Dirt: I am a snob

* This is a post that has been sitting in my edit box for months and I have been adding to it as thoughts occur to me. It's a little preachy. Be warned.*

I am a snob. There I said it. 

I am. People get my nerves. 

Before you get all crazy, let me explain.

I mean, people who pass the buck on their own personal responsibility.

That is not saying that I think I am perfect, far from it actually.

I am deeply flawed, but I am a work in progress.

I am a grass roots kind of girl. 

I think a lot of what is wrong with our country can be solved at home. Everyone who has a brain and a computer can figure most of this stuff out.  

Eating less chemicals, spanking our kids, suffering consequences
and putting our money where our mouth is.

Boom! Solved all our problems.

Eating is a big thing for me. I had an obese mother and I swore early in my life that I would never be fat. I have battled staying fit and I have had to lose a significant amount of weight (by my standards) three times (baby, baby, marathon).  I have spent a lot of time reading and learning about what makes us unhealthy via what we eat. Basically, I have educated myself.  I have read studies on eating chemicals and what they do to our brains and our bodies.


 

Based on that, I have made sure my family eats healthy foods that are either local, organic or hormone free as much as possible. We rarely eat fast food, soda is an occasional treat and my kids have never had a Twinkie. Ever.

I know it is not popular to spank. Nor is it popular to tell your kids no.
I do both.
 I have to say the kids that I liked being around when they were little and who I like as now teenagers, got spanked or some sort of very consistent discipline. They are also the kids who do well in school, have lots of friends and don't cause drama in their families or school lives. Correlation? You bet. There are rules, if you break them, there are consequences. That is what makes a society work. This insanity of every kid gets a trophy past the age of 6 and " we don't say NO" is what is causing  the problems in schools today. Respect for yourself, others and rules are a big part of growing up. Fun is important, but learning to be a part of society is  an absolute you must learn.

Consequences are a very real thing.
 They are both good and bad.  Look at the political mess we are facing and the sequester we are going to have. We literally ran out of money years ago, and finally  it is catching up with us. Whose fault is it? OURS, the American people. We want things right now and elect officials who promise to deliver. We have sent our jobs away because we want cheaper products. We have allowed ourselves to spend money fighting two wars, one of which we had no business fighting. We have funded things that line the pockets of companies and CEOs, but deliver little benefit to our countries future. Guess what, when you do the same things over and over, you get the same results.
Same goes for families. Practicing taking responsibility for our actions is a tough action for us all. However, owning our mistakes and learning from them allows us to grow up and make changes to make our lives better.

via

Investing in what we believe in.
Seems easy, right? Americans believe in freedom of speech, service to others (we are one of the largest representatives of volunteers in the world), and conquering new challenges.
Well, our new challenges are academic. We are quickly becoming the most undereducated developed country in the world. In other words, everyone is getting smarter than us. We have great freedoms, but we haven't invested in the responsibility that go along with them. We are the grasshoppers of the world. Dancing and living for the party of The Jersey Shore, but winter is coming. Jobs are leaving and going to India, jobs which require the education we lack. Wonder why you talk to an Indian when you call about your cell phone?


It's a grim view I have. Insurance is insanely high, partly due to unregulated practices and partly due to what it costs to keep someone who is 30  in lifestyle drugs for the next 40 years. We are killing our brains with the cheap chemical laden food we consume and are under educated to start with.
Are we waiting for the government to regulate the freedom to choose what is healthy for us to consume? Or can we take responsibility for our lives, demanding to be competitive with the rest of the developed world.

What is your choice?
We have a voice and a responsibility.