In this live‑recorded presentation, Cheryl Kelmar (MSEE, JD, author of The Judge's Oath and From Rags to Middle Class) argues that single women and single mothers must gain political power through their own efforts rather than through marital connections. Drawing on her personal experience of being raised by a single mother and now raising a child as a single parent, she critiques the perception that women’s political influence is tied to their spouses, citing Hillary Clinton and Lois Capps as examples. Kelmar calls for greater political engagement by single women to ensure their perspectives shape policy, especially in family law. She uses her own ongoing court case as a concrete illustration of systemic failures in child‑support enforcement and proposes reforms to create a more timely, equitable process that does not penalize low‑income women. The talk also veers into local environmental advocacy, urging stricter regulations on cruise‑ship sewage dumping near Santa Barbara and highlighting the ecological importance of Monterey Bay. Additionally, she shares an interest in mushroom‑based bioremediation, referencing Paul Stamets’ work on using fungi to clean oil spills, and suggests this as a potential avenue for sustainable agriculture. Throughout, technical glitches with slides are noted, but the core message remains a blend of personal narrative, policy critique, and calls to action across gender equity, family law, and environmental stewardship.
Chapters
So another point is single moms. And you— can you bring this forward, full view? Hello? Um, so another point is power from single women, full view, who traditionally do not become involved in politics. And we only have one video camera guy on tonight, 'cause my son's not here. So excuse us if we have some technical difficulty. Do you know how to bring that full view? Just keep talking. Okay. I need some help. Who traditionally do not become involved in politics. I have had many discussions with many numerous single female friends, and many of us also do not like to see women gain political power because who they are married to, which is one thing I did not like about Hillary. Even though I think she is very capable and she is doing a good job. I think it's Channel 7, Jim, on the— I gotta get some help. So that's one thing I did not like about Hillary Clinton. Even though I think Hillary is very educated, very capable, it just gives the illusion. It was like Lois Capps when she ran. And there's some things I like about Lois Capps. I did not like her voting for the banking bailout. But we as single women would like to see women achieve, not because who they're married to, but because of their own hard work and their efforts. But I really encourage single women to get politically involved so their viewpoints are heard. But you have to hit from beginning. So we're not going to be able to bring full screen? No, full screen where I'm not seen. So anyways, and the blue thing gone. Just keep talking. Okay, so, but I'm moving on to the next slide pretty soon. But, so anyways, so let me continue. Sorry again about the technical difficulties tonight. So I heard a short segment from women on the news the other day talking about how in our society there is still the old maid assumption. They reasoned that, well, at least a divorced woman had someone who wanted to marry them. And for the single woman, I guess that was not the case. Can you take away the blue? What a bunch of BS! Personally, even though I have a son, I have never married, but I had a chance to marry several times and chose not to because I did I did not think the marriage would either last or else I was just not ready to settle down. So which is a failure? To marry just anyone so you won't be labeled an old maid in later on in life, or be comfortable with being single unless you meet a person you truly want to spend your time with? And the financial success and not having to marry a man to take care of you. Financially. So single women, there are getting to be more of us than married women, and we need to establish both our power and our respect from society. So I need some power from single moms and single women. So, um, um, so we're having a little bit of a slide dip of difficulty. So, you know, what they, what they say, they say that once your survival needs are financially met and your bills are paid, that happiness flows from knowing and fulfilling our purposes in life. I have decided that one of my purposes is to continue to advocate for single women and children whenever I can because I was raised by a single mom and have been a single mom for the past 4 years. Which means I have both paid all the bills and done all the work. My book, "From Rags to Middle Class," will support my commitment. So you can come back to me— you can come back to me— sorry for the technical difficulty. Can you put the slide up on the monitor in the background? It's Channel 3. Or 7. I'm gonna need my slides. Slouching. Oh, God. So anyways, sorry for the technical difficulty. So I watched a segment on public TV about another topic, unrelated topic, moving on in my commentary. I have a couple side comments to make. I was watching public TV the other day, not that I sit around and watch TV all the time, but Um, and I saw a, uh, clip about how Santa Barbara intends to allow more cruise ships to come in close to the Santa Barbara Harbor. The piece discussed how this is good for financially for Santa Barbara because places like Monterey do not have access for these ships. However, Monterey does not have this access because they don't allow cruise ships to come into the Monterey Bay. I lived in Santa Cruz for 5 years. I don't need a close-up of the ship. And you can really tell the difference between the Santa Barbara Harbor and the Monterey Bay. The Monterey Bay is a source of important research and environmental protection. And it is known that when those cruise ships come close in to shore like that, that they dump their sewage. So all those people on board were They dump all their sewage when they come and close. So I would like to just put out there that I would like the city or county or whoever regulates that, that they should be setting strong regulations regarding these cruise ships coming in to prevent sewage dumping in our harbor. So we need to have a long view and keep this beauty. And since I don't live in Santa Cruz anymore and I live here, I have to advocate for us taking care of what we have here. So, and then mushrooms. I had a nice 3-acre property in Santa Cruz. It was an agricultural property with its own well. It had really good organic soil, but we needed to clear a lot more land in order for it to have enough sun to grow, to have an organic farm. And I did clear, had a lot of the land cleared so I could see the redwood trees. And I don't have the property anymore, unfortunately. But while I was looking before I didn't have the property anymore, I was looking at ways of how I could make that property work for me and be profitable. And one area I was exploring was mushrooms, because the property would have been a very good place to grow mushrooms in the redwoods. And so I read a book, found a book by Stamets, S-T-A-M-E-T-S, and it was called How Mushrooms Can Save the World. And he has a piece in his book about how mushrooms are used and have been used to soak up oil, oil spills like what is going on in the Gulf Coast. So I thought I would just put out that on my show about the mushrooms, and if anyone wants to research that or take that ball and run with it, then They can. So, okay, so now my next YouTube video, can you guys play that? Or you, there's only one person there. Jim? And thank you for Jim for working. So while he's queuing that video up, that's my commentary for tonight. And again, I think that my show probably won't be very interesting to most of you because I'm going to be reading and going over slides and talking about family reform and talking about my own individual case because that's all I know.. And I know that if someone like me, who knows how to get around in the court system, is having— getting such a runaround, then also a lot of other women are. And I also think that the standard, in light of the fact that welfare— we have so many politicians, female politicians, going after welfare reform— that we should have a court that does not create a policy against women collecting child support in a reasonable and timely manner. So I'm going to use my case as an example to talk about my family law reform suggestions, some of them. The next one on the YouTube that just says child support. That's not a real important one, but I had it in queue. No, it's the one on the top. The top of the screen, on the second tab on top of the screen says YouTube. You push that and then you hit play, but it's not that important. So anyways, I'm just going to keep reading. That was just a general child support information video. Anyways, so as I searched for this particular video on the web, I was— and I entered child support, I didn't find very many relevant videos to this topic, but I did find numerous and numerous videos on men's support groups, men calling for family law reform. However, reform cannot just come from the men's groups with money, because traditionally it's the men with the money. It has to come from both women and men. And even though I'm talking about child support from a female perspective tonight, um, and because I think that this topic —topic in my reform negatively affects poor women the most. I want to say
