Julia is distressed by\u00a0 the name of Mr. Obama’s campaign cartoon figure.\u00a0 Mr. O’s “Julia” is faceless, shameless, and spineless. Why did Mr. O’s “Julia” take seven years to graduate from college, even though she had Pell grants and loans to cover the exorbitant cost of tuition?\u00a0 She “chose” to have a child, but apparently she did not “choose” to have a husband. Does she know any of the research about fatherless children?\u00a0 Poor Zach, he didn’t even get to go to Head Start.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At 65, Mr. O’s\u00a0 “Julia” is drug dependent.\u00a0 Is this a carry over from the days of her youth?\u00a0 At 67, this “Julia” retires “comfortably” on her Social Security.\u00a0 Where, Julia wonders, does she live?\u00a0 Mexico perhaps, or Haiti?<\/p>\n
Julia’s own Dear Husband worked for more than 50 years, paying 15% of his income to Social Security taxes for most of that time, in addition to federal and state income taxes.\u00a0 Julia herself worked part time and temporary jobs while being a full time mother and homemaker.\u00a0 They began to hear in the 1970’s that Social Security Benefits would not be available to them, but were barely able to fund any retirement accounts until the most recent few years.\u00a0\u00a0 Without a pension, they would not be able to own a house, or to go abroad to find work in China.<\/p>\n
Julia notes that both she and her husband graduated from college, husband with advanced degree, without any loans at all.\u00a0 However, their children are saddled with years of debt from their advanced degrees.\u00a0 The cost of schooling has risen out of all proportion to the rest of the economy.\u00a0 Is it because the federal student loan program increased the prices that could be charged?<\/p>\n
Julia has had no health insurance since her Dear Husband retired.\u00a0 His employer could not afford to continue the insurance plan, as it had for an earlier generation.\u00a0 Is it because the insurance business has made the cost of medical care higher?\u00a0 Julia does take one regular medication, and has noted, after all the years of paying the “copay” for it, that it is actually cheaper without insurance than it was with the “copay.” \u00a0 When she goes to the doctor for the annual exam, Julia pays the clinic!<\/p>\n
How long does Mr. Obama think his “Julia” will live?\u00a0 When she is 90, will she still be “comfortable” on her social security payment?\u00a0 Will she be able to have the medicine she needs at that time? Will she be regarded as no longer important?\u00a0 Will her son support her, or will he have been killed in some far off war?\u00a0 These questions are conveniently left unanswered.<\/p>\n
The real Julia regrets that her name, a name with a long and distinguished history, is degraded by this campaign cartoon. But she regrets even more that her own beloved native land is deceived by the idea that people cannot stand up for themselves and be personally responsible. She further regrets that people have so ignored their spiritual lives, that they think so fragile an institution as a human government can provide for their needs throughout their lives. Dear Readers, Wake up!\u00a0 Stand up! Speak up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Julia is distressed by\u00a0 the name of Mr. Obama’s campaign cartoon figure.\u00a0 Mr. O’s “Julia” is faceless, shameless, and spineless. Why did Mr. O’s “Julia” take seven years to graduate from college, even though she had Pell grants and loans to cover the exorbitant cost of tuition?\u00a0 She “chose” to have a child, but apparently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/talkingwithjulia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}