Wednesday, November 5, 2008

It's More Meaningful Then a Campaign

Everyone keeps telling me I am witnessing history, but it still hasn’t sunk in. Last night I saw as the map of the country turned blue and the music and screams of celebration grew louder in my neighborhood. I am here seeing what I hope to be a change in the country that I have criticized ever since I understood how to. For the past eight years I have referred not George Bush as the occupant of the White House, he has never been my president. I was only seven when he took office, he is basically all I’ve known. But Obama has already filled the role in my eyes. President Obama. When I saw him on stage the was a different vibe then when I saw Chenney speak, even McCain. He is my president and I do feel that if I am to make change it will not be by criticizing him but by making the change myself. By accepting my country for what it is and valuing it completely I can take that and through the care and devotion for the people I can change the statues quo. For the people by the people. I am a citizen of the United States and it is my duty to be that change that i always expect the politicians to take care of. I only hope that every one took away from this victory that I did, a drive to be the change Obama claims to be. To unite as a people and not be distracted by ridiculous labels like republican or democrat, because those words mean nothing. We need to understand that there is no way, or reason that we should divide ourselves into these sub groups and forget the bigger picture. In the end this race has been a dividing roller coaster and I think that must end now. Forget about it and look forward.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Who needs truth when you have power!

Voting is strongly valued for the citizens of the US, and if not, it should be. It’s the act that should put in place the next leaders of our government. But how do we know the value of our vote truly? How do we know if we have the right, or if we are being given the right? We’ve had
Jim Crow Laws laws making African-Americans take “literacy tests” to dictate whether they were educated enough to vote and women once didn’t have the right at all. We now are under the impression that our vote is counted no matter our class, race or gender, but is it?
In 2000, the issue of votes being counted erupted. That election was what was going to define our country for the next 8 years and it seemed that the right to vote was the underlying factor which would decide the future. Everyone remembers the confusion over in Florida. We were first told Gore was our president, then Bush? How did that work out? Well, news stations like MSNBC came in with the announcement that Gore had won Florida, then Fox news came in saying that Bush was president. So what happened? Could it be the fact that Bush’s cousin was the one who called and told Fox the winner. Maybe it was that the Secretary of State, Katherine Harris while recounting the votes in Florida happened to be in contact with Jeb Bush, George’s brother, the governor of Florida. Looking at these facts it is hard to fathom that this was ll coincidence. Hadn’t Bush been saying the whole election how positive he was that he would win Florida. I guess due to the great secrecy of this whole fraud makes it hard to prove whether Bush’s ties to those you were in control of the election are proof of fraud. Maybe finally having independent media would help us out there! In Florida 8,000 people were wrongly identified as being felons and lost their vote. Before voting day lists were made of all the convicted felons to ensure they do not vote. But when the list was made the names weren’t only the people who were felons but people with names that are closely spelled as convicted felons. The list added each name that had a 80% match of the convicted felon name. On top of that, several thousands of votes weren’t counted all together for numerous faulty reasons. Bush only “winning” by 538 votes, if the predominately African-American voters in Florida had been heard then Bush wouldn’t have won in the first place. Then in 2004, there was a repeat of this disenfranchisement for many African-American and lower middle class voters. 74% of the lowers middle class precincts in Ohio were lacking in machines, as some stood in the rain for hours waiting for the chance to vote. People were harassed at the voting stations, their ID’s were checked and they were told that they weren’t on the list to vote. Thousands of people weren’t heard because of the greed for power and money overruled our constitution and democracy. Just imagine, a world where Bush hadn't become president....
Now attacks have been made on ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) because of the possibility of voting fraud. Four of workers for ACORN were indicted on charges of voter fraud in Kansas City. The Kansas City Election Board found suspicious forms, such as seven applications from one person and an application for a dead man. Election officials said some of the application cards had false addresses, signatures and phone numbers. Obama had donated money, or something along those lines to ACORN a while back and now is begin accused of partaking in voter fraud, or at least funding it. McCain’s Campaign said “Obama's affiliation with this group raises serious questions about his judgment and ability to lead this nation.” And yet we don’t question Bush Senior affiliation with the Carlyle group, hypocrisy? I honestly believe, all opinion aside, whether this was happening to McCain or Obama, is shouldn’t be a part of a campaign, blaming isn’t a poll booster anymore. McCain is down in the polls and any possible dirt he can get about Obama may help him. The media has made it out to be some sort of greedy conspiracy rather then sloppy registering. All I know is that ACORN is by no means equal to ferocious terrorists and the issue has no right to be injected into the minds of the many undecided voters. Let’s get back to politics, middle school is over.

