More Political Mumbo Jumbo

Thanks Grandma for lighting my fire again. She won't be reading this because she doesn't need the internet she says, but she deserves the credit nonetheless.

It is easy to feel alone in my beliefs. We are removed from most of our family by several hundred miles and most of them aren't on the same team so to speak. We also don't follow popular belief most of the time. Feeling this 'gap', I didn't want to emotionally invest myself in another election. It is disheartening to put yourself up on that soap box time and again only to have it kicked out from beneath you, by those who claim to be more knowledgeable. After speaking with my dear grandma, I realize that is exactly where the other team wants me...silent. So...I am climbing back up on my soap box. The truth doesn't change and I can stand on that firmly.

I have rambled enough. There is but one thing more to say...Educate yourselves! Know exactly what you are voting for; know exactly who you are voting for. Just because you heard a great sound byte or read an article or listened to a great speech, does not educate you on the subject. Delve deeper. Almost every piece of legislation passed has a rider that is completely unrelated to the rest of it. Every person, not just a candidate, but each one of us has multiple sides. What we say we should do may not be what we actually do. I bring up this point only because some candidates are excellent speakers, but upon looking at their voting records and legislation that they authored or sponsored, one can see that the excellent speech was just a bunch of words. Words written most times by a speech writer, polished to give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside when they are spoken. As a voter you hold the future in your hands. Don't you owe it to yourself and your family to do the extra work to know the truth?

Now is the time to educate yourself

I have been on my soapbox for a few months now and am finding it quite comfortable. Even when I feel some backlash, which unfortunately can be quite often when speaking politics.

I am challenging everyone I know, meet, or talk to to educate themselves on the Presidential Candidates. Most people don't want me to disrupt their happy little bubble of ignorance. I use that word not to discredit or demean them, but because it is what it is...blissful ignorance. I know what it is. I used to enjoy it quite often as a matter of fact. If I didn't know what was going on then I could not be bothered by it. I try to remember back to that time to relate to those who are there now, but I fear I am too fired up right now and I sound sort of like a wacko. Truth be told, I am scared this time around. I know that both of the men that are on the short list to be the leader of this great country fall short in every way. I talk to people and hear how they will have to choose the lesser of two evils, which then I try to drill in, but doesn't that still make it evil? Why should we have to compromise ourselves in that way? It seems like more and more that is all I am asked to do, compromise my beliefs, compromise my expectations, compromise my values. Now, I should compromise my vote? Women now have no idea what an ordeal it was to actually get a vote, which is why I suppose that is why it is easy to compromise and squander. I find myself unable to compromise anymore. I find myself outraged that this has even come to pass which is why I have taken up on my soap box here to try to help others get educated. Please look at the voting records of these candidates. One has been absent or just abstaining from voting in the last session and the other has voted on legislation he claims he is opposed to. Actually they have both voted on legislation they claim to be opposed to. Obama is against the war, but in favor of sending more money. McCain is Pro-Life, but supports Pro-Choice legislation. The truth is not in their campaign now, but in their public records, before they were courting votes.