I'm fired up!!

It's time. I tried putting it off as long as I could, but I have to do a political post.
It was only just a few years ago when it started. I would read a story in the newspaper, run across an article on the web, or see something scroll across CNN, that would leap out and make me angry. It happened every once in awhile and I would debate about it with my friends and then the news would taper off on reporting about it and life would continue the same as it always had been. Nothing affected my life. My life didn't change because someone was voting against gay marriage. My rights were still intact if someone voted down abortion rights in another state. Did it upset me? Of course. But did it affect my life personally? No. Things went on the same, nothing really changed. That has all changed. The stories that are in the paper now are affecting me personally. The things that are going on in the rest of the country are affecting me personally. My life is being affected and I'm fired up. I am itching to get involved, to make people realize that the things they are doing are affecting people like me.
I used to work for our local electric utility. I was a non union employee, but all our journeyman were union and I didn't understand unions at all. All I knew was that my parents didn't like them. They had told me to refuse to join a union if I was ever asked to by my employer because they were bad for business. I let it go in one ear and out the other because frankly, I didn't care at the time. I remember our first annual meeting where we held an election for the utility's board seats. My fellow employees were ecstatic about certain people being elected because they were "pro union". I didn't really understand what that was about because in my mind I thought, "Who wouldn't be on the employee's side of the company that you represent?". That election and the little knowledge I gained about being "pro union" and "anti union" was my first real dose of "some people suck". I still don't really understand why people don't appreciate workers, but I have a better understanding of the "suck" syndrome.
After I left that company, I moved on and became a public employee for our local government. I accepted to join the union and honestly, didn't really think about it after I signed my initial employment forms. The union was like a huge umbrella, like the atmosphere. You don't notice it from day to day unless there's a problem, like the hole in the ozone. But even then, after the media stories trail off, you forget about the problem and move about your life. I had been at my job for about a year when I was approached to be our department's union representative. They tricked me into it by praising me and saying they wanted "new, young blood" and I got a trip away from home for training. They knew how to work me and got me involved. From that day forward, I have been getting increasingly more involved and the more involved and informed I get, the more I want to fight. I get so angry and fed up with the blatant lies, misrepresentation of facts, and straight up stupidity that is out there.
Lately there has been talk about cutting our staff at my job. There has been rumors that with the horrible economy, workers will need to go. It's sad because I'm young, with a career ahead of me. I wanted this to be my home, my life career. I didn't want to work anywhere else. But the anxiety I felt for the last two months, the constant worry and stress that has been eating away at me, it doesn't make me want to stay. I felt more security in my job in the private sector, AND I made more money.
That's another lie that I just need to straighten out here for anyone who knows me and understands what I'm talking about. The news stories are all talking about how public employees make loads of money, how we are overpaid. To the people who say that, I want you to come live my life for a month. Come see how I struggle to be a single mother with two young kids on my salary. I went to school, I have an education and job experience, yet I make less at my job than friends of mine who haven't gone to college. I barely get by, at times having to work a second job to be able to pay the necessities. By the federal and state government's standards, I am considered "low income". I qualify for state aid, low income housing, WIC, and many other government programs, some of which I wouldn't be able to survive without. Even with my "cadillac plan" health insurance, I can't even afford to go to the doctor because of the deductible.
I am by no means knowledgeable about every issue that comes up, and I don't claim to be. What I do know are the things that are affecting me and HOW they affect me. I know my personal experiences and decisions and what they have led to. I don't understand how anyone could ever think that taking away someone's livelihood could ever be considered a good thing. Or better yet, taking away someone's rights.
The fact that my rights, my job, my health care could all disappear in a matter of seconds scares me enough to make me want to take a stand. From this point forward, I will stand for what I believe is right (and be loud as hell about it), even if I'm left standing alone.