True Lies-Poem

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

People?

We have the right to vote. We have the right to free speech. And to protect it we have the right to revolutionize or at least force change. The people of this country aren’t roaring with anger because they don’t know. We have media that wont speak it’s mind, politicians that speak out of their wallets and citizens that are in denial. We need to get together as a country, as a people and begin to tackle the problems around us our way. I feel for too long have we allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking that we are being protected and open our eyes to what needs to be done. I’ll see hundreds of people marching for peace, not thousands. I will see plenty of people writing letters of complaints to the government but not enough congressmen standing up and saying what they truly think needs to happen to help the people. We pay reality TV show characters more money for one episode then a teacher makes in a year. Though that doesn’t have to do with the government it has to do with whether the people are focusing on what needs to happen by abounding their TV watching life styles and begin to realize our country is slowly and sneakily being taken from us.
We the people!

"Certain rights" where'd they go?

“People have certain rights that are unalienable... life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Do we? I certain believe we have certain rights which we are told we have, and many of us are satisfied with that. I’m not. I am sick of hearing politicians quoting our constitution then contradicting it in so many decisions that directly affect my natural rights. Let’s see these contradictions:

Life-
Where to start. How about capital punishment. Our government can over shadow the natural right of life and kill a citizen in the name of the law, the same laws that are meant to protect us, and support the constitution. We have wars of aggression, putting soldiers in harms way for sketchy reasons. Killing off men and women and profiting off of the wars that took there life's. That’s not expectable.

Liberty-
We have the famous wiretapping of the Bush Administration. We had/have our corrupt elections. The people were disenfranchised, votes were simply ignored, not counted. This corruption was by the very same people who were theoretically put in power to protect our liberty. Nationally gay marriage is not a legal right. Our government now controls matters of our home based on ideology, contradicting our constitution.

Pursuit of Happiness-
A record 46.6 million citizens of the United States were uninsured in 2005. Though that is about 15% of the US population as seen in these numbers it equals many people. People are loosing homes, jobs, etc. and the more a family loose the more opportunity for the younger people in the family shrinks. You cannot tell me that a wealthy child is equal to a child of the working class. It is a cycle that doesn’t seem to change and our government doesn’t seem to change our health care system despite the obvious connection between the two.

I think we need to reevaluate who we trust with our rights.

P.S. I didn’t read proof read so if this is complete gibberish then, my bad.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Democracy

Trust, tolerance, education and participation are underlying factors of what makes a true democracy. The poor, the elite, the middle class, the revolutionaries and the average joe must all have a chance to voice an opinion to support democracy. An informed public makes informed decisions thus valid solutions to problems a country would face. We work together, through debate and compromise at create policies applying to all people. There will always be a majority and a minority but both are equally valued thru rights of the minority and the rule of the majority. Isolation disrupts this hope of equality. Our country's two party system causes people to make decisions not based on information but on ideology. Diminishing tolerance through the division of the people. Without tolerance voices are drowned out and government becomes more of a dictatorship.
I guess what I am trying to say is that democracy is a group effort embedded with tolerance and trust. People can't be blinded by bias to have true democracy..... but I guess it is a bit inhuman (and un-American) to not have natural superiority issues.