election
tonight i write the same words as hundreds of thousands of other americans, of women, of concerned people around the globe.
i am deeply saddened by this contrastrophe. and no, i don't mean my guys losing. they weren't even really my guys, i didn't love them, i don't love mainstream politics in general. but you know, i AM pretty damn fond of america, and i have no idea what happened to it.
i can't decide if the majority of americans exhibited extreme hate or stupidity yesterday. in some way, i deeply want to believe it was stupidity. i want to think they just believed the wrong media outlets, listened to presidential lies, and fucked up. but there are too many of them for that. they have had too long and faced too much evidence to not realize the truth. so they must have recognized it and not cared.
this is what a vote for bush yesterday will mean in the coming years: (please read this if you think what happened yesterday and early today is no big deal. if you're as horrified as me, feel free to skip it.)
an erosion of choice. you all better stop having heterosexual sex (or not start, as the case may be), because if the female party gets pregnant, a legal and safe abortion will not be in her future. don't get me wrong, abortion is harrowing and the prospect of needing one frightens me. but abortions happen whether or not they are legal, the difference being that women are more likely to suffer serious medical consequences when abortion is illegal.
a vote for bush means more soldiers will die. we aren't going anywhere in iraq, we all know it. shrub cut troop pay and benefits. the people who come back damaged from fighting a traumatic war will not receive proper health care. who knows where he'll get us bogged down next.
social security is gone. cockamamie schemes or not, it's gone. start saving for your retirement now. health care costs will probably continue to skyrocket, as will drug prices.
oh, yeah, and all of us in college? this administration is gearing up to make it harder for us to pay for it. talk to any teacher, they'll tell you No Child Left Behind is a lie, it's a sham, it's not working for our kids.
PATRIOT acts I & II will be sitting pretty and probably enshrined in the constitution. don't even get me started on the gutting of the environment.
skip to here: on top of the attack on choice, sending more soldiers to die, lack of healthcare, the death of social security, the erosion of education, and kissing goodbye to civil liberties, on top of all of that, last night millions upon millions of americans voted to forbid loving couples to get married.
please stop and imagine the immense amount of hate in that.
because of genitalia - just that and nothing more - millions of americans are forbidden from spending their lives the way they choose. they don't have power of attorney, they can't adopt or have children, they can't visit their partners in the hospital. every day. and yes, not being a full citizen is a big fucking deal. waiting years to receive your citizenship even though you were born an american and only made the mistake of being born gay (etc.) is a big fucking deal.
do you have any idea how much that hurts?
so yes, i am sad. not because i think kerry is awesome, not just because i think bush is a liar. but because of what americans have done. because of the statements they have made with their votes. americans think it's an issue of "moral values" and those "values" led them to discount and oppress millions of citizens.
if you are a woman, minority, queer, minor, senior, student or soldier, i am very sorry. i stand in solidarity and mourning with you.
(no, i don't hate republicans. i distrust fundamentalism in anyone, including the greens. i'm as mad at nader for running as i am at kerry for conceding, maybe more. i actually agree with some conservative - in the conservationist sense - principles. but bush and co no longer represent conservatives, or even the majority of republicans. the radicalnutsoreligiousrightneocon party now controls all three branches of government. that's what terrifies me.)
posted by Sarah @ 8:26 PM
4 Comments:
I love oversimplification!!!
It makes the issues so clear, and helps people to really see what's going on!!
You're worse than Cheney, Pepin...
ya know, that may well be the first time in my life someone has accused me of putting things *too simply*.
maybe some of my arguments were over-simplified. i take responsibility for that. i was very upset and needed the catharsis.
however, there are three issues which i feel *are* simple.
iraq is, at this point, a cluster fuck, as we say in the Army (ok, not me, but my dad and grandfathers). whatever you think about us going there, it should be clear that what is happening now is not successful and is only breeding more hate towards america, and more or less rightfully so. it is in america's best interest to bring our troops home as soon as possible. the ways to do that and the implications of doing so are complicated, so i won't outline it completely here, but i do think that's a very important discussion. i also think it's important to be very careful about agitating and exacerbating conflicts abroad, and i have zero faith in this administration to be cautious.
