the lathe of hell

I graduated from law school in 1979. Got married then, moved to the now-ex's home town in a very red state. Had my baby and stayed home with her for about 18 months. I was working when I got pregnant but I had a very tough pregnancy and had to quit working while pregnant. And then I could not tear myself away from my baby and my ex had a big shot job. Women pay a price, esp back then -- it aint all that much better now, eh? -- for staying home. It was very hard to get back into the game. By then a single mom with a toddler. I got jobs, but lousy ones. I networked and worked all the time at improving my lot. And then one day, in late eighties, a lightbulb went off. It was one of those deeply visceral, intuitive knowings: the world of work and money had changed. There were fewer and fewer middle class jobs. I knew then, around 1988, that the lathe of evil, energized by the conservative drive that began to undo the New Deal as soon as the New Deal was enacted, had been busily, slowly, turning their lathe of evil to get us to where we are today and get us to wehre they want to go. And they aint taking us to heaven, only a heaven for the elite.