I am a Democrat.

 I am a Democrat. I always have been a Democrat and most likely will always be a Democrat no matter what individual is running. That's right, you read it right. I will never vote for the person. It all started back when I was a teenager and asked my non-voting father what the difference was between the Democrats and Republicans. He answered quite simply, “Democrats are for the poor people and Republicans are for the rich.” Even though he didn't vote he considered himself a Democrat. Which is a shame but so true for lower income earners as he didn't think his vote counted. While this is possibly over simplistic it still rings true.

You see, I grew up in a trailer parked in a trailer park. My father was a simple butcher and my mother didn't work. Since we didn't have any government aid I do not consider my childhood as poor, but rather lower middle class. I am now right smack in the middle of middle class. I live comfortably but still if the economy sunk, so would I.

I have a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from UTEP. In that school of thought, the professors tried their very best to convince their students of Republican virtues. It all sounds great. People should take care of people. Corporations have an obligation to take care of their employees and should give to charitable organizations (not to mention the tax deduction) to make society stronger. Employees will spend thus building a stronger community and charities will take care of the needy. This way, government will be able to take care of the larger picture. Trouble with that picture is people are greedy and like to line their own pockets. In 2009 Dan Gerstein wrote in Forbes.com, “Big banks on the brink of collapse rewarding the folks who put the country on the brink of depression with $18 billion in bonuses. Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ) going a tone-deaf step further in buying a $50 million luxury jet.” Not to forget the AIG gave $218 million bonus payments after receiving $170 billion bailout. In the recent Al Smith dinner that Romney and Obama attended, Romney pokes fun at Obama indicating his time in office is limited, “Of course we’re down to the final months of the president’s term…As President Obama surveys the Waldorf banquet room, with everyone in white tie and finery, you have to wonder what he’s thinking. So little time, so much to redistribute.” I'd rather have a Robin Hood as a President than one whose wife wears $900 t-shirts.

That's why voter id is pushed by Republicans because poor people tend to be apathetic like my father. There is very little voter fraud. Any voter id laws are promoted by Republicans to make it difficult for the indigent to vote. The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University of Law draws the following conclusion (each point is further explained at http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/policy_brief_on_the_truth_about_voter_fraud/ )

* Fraud by individual voters is both irrational and extremely rare.
* Many vivid anecdotes of purported voter fraud have been proven false or do not demonstrate fraud.
* Voter fraud is often conflated with other forms of election misconduct.
* Raising the unsubstantiated specter of mass voter fraud suits a particular policy agenda.
* Claims of voter fraud should be carefully tested before they become the basis for action.

I recently dropped a former colleague and who I thought was a friend from Facebook because of her bashing of Obama. She was blaming him for the economic recession, her son-in-law's death in Afghanistan and other reasons. Though she is educated, her rantings were the opposite. She was basically voting for Romney, not for his campaign platform but to vote against Obama.

First off, Obama is not to blame for the recession. He also didn't start the bailouts. George W. Bush left office already having approved a federal bailout in of the American International Group for $85 billion September of 2008. This crisis is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. “It has become one of the rare things that binds the two men, the controversial automotive bailout that was begun by former President George W. Bush and completed by his successor, President Barrack Obama,” stated Paul A. Einstein of the Detroit Bureau in his February 12, 2012 article “Bush Would “Do it Again” on Auto Bailouts”. The $17.4 billion automotive bailout was made in December 2008. My point is the worst financial crisis is not going to turn around in just four years, yet the country overall is recovering. The bailouts were a necessary government move in order to avoid a second Great Depression.

I feel sorrow for the loss of my former colleague's son-in-law. I feel sorrow for the loss of any son or daughter lost in war—on either side. I think it is a shame that in this modern age we still have to resort to barbaric war tactics to settle disputes. But also, I think that a person should own up to personal responsibility. If a person joins a killing machine (Army, Navy, Marine Corp, Air Force) for whatever their personal reasons, s/he should understand that her/his possible death is part of that assignment. But lets also remember, we were in Afghanistan before Obama took office.

