the parents out there — and in particular, to my fellow moms.

Many of whom will be tossing and turning at 2 a.m. wondering how they are going to be three places at once tomorrow and somehow still get dinner on the table.

These are two of the things that are most annoying to me as a childless person in this culture. Begin othered and being made to feel like my life and free time are easier or not important because I’m childless. You think that by addressing mothers specifically it makes you more relatable and that will make your message more applicable even to people who sit across the aisle from you. And you know what? You’re right. It probably does. But it also perpetuates the idea that women without children don’t deserve a seat at the table. Speaking of table, even though I’m not a mom, I also have to plan my day and prioritize and I get pulled in three different directions at the same time too. And, I know this may be hard to believe, but I also have to eat. 

So, I am asking you, for the sake of your kids and your grandkids, get into the arena.

I don’t have kids. I don’t have grandkids. I’m in the arena. I’m there because I care about society. I don’t need to have progeny to care about the future of our country and our Earth.

Our future starts around kitchen tables just like this. With moms and dads just like you.

Our future starts around kitchen tables, sitting at bar counters, in classrooms, at protests, and around campfires. And it starts with moms, dads, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and anyone else. It starts with humans. It starts with Americans. It starts with all of us working together. All of us, Senator Britt. All of us.