NEVER FORGET TO SPOIL YOUR KIDS

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

NEVER FORGET TO SPOIL YOUR KIDS

One of the greatest joys in life is spoiling our kids. Many people consider that a bad thing, but it’s just the opposite as long as it's done properly. Spoiling our children provides them with a sense of self-esteem that will assist them throughout their journey in life. As parents, we are the ones who define our children, and we’re the ones who tell them who they are, and how important they are as individuals. If we fail do that as parents, they’ll be seeking that validation from strangers throughout their entire lives.

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When we let our children know how much they're loved it gives them a sense of self-esteem and a knowledge of their importance that will stay with them throughout their lives. It also helps you to bond as parent and child. As a result, you’ll always be a better friend to your children than the people on the street who can become a negative influence in their lives.

KAI, MOKE, AND TAY

But while lavishing your children with the knowledge of how special they are, it’s also important to teach them to have a sense of responsibility, and to respect the importance of others, because as we’re learning in the current political environment, the level of respect, or lack thereof, in which we treat others, is merely a reflection of how we view ourselves. So regardless to how much of a façade we put on, if we’re disrespectful of others, it demonstrates that we lack respect for ourselves.

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And finally, we must teach our children to be independent thinkers, to have confidence in their own ability to think, and to develop a love and a yearning for the pursuit of knowledge. If you do those things, you'll raise your children to be steppers that you'll can be proud of, and you’ll also be doing your part to contribute to the excellence of the Black community.

MILES AND TAYLOR

So spoiling our children is one of the most important things we do as a parent, and it's also, one of the great joys in life. At this point in my life, I think about my “babies” all the time, and I’d do anything to be able to relive the experience of raising them all over again. So don’t make parenting a hobby. Get into it and enjoy it while you can, because before you know it, they’ll be your peer.

DADDY’S BABY BOY
ERIC L. WATTREE, JR

"DADDY, MOMMIE SAID YOU BEAT UP THE BOGEYMAN.

DID YOU REALLY BEAT HIM UP?"
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"YEAH, TWICE. THAT'S WHY HE'S SCARED TO COME

IN OUR HOUSE."

HOWLING WINDS
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As I watched my son, dapper as they come, walk down our walkway and into manhood,

what I remember most was the howling winds. I'd seen such winds before, but never like this - my old foe was pulling up trees by the roots,

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So I watched, but I watched alone.

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As the winds raged on and the mighty palms bowed, a single leaf from our Winter-bare ficus tree

held tough against the ferocious storm. It fought valiantly against the angry gale, as though hanging tough Just to witness the changing of the guard,

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So I stood, but I stood alone.

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Like that solitary leaf, all my life I've fought the ferocious winds, and now they’ve returned, this mighty foe, poised to seize the hopes and dreams of my only son,

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So I cringed, but I cringed alone.

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Then, posterity glanced back, squared its shoulders, and beat back hopelessness as it

trudged through fields of ivy. Then it spread its wings and rode those howling winds

over yonder mountaintop,

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So I wept, but I wept with a crowd . . .

AZUSA, Calif. – In a tense, high stakes, pressure situation, where only two options exist and just one that is favorable, there is no man better the moment and no one better to protect your interests than Eric  Wattree.  And that's not just in sports but in real life too.

Wattree, the burly 6-foot-6 former college basketball standout, is cool, calm, and collected.  He always has been and probably always will be.  It's just the way he is.

Thus, when he takes the stage Oct. 26 for induction into Azusa Pacific's Athletics Hall of Fame, the former DEA agent and Air Force officer will do so with little fanfare or personal reaction.  It's the Wattree way … cool at all times.

Bill Odell, an APU Hall of Famer himself after a 16-year coaching career for the Cougars, knows firsthand how composed Wattree can be.  He handed Wattree nearly every must-come-through situation during Eric's 57-game at Azusa Pacific, and Wattree delivered repeatedly.

"Eric was one of the most respected players I ever coached," said Odell who served as a head coach for 36 years on the college and high school levels.  "He was a humble, quiet leader who led with his work ethic and personal demand for excellence."