I feel that a person should have the right to affordable health care and not have to worry how his/her medical bills will get paid at the worst possible time: while they feel sick. A woman should have a right over her own body. A person should be able to choose who they love and marry, regardless of sex. It is no threat to me, I've made my choice, other people should be able to make their choices. I feel that a person should be able to eat, no matter what his/her income bracket. I feel everyone should feel that their vote counts. That's why I am a Democrat.

The Republican party is not what it used to be. If the Democratic party changes and leaves its current platform, then I will have to realign myself to a party that supports equality for all: poor, sex, religion, rights, healthcare for all, marital rights for all.

If you want to forget about your personal life, become a teacher.

Ever go to work and forget about the rest of your life?

That's what happens when I taught. I used to go in early just to get some quiet time to think and organize, because once that bell rang it was go, go, go until the end of the day. Checking in involved visiting different stations to pick up, collect, and check out. Sometimes I had to make a personal call during the day, you know, doctor's appointments or other stuff, but on my way home I would always discover that I forgot. If a teacher has a more traditional schedule, the bell rings, class is seated, roll is taken (that's where the money come from), pass out graded papers, review a previous lesson's ideas, a new lesson is taught, we practice the concept together as a whole, then give homework. Then the bell rings and it happens all over again. This is repeated over and over again until the end of the day. If you're lucky, you have a planning period to grade, personally analyze student's progress, and plan for the next lesson. Every minute of the day involved dealing with students' success, failure, behavior, planning for the next lesson, making personal notes of what lesson delivery was the best, grading papers, and the last five years involved putting up with increasing administrative blah-blah.

Sure, there are a few lazy teachers, but in reality, there are not many. Even the lazy teachers are not the same lazy quality you find in other jobs. There is just too much stimuli to let a person sit back for too long. Yet, 'accountability' treats teachers like they have been lazy and not doing their jobs. To address this idea, administrators are taking the precious little time away from teachers and giving busy work.

All bureaucracy sounds good on paper, but in reality always falls short of what the original intentions were. The district decided that teachers needed to collaborate more and forces 'common' planning. But it's not like we went to the planning meetings and were really able to plan together. NO! We went to the meeting where administrators would feed us the data and give us 'homework' to regurgitate the data back to them. Problem was, everyone, and I mean everyone, was so very busy, that even when the data was strained and drained back into the sewer from where it came, THEY didn't even have time to check to see if it were done properly and in the end everyone knew that it was all a futile effort to make us look busy and productive and the administrators shine.

The district that I retired from invented this INOVA. On paper, it really sounds good. The teacher is given analysis of all past students' test performance so we can analyze weak points and give individualized, personalized lessons and attention to all 180 students we see in a semester in a class of 30-35 students with varying degrees of behaviour etiquette. Now ask me in what manner was this information delivered? One year, it was delivered on a CD in Adobe Acrobat. The teacher had to do a search for the student's name (not student number) (do you know how many different Jose Martinez's there are in a single school in El Paso, TX?) then copy data onto a separate sheet and make teacher goals and comments about that particular student's ability. Last year, the data was printed out in a massive pile (imagine the paper waste and money). We were told to come to our 'forced' common planning meeting with a printed copy of our rosters. We then had to sit and sort through these piles for our students. Most teachers were very good students themselves. They loved the academia world and that is why they returned. They wanted to make a difference. They buy into this mumble jumble that administration cooks up and try to meet the deadlines and perform the Easter-egg hunt. The stress mounts up. Everyone complains but tries to do the fruitless task.

In reality, teachers know their students. Given class time, a few assignments, we know when the student is trying but having trouble, is going to give up, acting out to avoid the difficult, or just plain lazy. We see the handwriting skills, we see the spelling problems. We talk to the students, give encouragement, remind them of their potential, tell them that this is preparation for life beyond school, and these days, tell them that this prepares them for the state school accountability exams. In reality, a class of 30-35 students it is difficult to reach out to that student in a (depending on your school schedule) 55-minute everyday or every-other day for a 90-minute session.

If you do want to forget about your personal life, become a teacher.