On Being Democrat

Political rhetoric against Democrats may become even more malevolent during the next two years. We need to listen to our own hearts and state our case with eloquence, passion, diversity and truth about why we are Democrats. This is not your typical blog. Democrats have an attention span that can handle philosophical discussions. Please help make this column become a voice to one another and send your thoughts to valsmith_4@msn.com

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Location: Spokane, Washington, United States

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Tired of Being Jerked Around

I feel like I have been jerked around for about three years now...and that I am living in a Pavlovian nightmare. I look around and there are my friends and neighbors also saluting, bowing, nodding acquiescence to demands they normally would reject.

After 9-11, it was unpatriotic to question the President....it was un-American to question a pre-emptive war against a country that had done nothing to us. How could you challenge any decision wrapped in our Flag? The ends began to justify the means....and mostly we only discovered those (torture) by accident. We (questioners) were beaten up with the words we hold dear...We were manipulated by our horror and pain....We were defeated in spite of world wide opinion that agreed with our reluctance to wreak havoc and instability, destroy homes and infrastructure, and kill innocent people in another country.

Enough! I lay responsibility for the unnecessary deaths of 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women and children, the maiming of 16,000 armed forces personnel and the 1500 deaths of our sons and daughters in a war that didn’t have to be ...directly at the door of the White House and those who voted in lockstep with this decision.

I lay responsibility for the huge unnecessary financial costs of this war and it’s disruption of lives in both countries on Bush’s door.

I hold accountable, the Republican Party for trashing our world wide reputation and relationships, blowing our financial surplus, running up the largest deficit in history, and supporting those resolutions that allow “Big Business” to access any and all resources in this country without limitations. And now they are after access to Social Security monies.

How did it come about that we privatized parts of our military forces? How is it in the interests of national security to outsource our ability to mine and manufacture resources needed to maintain a strong defense? How moral is it to make the provision of health service insurance a for- profit business? Since when is profit more important than access to a basic need?

How moral is it to cut taxes for the richest in our country and cut services and subsidies to the poorest?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

hopefully you weren't one of those misguided people that voted for John -lets-bomb-brown-people- Kerry either, I was so sick over the election that I didn't even vote for a presidential candidate

7:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How is it not in our country's best interest to cut taxes for the rich? Are they not the ones who invest, who create the jobs the rest of us poor slob's have to get since were too stupid to not work, or just too stubborn to take something for nothing?

Wake up and figure it out, and if you can't hear this...I may not have much, but what I have I have earned by my own two stupid hands, through the blood of the men who died for this country, and the blood of Jesus who died for us all.

When I was 20 I had my first child. I lived in a shack in Minneapolis above a liquor store where the rent for a 1 room, 100 year old office space was 750 dollars a month. During the winter, we ran the gas oven with the door open to stay warm. I went to work at Smurfit Stone where the work was so labor intensive that most people would chose to simply be left unemployed.

Then I woke up.

I could see that I needed to change my life. I didn't look for the government, or the state to help me do this. Although MN has one of the most gracious social service packages offered to the poor, elderly, the women and children...we moved. I began taking night classes, while working full time to provide for my family. In Nebraska, we rented a 2 bedroom duplex. It was by most standards a dump, but to us it was the nicest place we had ever lived. Over the next few years, we purchased our home. I have since graduated from college. I have been with my current employee for 10 years, and have built my life from literally nothing into something just a little bit more. I did it not by the grace of Government, but by the grace of God, and my family. I am still married, despite overwhelming odds. Although I know that my thought process is, or has become a thing of the past, I have remained mostly happy.

Republicans trashed relationships? Maybe some relationships were not very good relationships? Maybe some were simply worth trashing.

People are fighting to come to our country. They are fleeing from others. Our people have forgotten what made this country so great. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

These are the people who came and made this country great. They built lives based on dreams alone, not government aid, not free health care, not social security. These are the minds that created every opportunity for which we, though not deserving feel entitled too with a total disregard for the blood and tears that it took to achieve. I read your blog and though I could be angry, I want to weep. It hurts that so many feel this way. My grandfather died in France to give some this right, and to keep her torch burning brightly over these golden doors.

He was not drafted. He enlisted at the age of 16 because he heard the call, not from uncle sam, but from liberty. I have a 16 year old son, who I have to push out the door to work 16 hours a week at Runza so he can pay his vehicle insurance. I guess I could sit around and blame George Bush for this, but I think it's got a lot more to do with me, because I too have forgotten.

You need to see that some people are just built differently than others. It must be that simple. Some are self reliant, some don't feel that need. But this is America, and each of us now has that right, and privilege to work hard, or to fall. What's wrong with that? Let those who choose to fall, fall. Let those who choose to get back up try. This is our country, and this is what made it great.

7:07 PM  

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