Life in the Middle Lane

I was listening to the radio this morning, and apparently today August 26, 1920 was the date in history on which women got the right to vote. Yay for voting!!!! (you should try it) The radio talk show host talked for a bit about the numbers of women who vote, and according to them, women vote more than men do. Then they started talking about the very small number of black women who run and are elected to office. As they were talking, I kept thinking that, in my experience, the numbers of women, in general, who run for public office are very, very low, especially in relation to the large numbers in which women vote.

I, at 24 and 25 have been asked by my county political party to attend candidate trainings so that I can go ahead and be in the pipeline to run in the future. I know numerous other women in North Carolina who have been asked to run for higher office; be it on a city or county level, or on a state or national level. And I know that these women refuse time and time again.  And often, when an older women wants to retire from office, there aren’t any qualified women to take her place, and that’s sad.

Sometimes women refuse to run for monetary reasons, they work and can’t afford to quit or they can’t afford childcare, or sometimes they simply can’t afford the campaign. Sometimes potential female candidates site the stress of the campaign trail, or the ugliness of campaigning. Sometimes, potential candidates don’t want to put their life under the public’s microscope.

However, the excuse that I have heard most often for why women don’t run for office is that they don’t want to take the time away from their families.  And every time I hear that, I roll my eyes and shake my head.  I HATE this excuse.  How often do men worry about being away from their families when working or bettering themselves?  I’d bet that generally men don’t worry very much about being away from their families. Men understand that the better they are, the better their families are.  And I get frustrated that women continue to put themselves in the back seat and allow men to take the drivers seat in politics and determine all of our destinies.

My sister Michaele is really the smartest person I know, and I know some really smart people. She’s going to college this fall and I’m so excited and really really sad.  Who’s going to play with me while she’s at college?!?!?

This chick applied to some of the most prestigious historically black universities and colleges in the country and purposefully stuck her nose up at and refused to apply to a couple of really good North Carolina “white” schools and my alma mater because as she said matter of factly, “she had no intention of going.” LOL! I know, ballsy, right?

She applied to Spelman College (accepted), Hampton University (accepted), Howard University (accepted), unfortunately financial aid for an out-of-state student at a private university is hard to come by. For some reason, being single mother of four, working as a school bus driver and teacher (where you get paid crap), does not qualify a student for the necessary loans, grants, etc to attend anything other than a public university. And even with a 4.0+ GPA, a host of clubs, service ventures, and other smart kid honors.

Well, Michaele got some local scholarships from different organizations and societies (totaling a substantial amount of money) but she still didn’t get enough to cover the cost of tuition for the first year, and FAFSA said that my mom and sister (yes, my 18 year old sister) should be able to contribute roughly $1500 and 1000 respectively.

Michaele works as a pharmacy tech at our local Kerr Drug, but she makes enough for gas, her phone, and the occasional shopping trip. Not enough to quickly come up with a G, and the same with my mom, I mean WTF?  Seriously, are they to go out back to the money tree in the back yard and shake something down.

So my mom and I have been worrying ourselves silly about how in the world were we going to pay for this girl to go to college. I mean, to me, the best case scenario was that we would get her through this first year by hook or crook, and she would then transfer to one of those in-state schools that she had previously stuck her nose up at.

Silly me for worrying. While my mom and I would sit for hours and think of ways to pay for Michaele’s schooling, this chick would go to the mall with her friends. She had the right idea and some outstanding faith, man.

This past Tuesday I got a call from Miss Thang and she reads me this letter from this organization that I’ve never heard of. They are basically paying for her entire undergraduate education!  In return she gets to do community service (which she would have done anyway), network with other students, live in the honors dorm, have summer employment opportunities, national & international travel opportunities, conferences, etc!

I am so excited and she is even more excited!  To her, this opportunity is a way to pay for school, but it is also a way to meet students, network with potential employers, differentiate herself on campus and leave her mark on the community (in her own words).  How cool is that!

Yay for me not to have to be a stripper to send my little sister to college!!!!!!