A former standout at nearby Northview High School in Covina, Calif., Wattree played for former Odell pupil Ron Rice before transferring to Fremont High in Los Angeles.  He opened his college career at the University of Wyoming, playing two years for the Cowboys before Rice alerted Odell that Eric was returning home to Southern California.  In the summer of 1994, he transferred to Azusa Pacific. Wattree's demand for excellence led him to averaging 13.9 points and 8.6 rebounds during his two seasons at Azusa Pacific, leading the Cougars to back-to-back Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) championships and a pair of NAIA Tournament appearances.  As a 1996 senior, he averaged 15.4 points and 7.7 rebounds while shooting at an impressive .634 (201-for-317) clip from the floor.  Justifiably, he was named the GSAC Player of the Year.

The Cougars entered the final week of Wattree's 1996 senior season with just a one-game lead in the GSAC race over rival Westmont College.  Wins were a must for Azusa Pacific, and adding to the tension of the situation was the fact that the Cougars opened that final week with a visit to Westmont in Santa Barbara.  The Warriors needed the win to pull even with APU with one game left.  The Cougars, on the other hand, needed the victory to put away the pesky Warriors and collect yet another conference title. 

In a raucous Murchison Gym, with the score tied at 64-64 and less than 30 seconds to play and the ball in the hands of the Cougars, Odell called a timeout, and designed a play to go to Tim Sebek for the final shot.  However, the Warriors smothered Sebek, and his attempt at a game-winning shot was off the mark, wide right.  Wattree saw the trajectory of the shot and realizing it was not going in, charged the hoop, jumped up, gathered the air ball, and laid it back in for the game winner with just 2 seconds to play.

"A Westmont player turned to me and said 'you think the game is over?' Wattree recalled, "and I answered, 'it's definitely over!'"

Protecting teammates in 1996 was just the beginning of a career of security.  Following graduation from Azusa Pacific in May of that year, Wattree entered the Air Force where he served for ten years, most notably as a certified Phoenix Raven Anti-Terrorism Specialist.  He was tasked with ensuring the safety of government officials and high-ranking military personnel while providing support on highly classified special operation missions in Afghanistan and other places throughout the world.

While still with the Air Force, he joined the Drug Enforcement Administration out of the Seattle area, working on complex conspiracy and international investigations.  He stayed with the DEA for 15 years until last year, when he accepted a new position as senior investigator and security specialist with the Arizona Department of Economic Security.

"I am so proud of Eric and how he has served our country with honor and protected some of our most important people." Said Odell.  "He has been in some extremely dangerous situations, and just as he had proven to us on the basketball court, he was trustworthy in all situations.  Simply put, he is unflappable."

Wattree's Cougar career will be enshrined forever at Azusa Pacific when he joins nine other former Cougar athletes for induction into the Azusa Pacific Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 10 a.m. in the Felix Event Center  

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23 April 2002

MEMORANDUM FOR OFFICER TRAINING SCHOOL SELECTION COMMITTEE

FROM: 92 SFS/SFO
2 E. ARNOLD STREET
FAIRCHILD AFB, WA 99011

SUBJECT: Recommendation for Staff Sergeant Eric L. Wattree

1. I wholeheartedly concur with Staff Sergeant Wattree’s request to attend Officer Training School. He represents the enlisted ranks with the highest standard and will bring that dedication and professionalism to the officer corps.

2. Eric continues to lead a stellar military career; his enlisted performance reports speak for themselves. His leadership and experience, especially in contingency environments, remains a vital asset to our unit and wing. As one of my primary Phoenix Raven team leaders, he’s propelled to the forefront of all major deployments throughout the world. He’s repeatedly secured aircraft and crews, supporting a wide variety of missions, in the most austere and terrorist-ridden environments where security is severely inadequate. The diversity of these missions never limited SSgt Wattree’s capacity to adapt to each situation. For this reason, Eric was selected as our 2000 Outstanding Phoenix Raven Member of the Year and the 2001 Air Force Reserve Component Airman of the Year for the 92d Security Forces Squadron.