this administration has made deliberate attacks on choice for the past four years and has no reason to stop now. if you don't know what the global gag rule is, educate yourself about it. if you think abstinence-only education works, check out some statistics. this administration's policies on reproductive rights are schizophrenic and unworkable.
and the gay marriage thing, well, i didn't even blame the administration for that one. that sits clearly on the shoulders of the american people. and that is a simple issue - no matter who you love you should get to be partnered with them to the extent you see fit. period.
those are my three main issues. bring the soldiers home, carefully and in such a way that it won't foster more shit around the globe, don't attack my choice, and let me marry who i want to. to me, that IS simple. the rest is indeed complicated and i'm sorry if you think what i wrote last night encompasses the entirety of my political thought.
so in the future, if you legitimately think my view of a topic is too simple, go ahead and call me out on it. but if your only point is that i'm less learned than you, that all liberals are wild-eyed spouters of idealistic hippie nonsense, then i don't know what i have to offer you.
look, that's not what I think and you know it. All I'm saying is that Bush's re-election is not going to lead to all of this crapp occurring, and that's where your over-simplification is. Why, might I ask, would the President of the Unites States' main goal be to ruin the country? That is what we call illogical thinking. Think about it, in Bush's mind, these measures will help the country, and are what's best for the country. For the most part (the exception being same-sex marriage) I have to say I agree with him. Yes, his religion gets in the way as far as the federal marriage amendment, but that's why we have this little thing called Congress, which is there in order to keep the President in check when his attitude is a bit unreasonable, and, believe me, I have spoken to a member of Congress, and he assured me that such a measue would never pass.
Social security: Bush wants to reform it...REFORM, not demolish it. He wants to polish it up a bit so that some of the loopholes people are finding in it can be mended...call me crazy, but I think it's better to have a system that people can't take advantage of and waste my, and your, tax dollars.
Education: the no child left behind initiative was just getting started when a little thing called 9-11 happened. Needless to say, there was another issue to focus on, and yes, it was forgotten a little bit. A second term allows the President an opportunity to have more time to actually get the program up and running.
Iraq: What can I say? We will always fundamentally disagree on whether or not it was right to go in there in the first place. I do think that it should have been carried out more efficiently and could definately have run smoother...that's Rummsfeld's bad, and I do think he could do to be replaced, but as for the cutting of funds, I do think that was a mistake, and, well, if certain Senators would vote to give him more funding in Iraq...hmmm....would that mean more money to put into the effort? Perhaps...
Senator Kerry's concession: I don't see why you're mad at the Senator for conceding. He said it himself: Not only was it mathematically impossible for him to win, but by delaying the process and flying over the Boston Red Sox lawyers would further divide an already painfully divided counrty. Kerry said that himself, and that was, in my mind, the classiest, smartest, and most courageous statement I've heard...from anyone. If I'd have known he would have done that, I might even have voted for him, because he's right.
What we need right now is unity. The country needs to come together with some sort of a compromise, because that's the only way anything gets done. Yes, Bush and his following need to make concessions, but so do the Santa Fe types. It's everyone's responsibility to make the country and the world a better place. Everybody's. And I'll tell you one way it will never get done is if everyone's just standing around pointing fingers at each other.
You have to get up off your ass (not you, literally, but the general "you") and actually propose changes, and do everything you can to enstate them.
A term that comes to mind here is "The Tuesday morning quarterback." for those less sports-savy, I'll explain: Football games are over by Monday night at the latest, so on Tuesdays, what you have are these quarterbacks that go around telling everyone what they should have done, when all is said and done. They are annoying as fuck, and that's what I'mm seeing too much of today: People that point out problems with whatver has already occurred, and too few people actually making gametime decisions: Deciding what to do when the time comes to do it, not afterward when it's easy. Hindsight is 20/20, but, for all intensive purposes, useless.
Don't think I don't respect you or am talking down to you at all. I greatly respect your ability to formulate your own opinion...it's admirable. But one thing that you still need to do is check up on the facts and avoid the knee-jerk reactions. That's all.
Sorry I couldn't make that any more concise.
And 'wegg' really seems to know what she's talking about, and, of course, it seems she would probably tend to agree with Pepin's politics more than mine.
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