A change is gonna come

I am suspending blogs about changing my blog to talk about something a wee bit more important.

I wasn’t going to write a blog about politics this election season. If you know me or have read my facebook or twitter statuses, you pretty much know where I stand. Lately I’ve been reading some blog/notes from people that are on the conservative side, and their views have concerned me so much that I felt it important to speak out. I know there may be some (or a lot) who read this who might not agree with what I’m saying, and that’s fine. I would ask that if you are going to respond, please be cool about it. Sarcastic and mean responses will be deleted, or a harsh response from me. So, here we go.

If we’re choosing viewpoints, then I guess you could say that I’m a liberal. I’ve been that way my whole life really. My mother is a pseudo-hippie, so named because she was too young for the real hippie movement, but still had the attitude, that whole free love, anything goes, war! what is it good for? Attitude. She passed it on to me.

I’m also a Christian. I’m not the same Christian I was 10 years ago, but I believe that God sent his son to die for our sins. I God is a god of love, and that he loves everyone, no matter who or what they are. Period.

I’m also voting for Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

Barack was not my first choice, or even my second. I’d been a fan of John Edwards since the 2004 race, and I felt that he really cared about people, and his viewpoints aligned with mine. When it became clear early on that he was not a viable candidate, I thought that I should vote for Hillary Clinton. I’d also been a fan of hers, and hello?-she was the first woman to have a real shot at the White House. But, she had a bit of arrogance that bothered me. And then there’s the small issue of her husband. God bless William Jefferson Clinton, but he’s a liability. If she became the nominee, the GOP would have a field day with all that baggage.

Many of my friends had been mentioning Barack to me for along time, but I just wasn’t sure. I didn’t know a lot about him, other than his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, which I liked. Then there was the issue of race. Yes, I’m going to say it. I have some personal issues with African-American men, which I admit I still struggle with. I looked at the superficial, and I had an immediate dis-trust of him. But in my heart of hearts, I knew that wasn’t a real reason to dismiss someone, so I looked further. I read his book “The Audacity of Hope,” and to be honest, it changed my perspective a lot. Barack is a very smart guy, and that book really displayed his love for this country, and that we can do better, we can be better. He kept that message going in his speeches, and I changed my mind.

I know there are many people that think this country is going down the wrong path, and I agree. George W. Bush has taken this country into hell, for his own personal benefit, and it’s time to bring it back. I really feel Barack is the best person to do this. I know that some of his speeches sound like he wants to create a utopia, but what can’t be worse than what we’ve had.

I used to like John McCain. I really did. In the 2004 election, he was a maverick of sorts. But, time has changed him, and he’s gone from someone who cares about the country, into someone that wants to win for winning’s sake. If he really cared, he would shut up about how horrible Obama is, and tell us how he wants to change this country. Instead, he got arrogant, and picked the WORST POSSIBLE CANDIDATE EVER for Vice President, Governor Sarah Palin.

Don’t get me wrong. Sarah Palin is pretty. And she’s done a lot in her state. And that’s great. But being governor of a state that has less people than 17 cities in the lower 48 doesn’t give you the experience you need to be a “heartbeat away” from being President. It just doesn’t. As her interviews can show, she has no idea about a lot of things, and I would not feel comfortable having her that close. I’m also against a lot of the things she stands for, most importantly abortion.

Let’s talk about that for a second. I have a weird opinion about abortion. Personally, I do believe that life starts at conception, and I were to get knocked up(and we all know that I have no business having a kid at this point), that unless my life was at risk, there would be no way I’d have abortion. That is my choice. However, I do feel that I have no right at all telling another woman what she may or may not do with her body. I know that may seem contradictory, but its how I feel. I don’t know what a woman has gone through, and it isn’t fair to for me to force someone to go through the craziness of pregnancy because I feel it’s wrong. I know that a woman doesn’t have to keep a baby once it’s born, but honestly, being pregnant is a rough experience, and some women aren’t in a situation that they can go through that. I know that a lot of people feel that abortion is murder, and I’m not sure I would go to that extreme. It is sad when a woman chooses not to have a child, but it’s her choice. That woman is going to have to live with that decision for the rest of her life, and there’s not much we can do to beat that woman up, that she hasn’t already done to herself. To force someone to have a child can do more damage to a child than if it’s not born at all. It’s not fair, it’s not right, and above all, I will always support a woman’s right to choose.

Back to Sarah. It’s great that she’s a woman and she’s done a lot in her own state. But that in no way prepares her for the national stage. It’s as simple as that.

I’ve read a lot of blogs from some of my conservative friends, I find them supporting John McCain, and that frightens me. They’ve believed all the hate that’s coming from that campaign. It’s sad, and I don’t understand it. We’ve been through eight years of bullshit, and McCain has not said enough to make me believe that the next four are going to be any different.

There are a lot of points that I could cover at this point, but to my conservative friends, I only have one question: What are you so afraid of? This country is poor, we’re in a war that we SHOULD NOT be in, and most of the world thinks that we’re dumbasses. What would be so wrong with something different? A real opportunity to turn this country around, to what our founders wanted it to be. As hokey as it sounds, I believe in the American Dream. That if we work hard, help our neighbor, and have just a little faith, that we can have all that we want. It’s what I want, and if you’d take just a moment to listen to Barack, you can see that’s what he wants.

Change is coming. Positive, uplifting change. Are you ready?

~ by shallowdeep on November 2, 2008.