3. Whether operating under peacetime or contingency operations, Eric easily assumes control and tackles every situation with meticulous tenacity, a quality highly desired in our Air Force officers. Requested by name, Sergeant Wattree, provided security for presidential Banner missions throughout Greece, Peru and Viet Nam. While deployed to Afghanistan, he flew numerous combat missions in our nation’s pursuit to eradicate terrorism through Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Additionally, he provided round-the-clock force protection for aircraft in other high-threat environments including Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Oman.

4. Sergeant Wattree motivated his personnel during the worst conditions and raised the level of esprit de corps to integrate personnel from other Air Force specialties into a cohesive team. His leadership, integrity and devotion to our Air Force play an integral part in our future leadership. Eric has what it takes to become a commissioned officer and earns my full support to attend Officer Training School.

FRANK HELLSTERN, JR., Captain, USAF
Operations Officer

AND THE BEAT GOES ON WITH YOUR SONS

ELIJAH WATTREE

SAILOR OF THE QUARTER

UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

ERIC L. WATTREE III

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I recently graduated from Oklahoma City University with a BBA - Economics (Minor in Marketing).

While at OCU I obtained many certifications, an example being the Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) Certification. I've also been a member of the Investment Club where we managed a portfolio of actual securities initially worth $100,000 - profits going towards OCU scholarships. Throughout my 4 years, my ability to establish and maintain relationships has been my biggest asset. Being able to think critically, analyze data and relay information effectively have been critical to my success.

I also had the pleasure of being a 4-year student-athlete, spending two years as Team Captain. As a captain, the importance of taking necessary sacrifices for overall team success as well as effective time management as it relates to workload efficiencies are vital. I served 4 years as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) in which we created a vehicle for student-athlete representation, organized community service efforts and promoted a positive student-athlete image on campus. I was selected on numerous occasions to speak publicly at various high schools, as well as at OCU's Sports Spectacular, the end-of-year sports banquet.

I love to learn, build relationships and WIN!

Eric L. Wattree III

THE QUEEN

YOU'VE DONE WELL, BABY BOY.

YOU, KAI, AND MY GRANDBABIES HAVE BROUGHT THIS 

OLE HOOD RAT GREAT PRIDE

Eric L. Wattree, Sr.

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

 

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Russell Simmons/Don Lemon:The African American Black Man - The New Neanderthal? (Reprise)

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
 

Russell Simmons/Don Lemon: The African American Black Man - The New Neanderthal?

(Reprise)

  

I was in Los Angeles on the corner of Vernon and Central the other day, just after school let out. If it hadn't been for the fact that I grew up in that area and recognized my surroundings, I would have thought I was in Mexico. What use to be an almost exclusively Black community was now filled with happy, playful - and mannerly - Hispanic children coming home from school, and as I looked around, I saw thriving Latino businesses being patronized by poor, but thriving Latino patrons. I was intrigued, so I decided to take a detour through the neighborhood.

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Now, I don't know whether the area is primarily Mexican-American, or filled with illegal immigrants, but what was clear was that the area was changing. There was a new vitality there. I saw fathers and teenage boys in the yards, both at home and enjoying the love of family rather than hanging out in the street. I saw a neighborhood free of young men glaring at me, or waving me over as I drove by. The neighborhood was no longer threatening. It was a neighborhood that now said family, instead of gangster. It was a neighborhood that was clearly trying to make a comeback.

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It felt good to see my old stomping grounds rejuvenating itself, but I also felt a twinge of both guilt and envy. I felt guilt because my own teenage antics contributed greatly to dragging this very neighborhood down to its previous state, and envy that what comes so easily to most cultures seems to be so elusive to my own. I also felt more than a tinge of fear, because to anyone who's familiar with Charles Darwin's theory on natural selection, it's clear that the Black man is swirling around the event horizon of a massive black hole. If we don't do something to get our young people's attention real soon, at best, the Black man is going to become irrelevant, or at worst, the new Neanderthal.
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Far too often when well-meaning Black people suggest that we need to address this issue, they’re accused of "blaming the victim." They’re also often accused of aligning themselves with conservative critics of the Black community. That misses the entire point. No one is blaming anyone, and the primary reason that conservative critics are so quick to use this issue to denigrate the Black community is because it’s such a glaring area of dysfunction in our culture. So rather than ignore a dysfunction because our enemies are using it against us, that should give us MORE incentive to address the issue.
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So both of these arguments are nothing more than lame attempts to declare the cancer that’s growing on our culture a harmless mole. That may help to bring us comfort in the short run, but by continuing to ignore the truth, the cancer is going to metastasize, and eventually it’s going to kill us.

