First and foremost, I believe that every citizen of the United States should have equal rights and Responsibilities.

I believe that any citizen in power is responsible to make all the changes they can for the better of all citizens. This is my health care proposal.  All health care coverage would be based on a sliding scale fee for all citizens.  You would get standard deductions for each family member and regional cost of living adjustments.  My argument…How long do you think the wealthy/powerful would wait before using their influence to lower health care costs if they had to pay more for it?  We would all benefit from it.  Please note that I said citizens.  Does this mean that the poor live on the backs of the wealthy?  Not for long I bet.  The wealthy have both the means and ability to make the changes that the middle class and poor do not and from what I have seen the wealthy generally do not hesitate to oppress and take advantage of those lower classes.  They can and do take money from the poor to build their coffers.

I Believe that if you enter this country illegally or do anything illegal as an alien, you should never be offered citizenship. As long as the United States is in crisis immigration should be limited. I believe that we should open our borders to only those who could benefit our country.  Someone with a job, needing an education, having an education in a needed area etc…at least until the economy improves.  If you are not a citizen you should not qualify for Social Security, Welfare, or any other entitlement.  If you are illegal and attempt to seek entitlement you should be evaluated for life or death crisis and sent right back to your country or origin for any needed treatment.  If your children are legal and you are not you have the choice to go back to your country and with or without them.  English should be the legal language.

I believe that all able bodied US Citizens should work. This means that if you can’t find a job you will be required to spend some extra time shoveling the old man next door’s walk or picking up groceries or just visiting with the elderly lady down the street.  You could mentor the young mother next door and offer babysitting while she did her volunteer time.  Young mom could take her children for a walk and each with a small bag to pick up garbage and cans along the roadway.  Cans can be theirs to keep and cash in.    If we all spent some time helping one another and doing what needs to be done we would be spending less time crying over what we don’t have and demanding entitlements we don’t deserve.  It is a proven fact that persons who feel useful have higher self esteem, suffer less depression and are more interested in the world around them.

I believe that US Citizens should have first priority for jobs with veterans topping that list. US Businesses that export jobs should be subject to a foreign employee tax that cost them as much as the United States workers would require.

I believe we should have equal trade agreements. The United States will only buy from those countries who allow us to sell equal amounts to them without all those import fees that makes our products unattractive.

I believe that our Government should outlaw “Parties”.  We all have the responsibility to look up our representatives voting history and attempt to plow through rhetoric.  Determine who is saying what.  You can find your reps history on the internet.  Just Google their name.  Right now parties seem to encourage partisan behavior.  It’s like watching a kindergarten playground with boys against the girls.

I believe the citizens of the United States should determine by vote congressional pay and benefits at the beginning of each term. Right now Congress is voting in future pay raises that can be enacted at a future date by simple inaction so it is not on their record.  Take a look and see how many of your reps abstained from voting on the new January pay raise.  That would include future benefits.  Once elected to office our congress is set for life even if they do a terrible job in a short 4 years.  They don’t have to pay for health care and receive a salary most of us could live very, very well with.  Many of us would be shocked if we knew actual numbers.  Congres/wo/men should submit pay raise requests and a monthly expense reports to a citizens oversight committee that is NOT appointed.

I believe that our education system is broken and parents and only parents should determine the best system to educate their child. Those parents should be allowed to spend their child’s portion of the education moneys on the educational style that would most benefit their child.   More money, more money is not going to get us better educators. Teachers who stop parenting and start educating with the support of the parent who is involved and chooses their child’s school will get us better educators.  Parent, Child and Educator should all be held equally accountable.  Let’s be creative.  Why shouldn’t a parent who works a second shift schedule be able to choose a second shift educational system for them?

Her strength was only eclipsed by her love and dedication to us and her beauty welled from within her making her always radiant despite the disease that ravaged her body. In the many conversations we had in the past few months her concerns were mostly for what her illness was doing to her family and friends. She spent much of her time trying to make her passing easier for us. I spent much of my time trying to reassure her and make her smile. She was cognitive to the last and even on her last day when she could no longer speak she made it clear that she recognized each of us and reacted to our last words together. She cried with those who cried and even managed to laugh at my last sad joke. You know that is one hell of a friend who can laugh at your stupid joke on her death bed.

Needless to say Cancer has caught my attention. Not just Lung Cancer but all cancers. My daughter-in-law was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer around the same time and is doing well. My daughter had Cervical Cancer and she is doing well. The difference?: Both the daughter and daughter-in-law caught the cancers early. By the time my friend was diagnosed the cancer had spread to her brain, kidney and lymph nodes. It was too late.

