Thoughts on Accomplishment.

I was looking for something else and ran across this.
It's still true 9 years later.

Rep Hayes of NC announced in 2008 that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”

So what does that make me?
Let the Rep come on a ride-along with me for work. I do a 10 hour day, driving and unloading a semi. Then he can tell me how hard-working I’m not.  (These days, my work day starts at 4 AM, includes an hour long commute, 3 hours of driving and child supervsion in the morning and evening, and possibly a field trip. Then another hour home, to arrive at 6-6:30pm)

Let him write 7 novels and two dozen short stories. Let him make 4 afghans a year. Then he can tell me I’m not achieving. (that's 17 novels and 85 shorts now)

Let him come to church with me. The next ritual is Samhain. And he can tell me I don’t believe in God. (I believe in more gods than he does!)

But because I'm liberal (the only logical position for a queer, pagan woman. check the party platforms) I'm not a Real American.

Never mind that Kansas City birth certificate.
Never mind the fact I've worked since I was 15.
Never mind the fact I've always believed in God in some way, even when we were quarrelling.

Because I believe in clean air and water, better infrastructure, health care as a right in a civilized society, freedom of religion (not just for Christians) and same-sex marriage, I'm not a Real American.

Representative, get a new job.

And this follow up, also from 2008:
Okay, take this for what it's worth, since I'm a liberal who "hates real Americans who work hard and achieve."

I've been thinking a lot about achievement and accomplishment and taking credit. (Mudd's been reading Ayn Rand)

I realize that none of my accomplishments are at all mine.

Consider, Naomi and I have a book coming out in a few months, Glad Hands.
Some would say that's a huge achievement and aren't we lucky to live in a country where you can pull yourself up from nothing liked that!

Thing is, I didn't pull myself up. I had a LOT of help.
Yes, Naomi and I plunked our butts in the chairs and wrote the darn thing.

But, the following people get credit too.
Without any one of them, I wouldn't have been able to write it.

1) Mrs. Beatty for teaching me to write.
2) My mother and grandmother for teaching me to type.
3-4) Mr. Brannan and Prof. Doty for teaching to write better.
5) Laurie for inspiring me to write stories.
6) Mudd, for making sure I always have a working computer and word processor
7) The people at Roadmaster for teaching me to drive a truck.
8) The people at Falcon for taking a chance on me and hiring me.
9-10) Dan and Dave for living with me for five weeks and teaching me all the stuff the school didn't.
11) Rob Knight for taking a chance on me with the Monsters anthology. I'd be writing fanfic w/o that.
12) Torquere Press, for keeping on publishing and editing me.
13) The person from MidSouthCon who saw that I had a pro-piece and put me in for the Darrell
14) The Darrell Jury which got me to the finals with "Prey" and thus allowed me to go to MidSouth as a guest. Without that, I'd never have met the next person.
15) Elizabeth Donald who told me about Ellora's Cave and encouraged me to submit.
16) Brianna, my editor, who took a big chance with me.
17) apocalypsos for starting Fandom High
18) Naomi Brooks, whom I met in that game, and without whom the story would have never been written
19) The NaNoWriMo crew, because it was a Nano novel.
20+) A dozen or so drivers I asked about what they saw as the future of trucks and trucking.

That's well over 20 people DIRECTLY involved.
That's not counting the people who built the trucks I drive, the people who built the roads I use, the people who buy the cars and repair the cars whose parts I haul, the people who created the Internet, and AIM (where most of the novel was plotted), and Word Perfect, the people who built my computer (and desk and chair). Nor influences that led me to write what I did, including the Known World Handbook, The Handmaid's Tale, Friday, the mockumentary CSA, Ronnie Milsap's "Prisoner of the Highway," the Rigrocker and Hammerdown Radio, and Convoy (the movie).


Had any one of those people not been in that place at that time, I wouldn't be looking at a novel with my name on it. So much for the idea of "individual achievement." From the list, it looks like most of the country helped me write this thing!