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According to Darwin's theory of evolution, which at this point is considered more fact than theory to most scientists, nature is in a constant process of selecting which groups or species will survive to perpetuate itself, and which will die out. The concept is called natural selection, or popularly known as the survival of the fittest. In order to insure that only the best, most adaptive, and strongest life forms populate the Earth, nature eliminates the weak to insure they won't procreate and contaminate the Earth with their weak offspring.

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The process of elimination starts even before an individual is born. Every individual starts out with as many as 40 million potential brothers and sisters, all scurrying towards their mother's egg. But most die off before they reach the mother's egg. Therefore, just the fact that you were born means that you're not just one in a million—you're one in 40 million. You were the strongest and most viable of over 40 million others.

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And nature takes the survival of the fittest very seriously. Anyone who has ever watched a dog or a cat give birth to their young have probably seen first hand how brutally serious nature can be in this regard. If you haven't, just ask yourself, when was the last time you saw a puppy born with a birth defect. If you have, it's very rare, because if an animal is born defective in any way, the mother will kill it on the spot—and in many cases eat it. Nature doesn't provide animals with a welfare office, so they know by instinct that they, and their young, must to be able to hold their own weight in this world, or die.

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But a life form doesn't have to have a physical defect for nature to weed it out. Nature will also weed out things that are maladaptive or have an inability to adapt to its environment - like many of us, for example. God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think. If a bird refuses to fly, it cannot survive. If a fish refuses to swim, it will not survive. The very same rule applies to man. If a man refuses to think, he will not survive - and that has become a serious problem in the Black community. Many of our young Black men simply refuse to think.

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It's as though we're on a mission to ensure our own extinction. While the men of other cultures seem to have no problem in stepping up to the plate to solidify the family unit and ensure their children get a running start in life, we're abandoning our children, and referring to the very womb of our culture as "bitches and whoes"; and if we're not killing other Black men over drugs, we're killing ourselves with drugs - and then struttin' around braggin' about it! And even when we aren't killing ourselves, we're making dumb decisions that's causing us to have to spend years at a time locked up in jail like animals. Many of us have embraced a philosophy of manhood that enforces a moral obligation to be stupid. It's like, you're not a true Black man unless you take a pledge to remain ignorant.

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This is a sad state of affairs, because nature is already hard at work weeding the Black man out, and we're giving her all the help that she needs. Every time one gang member or drug dealer kills another, that's nature at work upgrading the gene pool. Every time someone dies of an overdose, nature's right there - "well, I don't have to worry about him fathering anymore weak minded people." And when you go to jail, that also takes your seed out of circulation.

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But the biggest impact is right around the corner. Look around you, Black man. While you're acting a fool nature is also selecting traits in Black women that's allowing them to do without you. Notice that while you're out there saggin' and getting dumber and dumber, Black women are becoming better educated, and getting good jobs. That's right, brother - nature is rendering you irrelevant. You are no longer a suitable mate, so nature is preparing the Black female to do without you - and it's happening right before your eyes.

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So if you're a young brother, you can just standby. That pretty young lady of yours may think your droopy pants are cool now, but as she becomes better educated and gets that good job that you're too maladjusted to be considered for, she's going to begin to see you for what you really are, a looser—and a broke one at that. She's going to realize you're not a suitable mate. And she's going to recognize that saggin' (spell it backwards) doesn't make you a man. In fact, it makes you an embarrassment in the world she wants to move into - and it's not because she's getting uppity, it's because it's true. She wants to live, and she wants her children to live and prosper, but she can't do that with you, because you're a dying breed. As a direct result, their very survival is going to require Black women to go outside of the Black race to find suitable mates.