There are a lot of awareness campaigns out there and while I chose to believe that cancer awareness means any cancer it seems that breast cancer does the best job and that is the one we see the most. Pink ribbons have their own clothing and accessory line while many of us don’t even know that lime is for lymphoma, gray for brain cancer, orange for Leukemia, and on with purple being the universal color for cancer in general.

Today, on Face Book a message turned viral. I just happened to get it from my niece. It read: “Some fun is going on………..Just write the color of your bra in your status, just the color, nothing else, and send this on to only girls, no men…..It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the girls have a color in their status! …. ha ha.
Someone sent this to me……. figured I’d give it a try! Can’t hurt! lol.
PS if you’re not wearing one right now, just put the last one you had on or you’re favorite“

The girls in my niece’s group took it as a fun way to spread cancer awareness and they did have fun with it as cracks flew about bra color and who should wear one and who wasn’t and who didn’t have to worry about it.

Then my cousin, a group of friends and I debated the entire concept. The conversation posted as follows:

Cousin: Why the **** is everyone’s status a color? Should I not have taken that nap? Did I miss some sort of color apocalypse and you are letting me know which hue was last to make its demise?

Rebecca: Post Bra color to raise breast cancer awareness

Sarah : PS – Men get breast cancer too. This is why I refuse to participate. It doesn’t raise awareness, it perpetuates a misconception. This is pretty much the opposite.

Andrew: nice, the perpetuation of misconception. I love it. Plus… I wanted to point out that I.. uh see stuff about breast cancer everywhere. I think anyone with eyes knows it occurs, I thought awareness was something to be raised about topics that are generally swept under the rug in order to protect reputations against the evils of reality… for example…but… hey…. perpetuation of misconception… ****** a.

Rebecca: I just lost someone from cancer. I don’t think there is such a thing as perpetual misconception when it comes to the lethality of cancer. Do I think there are other areas under and misreported? Yes. Men do get breast cancer although I don’t know any and I do know several women who have had it and died as a result. I choose not to be so narrow in my thought process that I don’t appreciate the spirit in which the reminder was submitted.

Sarah: I too recently lost someone close to me to breast cancer. I’m not opposed to the message; I’m opposed to the exclusivity. The actual FB message being sent around instructs women to “not tell the boys”, like it’s some kind of cutesy little club. How is it at all responsible or awareness-promoting to exclude potential victims in an awareness campaign? Men go without diagnosis because they don’t know they can get breast cancer, and this silly little trend serves to perpetuate that.

Andrew: I personally have had loved ones suffer and die from breast cancer. It doesn’t remove my ability to step outside the frame work and see that Children’s Leukemia Awareness, for example, doesn’t seem to have as much steam as Breast cancer awareness. Not that one is worse than the other, but sometimes being a strong proponent for one specific thing unconsciously diminishes a different end of the spectrum.

Cousin: What the **** happened here? Personally, my bra is red and I don’t give a **** about that or what color anyone else is. I am also well educated on breast cancer as I think most everyone is these days. Breast cancer awareness is everywhere to the point that I think it may be being used as a marketing ploy to buy certain cereal or toothpaste. ‘we … See More are raising awareness so buy our sh*t’ I am too exhausted to partake in a fb debate about breast cancer and am not trying to diminish the severity of breast cancer but agree that the focus could be on something that people aren’t as aware of. I understand the spirit of the ‘game’ and also understand the misconceptions that people have. I’m done as I don’t really have anything worthwhile to say.

Claire: when I got the message, it didn’t say anything about breast cancer. It said “a silly and fun little game.” Frankly, it’s more than a bit ridiculous to imagine that posting the color of one’s bra will start one thinking more about breast cancer and doing something to further the cause of fighting said illness. It’s as stupid to me as the idea that clicking the “join” button on a face book cause actually does ANYTHING to further a real cause.

Cousin: Agreed Claire. I was wondering myself how posting your bra color was going to do anything at all and I’m glad they made breast cancer into such a fun little game! Maybe next we can go to the children’s hospital and kick over some kids in wheelchairs. Wouldn’t that raise awareness?

Rebecca: Thanks everyone for your insight. LOL I get the picture cousin. It is kind of kicking someone who is already down. The bra for the breast less? Like smog for lung, pregnancy for uterine or ovarian cancer. It is a new perspective.

So readers, I am asking you what you think. Do you see too many reminders of one thing and not enough of another? Are we perpetuating a misconception as Sarah suggested? Is there another side of this we missed? Please…leave your comments. I look forward to hearing them.