The Blank Check: My Veteran's Day Thoughts On Single Mothers...

This Veterans Day I wanted to momentarily turn my attention away from our brothers and sisters who have served so honorably, to the Americans that we protect that get very little attention. So I spoke with one of these women that are so valuable to our society, economy, and culture. While speaking to her I realized that women like her are the unsung heroes of our future. The key word is future.

When we suit up to put on this uniform, we think about our mothers, fathers, and siblings that we’re protecting. Our loved ones are always our first thought. After that, we think about the 300+ million Americans that are working day and night without job security to achieve a better future for their children. The blank check that we write to our government as soldiers, not sparing the possibility of losing our own lives, is a check that I would like to give to the heroes of tomorrow. Single mothers, the mother’s that toil so tirelessly and often with very little appreciation, are the backbone to the generation that will lead with us during our years of wisdom and run the world in our eventual inevitable absence. What job could be more important than molding the future in an intimate way? 

While enjoying all of the excellent free food that I received from O’Charley’s, Red Robin, and Chick-fil-A I had an amazing reality check as I realized that we don’t honor military wives who’s husbands are on deployment or single mothers the same as veterans who have served. I began to wonder why. What is the difference between the battlefield of our present physical threats abroad or our immediate socioeconomic threats happening in our local communities on a daily basis? Both battlefields involve danger, proper planning, patience, integrity, resolve, valor, and much more.

Mom is the first face that most children see when they wake up and when they come home from school. Mom is the first to administer aid in most cases during critical impact situations in her child’s life. Those few crucial moments in a child’s life help to mold the reality that will come to pass within 20 or 30 years. When a soldier protects his country, how a mother protects her child, there’s is no difference in the level of commitment. A mother write’s the same blank check to her child as a soldier does for his or her government. 

In my thoughts I began to wonder if we as a nation can accomplish for women what we’ve accomplished for our veterans. Admittedly, our battle as veterans is still an uphill one in many regards, but so is the struggle that women still endure in America. Though things are getting better for women in the US, there’s a deafening silence on the struggle of the single mother. Particularly the vulnerable single African-American mothers who are in school. Through gun violence, drug raids, and degrading socioeconomic conditions we ask our unsung heroes to produce leaders as they are barely just trying to make a way to lead themselves. Without properly investing in our hero mothers who are like guardians of the future, we’re asking them to write that blank check on an account that could ultimately become bankrupt. Bankrupt because that particular group is left behind in the public’s mind.

Speaking with Iesha Stratton from my hometown in New Jersey made me realize all of this. Though I’ve spoken with many mothers, Iesha’s story of losing her whole support system and still being expected to carry the weight of mother and father touched me in a new way. I thought about what will happen when I lose my parents, my daughter’s grandmother and grandfather. I began to think of how that dynamic alone could effect most single mothers just trying to raise their children in a traditionally stable environment. When you couple that reality with the impact to both mother and child living in circumstances with the heightened potential for violent criminals, drug dealers, and child predators, it would be safe to assume that the odds are certainly stacked unfavorably against the most vulnerable segments of our society.

Our unsung heroes, our mothers, are the one’s who deserve more credit than what they deserve. When I was in the military they paid me and paid me pretty well. After I left the service, they still paid me and I’m able to go seek medical treatment any time of day or night without the fear of being refused because of a lack of sufficient insurance. So as I continue to reap the benefits of a thankful nation, I can’t help but to wonder how many of our mothers and sisters, our unsung heroes, have been completed forgotten about. Mother’s Day? A money money making holiday. Valentine’s Day? A money making holiday. So I propose a new day. Let’s have a Single Mother’s Appreciation Day. The same way us veterans are served well on Veterans Day is exactly how single mothers should be treated daily and especially on their special day. 

Although I can’t just change the world in one day, I will not pass up on the opportunity to help a fellow hero. Iesha’s story is one of courage, strength, and dignity in the face of oppressive opposition. Even though she is currently enrolled in school full-time in New Jersey for her Bachelors Degree, Iesha has expressed to me how she’s struggling to see the point anymore. She looks at the massive levels of negativity in her community in correlation to extremely low wages and high poverty, mixed with mass incarceration, and naturally worries daily about the outcome of her child. That is no way to live a life. That is no way to raise a child. That is no way to honor a hero that is writing a check for our nation’s entire future. That blank check is signed in the blood of sacrifice through selfless service and integrity in the face adversity. It’s the same blank check a soldier signs over to the government. Again, although I can’t just change the world in one day, I will not pass up on the opportunity to help a fellow hero to get on her feet. 

Iesha’s story is one that we all know. Even if it’s not something that we personally go through, it’s highly likely you currently know someone who is. Raising a child in an extremely lower income community while you are in school full time with no income is not the American dream. It’s not a dream any single mother wishes for. What can make this right? Simply put… Help. I’m writing this article to help out, as well as sending a personal immediate donation. Anyone that sticks up for what’s right in the face of adversity while maintaining a good GPA and investing in the future of tomorrow through excellent parenting, deserves to be blessed. Let’s not leave this hero behind.

College, bills, and children are extremely expensive when you’re job folds up. Car problems only compound the problem even more when you’re seeking new employment. This is not the American dream for an unsung hero. This is a daily tragedy lived by too many single mothers nationwide, especially lower income African American women who already have their priorities in order. Let’s donate to Iesha Stratton to tell her that we understand and we’re rooting for her. Though $5,000 may not seem like much to many who are well off, it means the world to a single mother who is only trying to do right by herself and her son in the absence of any traditional support system. Let’s help to keep her spirit encouraged to finish out her schooling so she can continue helping to invest in all of our futures by depositing everything she has into her son. Currently, due to extremely high job scarcity in Southern New Jersey, Iesha cooks and delivers platters to friends and family to make ends meet. That is not the American dream for an unsung hero. Let’s help her to make those ends meet by donating below. 

Iesha Stratton’s Go Fund Me – “Save The Student”

Follow Me:
www.WhoIsSincere.com

FREE Wealth Building Information! POWERFUL!
www.SecretNewWorld.com