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That's right - that beautiful young sister that you love so much is going to have to go out and find her a real man, one who's capable of survival in the real world. Then once that starts to happen, what was once a proud Black race is going to become less and less Black with every generation that passes, until the Black man, at least, as we know him, will only exist as pictures on the wall of natural history museums–a relic of the past.

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I can hear the anthropologists discussing us now - in the past tense, of course. They'll probably give us a scientific name like "Africantus Americana Fool". They'll be in the museum looking up at some brother that they found dead of a drug overdose in the snow and then had stuffed. Then the anthropologist will say to a class of visiting students, "You know, it's really amazing when you think about it. They had the intellectual potential to thrive, but they just didn't have any common sense. The major downfall of 'Homeboy' (a nickname they assigned to our species) was that he lacked a sense of community, and had less than rudimentary coping skills. But there's one thing you've got to give him - he was the coolest thing on the planet, while he was around. He didn't have much common sense, but the brother could sho'nuff sag."

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The upshot will be, we'll finally get the attention that we so passionately craved. But the downside is, it'll be on the History Channel.

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I Bear Witness
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I sit, I watch,
and I grow ever more obsolete
as I bear witness.

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I bear witness

to a once vibrant people greedily gulping down society’s hemlock. Even as they claim to be "keeping it real," they continue to maim, kill, and despise their own in hot pursuit of the prime directive with the passion of a sheetless Klan.
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I bear witness
to Black fists in the air in false solidarity promoted by self-serving poverty pimps as the world looks on and giggle at crooked fingers pointed elsewhere.
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I bear witness
to the superficial attempt to ban the “N-word” while the new "un-niggas" stand around watching children killing children and fathers drugging sons, as they celebrate, lionize, and enrich those who denigrate the very womb of their culture with impunity.
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I bear witness
to a generation of lost knowledge, cut off from its roots by Ronnie’s “Just say no” generation of crack, greed, death, and political corruption; A generation where the new N-word is pronounced “Responsibility” and the keepers of the flame completely ignore the destructive power of bitch, slut, whore, and tramp.
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I bear witness
to the reckless disregard of the words uneducated, irresponsible, and classless. Should we not ban these words as well, or should we ban banning words altogether as we celebrate their meaning?
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Yes, I do bear witness.
I bear witness to a new world -
a world where gross ignorance comes disguised as enlightenment, and funky sneakers look down with disdain upon the sweet smell of Florsheim; a world where saggin’ pants and gaudy glitter enable country bumpkins to masquerade as elegant, and the exquisite surrender of eloquence is the very essence of what it means to be hip.
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Where's Langston? Where's Baldwin? Where's Oscar Brown, Jr.?
We need you stormin' this beach, because . . .
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I now bear witness
to a world where motherhood stands alone, to be “dope” renders a smile, and posterity is forced to embrace the wind for paternal sustenance; A world where the walking dead strut about rapping the wisdom of idiocy, and we praise the illiteracy of vulgar nursery rhymes as profound; a world where the mother of salvation's final gasp is compared to the pigmentation of brown paper bags.
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Malcolm, Martin, where are you?
I once stood with a crowd.

Now seemingly alone,

I'm forced to bear witness -
horrific witness . . .
to the imminent demise of our people,
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And my heart bleeds.

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The Tail Wagging The Dog
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The focus of this article is a critique of the Black popular culture and the negative impact that it's having on Black youth - and through extension, the Black community as a whole - and not the vast majority of Black people who are fully functional and well adjusted. The reason we decided to emphasize the dysfunctional is, due to the focus of the media, the tail is wagging the dog. A 15% minority of the Black culture is dictating the trajectory of the remaining 85%  of the Black majority. So the tact taken here is designed to hold a mirror up to the more responsible segment of the Black community and wake them up to what we're allowing to happen to our culture. We would be remiss, however, if we didn't present at least a glimpse of the Black community that you don’t generally see in the media.

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FACTS THAT THE MEDIA DON'T TELL YOU

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The vast majority of Black people in this country are middle class or above. African Americans are the second largest consumer group in America with a combined buying power of over $892 billion currently and likely over $1.1 trillion by 2012. In 2002 African American owned businesses accounted for 1.2 million of the US's 23 million businesses, and 47% of Africans Americans own their own homes. - U.S. Census Bureau

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So again, the bottom line is, the media focuses on the 15% of Black people who are struggling, unemployed, and/or dysfunctional. But they never discuss the 85% who are gainfully employed, never go to jail, don't use drugs, and are living the American dream just like any other group of middle-class Americans:

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RELATED CONTENT

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Why I Love Being Black

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-i-love-being-black.html

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A FATHER'S PRIDE
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/01/fathers-pride.html
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A Sensible Response to White Supremacy
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-sensible-response-to-white-supremacy.html

 

 Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Motherhood: The Most Valuable Profession in Our Society

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Motherhood: The Most Valuable Profession in Our Society

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The primary reason that our society is falling apart is because we’ve devalued the most important profession in our society - motherhood. A stay-at-home mother and housewife is a sociologist, a psychologist, a medic, a financial planner, a teacher, an interior decorator, a chef, a chauffeur, an escort, and a lover, all balled up into one sweet bundle. Yet, society treats them like they’re of little or no value. As a result, women flooded into the job market, and society’s children have been deprived of the most important socialization experience of their lives. This, in turn, has led to crime, rampant drug abuse, the breakdown of our educational and political system, and the general disruption of our society, because the American family is not only the foundation upon which everything else in our society is built, but it is the primary reason for building a society in the first place. 
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Congress has clearly demonstrating that we can do without them in a pinch - they haven’t done a thing in years - but we simply cannot survive without a strong and viable American family. That should make motherhood, and the American housewife, the most lauded and protected profession in America.
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Yet, during the fifties and sixties, we began to chip away at this important institution. Due to our chauvinistic attitude towards women, many mothers and housewives tore off their aprons and began to demand equality with men. They demanded that they too be afforded the opportunity to go into the more "prestigious professions" of medicine, law, science, and business, that, until that time, had been considered the all but exclusive bastion of men.
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That created a severe problem for the nation, because, in terms of their relative value to society, women were already MORE than equal to men, because these mothers and housewives were responsible for the very lifeblood of society - our future. These women were charged with a responsibility that was more important to our society than any doctor, any supreme court judge, or any CEO. Thus, our narrow-minded insistence on relegating motherhood to second-class status in our society is directly responsible for, literally, throwing our babies - and our future - out with the bath water.
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We’re currently paying a severe price for our bigoted attitude towards women - as we will eventually pay for all areas of institutional bigotry - because the most obvious solution to some of our most tenacious problems - our dysfunctional educational system, the breakdown of the family unit, and the proper socialization of our children - is for a large number of women to temporarily leave the job market, return to the home, and reassume the essential function of nurturing and guiding society’s future - at least until their children reach an age where they are relatively self-sufficient. But that’s not going to be easy. In fact, I expect to be attacked by some for even suggesting it, because our society has made the word "housewife" - again, the most important profession in our country - a bad word. To many women it’s going to be perceived as the equivalent of asking Black people to return to slavery for the best interest of the country.
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So in order to convince women to return to the home en masse, society is going to have to bestow upon motherhood the kind of stature, prestige, and compensation that’s commensurate with their value to society - and we owe them that, because the fact is, the business community has essentially been working women for free for the past fifty years now.
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Prior to women coming into the workforce in large numbers, a family of five could be supported on one income. But after women came into the workforce, the cost of living began to gradually rise until it consumed the woman’s entire income. So now whether or not a woman decides to enter the workforce is no longer a family option. The woman MUST work just to maintain a standard of living that could previously be sustained by her husband’s income alone.
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So while business has indeed accommodated a woman’s ability to enter the workforce, it’s the business community itself that derives all of the benefits, not the woman and her family. The business community benefits in many ways from the toil of working women. First, working women have enabled business to nearly double the cost of everything in our economy; secondly, business is obtaining what is essentially free labor from women; and finally, it’s using that free labor to either layoff or lower the wages of the working woman’s husband. And where is all of that extra money going? It’s going into the pockets of grossly overpaid CEOs and executives, even as our children suffer, and society is rendered dysfunctional by a destabilized family structure.
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So we’ve got to turn this trend around, both through social pressure, and legislation. First, mothers and housewives have to be made equal partners with their husbands. If a woman defers her career or education to raise the family’s children while the husband pursues a medical degree, that medical degree, and all of the future income derived therefrom, should be considered community property, and half hers - for life.  After all, by deferring her own education to raise the family, she invested heavily in her husband's education.  And the reverse should also be true for stay-at-home dads.
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In addition, the same principle should apply for employment. When a company hires an employee, it should be understood that they are hiring a partnership, so any and all compensation derived from that employment should be issued to both the husband, and the wife - and if one partner so chooses, the compensation should be divided between the two of them. That way, should the stay-at-home partner decide to further their education after the children become self-sufficient, they’ll have their own source of income to pursue that goal.
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In case of divorce, the partner who deferred his or her career to raise the children should continue to be compensated by the employer of the working partner until such time as the child-rearing parent has achieved financial parity with the working partner. If the child-rearing parent never achieves parity, the employer of the worker should pro rate the second partner’s compensation to make up the difference in income. But of course, there would be exceptions, like if the caretaking parent is proven to have been a liability, such as by being found guilty of being the primary cause of the destruction of the marriage, guilty of adultery or reckless and irresponsible behavior, or gross deception and manipulation.
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And finally, in order to get corporations to cooperate with these policies, the people are going to have to place pressure on congress to pass a "Worker’s Bill of Rights." And included in that legislation, there should be a provision that would require any company or corporation who wants to do business in the United States, to pay it’s employees a living wage, provide affordable healthcare, and maintain a given level of employment based on the amount of profit that it generate within our borders. thereafter, if the corporation decides to thumb its nose at such legislation and take its business elsewhere, that’ll open up the market to domestic entrepreneurs.
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But in order for such policies to be put into place, the American people are going to have to come to the conclusion that they’re tired of being manipulated by multinational corporations that have a vested interest in lowering the standard of living of the American middle class to conform to that of third-world countries. We’re also going to have to stop allowing bought-and-paid-for politicians to keep us divided. In that regard, a good rule of thumb will be to always remember that the bigger a politician’s war chess, the less likely he or she is to be working in the interest of the people. If we remember that, money in politics will become a liability rather than an asset.
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What I’m suggesting may seem far-fetched at this point, but so did the New Deal at one point in our history. So even if it seems far-fetched now, as the corporatists continue to drag American workers under the bus, I guarantee you, it won’t be long before we see the light - and that light will reveal that saving our women and children is the key to our survival, not protecting multinational corporations that’s sending their money to Dubai.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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HERE’S TO THE UNDERDOG

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

.

TO THE

HARD WORKING AND COURAGEOUS

MEN AND WOMEN OF LITTLE CLOUT

WHOSE COLLECTIVE EFFORTS BUILT

AND DEFINES THE CHARACTER  

OF THIS GREAT NATION

*

HERE’S TO THE UNDERDOG

.

Here's

to the magnificent underdog,

majestic--just look at that face;

who struggle each mile, yet, manages a smile,

while the powerful spits in his face.

.

Yes,

a toast!

To the illustrious underdog,

whose courage holds chaos at bay;

for the unshakable steel, which makes up his will,

to stand-up through yet one more day.

.

Let’s hear

a cheer!

For the tireless underdog.

His heart firmly girdered in place;

who finds just enough to survive when life's tough,

while the "powerful" stands in disgrace.
.

Let us

cherish

the heroic underdog,

who walks water routinely each day;

who braves lion Jaws and shun all applause,

then quietly goes on his way.

.

.

*

*

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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