We have started a new chore system here at the homestead. The kids' chores are written on index cards and placed in little pouches.
One of Buddha's chores is to dust his room. The description on the card reads, "Use a rag and Pledge to dust all surfaces." When Buddha first looked at the card he started laughing. When asked why he was laughing, Buddha raised his right hand and said, "I pledge to dust all surfaces."
He thought it was very funny we were asking him to promise to dust all surfaces.
As you know, November 4th is Election Day. Will you be voting that day, or will you find an excuse not to? The excuses are always plentiful. No Time. Polling location is inconvenient. Have to work. Don't want to stand in line with the kids. Blah, blah, blah.
One of the most common heard excuses is, "My vote doesn't count or won't matter in the big picture." It's a seemingly valid argument that holds no water and only serves as a lame attempt to cover the excuse giver's apathy. How many others will stay away on the 4th thinking the same thing? What changes are missed each election because thousands are thinking the same thing and staying home? If they were all to rise up together and vote, what power they would have.
Now, I can understand the apathy. I live in the reddest state in the union. When I enter that booth and vote for Obama, I know I will be in the minority and I am fairly certain that my state's electoral votes will go for McCain. But if I don't stand up and let my voice be heard, how can I ever hope for change?
Even when the right thing to do is painfully obvious, change in America can be slow. Read about the women who were arrested and jailed and beaten for the simple act of picketing the White House for the right to vote. Remember all that the African Americans went through from fighting to be considered men and citizens to literacy tests and grandfather clauses. These groups fought for years, suffering all types of abuses, many even died. And for what? For the right to be heard, for the right to put a check mark in a box, for the right to stand up and say this is what is important to me, this is what I believe America should be.
Change was a long time coming for these groups. But it came. Why? They did not offer excuses when they saw opportunities to stand up and fight. Sure the odds were against them. They could have just as easily told themselves that things were never going to change, no one was going to listen to them, so why bother. Those who thought that then were wrong. Those who think it now are wrong.
Voting is one of the many tools we can use to create change. Unless you stand up and fight for the issues you care about, the change you are seeking will never come. Sure, change may be slow, at times it may seem impossible, but the great American hope is that change is possible. In America we can always fight for what we think is right and we can always, always, always carry the hope that we will succeed in that fight.
So, this November 4th, remember those who died for the right that you might cast aside because of a line, or bad weather, or whatever. Be Heard. Even if you're the only blue in a sea of red, or the only red in a sea of blue. Be Heard. Battles are fought all the time, whether it be for President, or Prop 8, or giving more money to the zoo, or fighting for the right to vote. Whatever the cause, whatever the issue. Be heard. Fight. Never give up hope.
Vote.
I received an email the other day. You know the kind. It's been forwarded 800 times before it reaches you and at the end of the message it urges you to send it to 800 other people. Sometimes it's a joke or funny video. Sometimes it's an annoying picture of a kitten doing something cute stupid. All too often it's a list of unsubstantiated "facts" about things like duck quacks.
The email in question made me angrier than I have been in a long time. Not because it disagreed with my point of view, but because it did so with such outright lies. Lies that were being believed by every person who forwarded the email.
It starts with a series of questions apparently answered by some guy who has worked in Saudi Arabia. The writer of this email mentions this of course in an attempt to lend credence to what follows. What follows is a series of questions and answers meant to prove that no Muslim can be a good American. I love blanket generalizations.
After apparently proving all Muslims are the fruits of the devil (pronounced So, I Married An Axe Murderer style). It then says:
And Barack Hussein Obama, a Muslim, wants to be our President? You have GOT to be kidding! Wake up America !
Obama even says if he wins the election, he will be sworn in on the Quran---not a Bible!
He was sworn in on the Quran for his current office and he refuses to pledge allegiance to the United States or put his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played!
Every single statement there is a lie.
Now I am not telling you who to vote for. What I am asking of you is that you learn about the issues, and do your own research. And most of all, don't believe anything you read in a freaking email.
Barack Obama is a Christian.
He is not an Evangelical or Orthodox Christian, but he is what some call a Progressive Christian. According to the religious right, Obama is too liberal to be a true Christian. However, don't confuse their lack of acceptance with the liars calling him Muslim.
His father, a Kenyan, was raised a Muslim. However, long before Obama was born, his father had become an Atheist. Not that that matters since his father split when Obama was 2-years-old.
Barack's mother was described by his sister as an agnostic. "She basically gave us all the good books - the Bible, the Hindu Upanishads and the Buddhist scripture, the Tao Te Ching – and wanted us to recognise that everyone has something beautiful to contribute. ... Mom didn't really emphasise the Koran, but we read little parts of it." (source a site from England, hence the spelling of certain words) And yes, during the few years they lived in Indonesia, a heavily Muslim country, his mother enrolled him in a Muslim school as a Muslim, but they were never practicing Muslims.
They moved back to America when he was 10. For a while, Obama stayed away from any organized religion. His mother had had bad experiences with organizations who claimed to be Christian and as a result was skeptical of organized religion. To quote Obama from The Audacity of Hope, "My mother's own experiences... only reinforced this inherited skepticism." He remained spiritual, but avoided organized religion, as his mom had, until he found a church that coincided with the values his mother instilled in him.
This church is Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. They have often been criticized by mainstream Christian churches because, as Trinity United puts it, "In a sea of conservative black churches, Trinity stands out in that it has welcomed gay members, done outreach to people living with AIDS and advocated progressive positions on many social issues."
Barack Obama is not a Muslim. He may not be your brand of Christian, and his spiritual journey may have been different than yours, but he is not a Muslim. Again fom his sister, same source, "[Islam] has been erroneously attached to my brother. The man has been a Christian for 20 years." And to quote Obama:
"Let's make clear what the facts are: I am a Christian. I have been sworn in with a Bible. I pledge allegiance and lead the pledge of allegiance sometimes in the United States Senate when I'm presiding." (source)
Make your own decisions, but base them on the truth, not these ridiculous emails that seem to be accepted without question. Don't let others do the research for you. You have got to do your own foot work. Please don't leave it to some schmuck sending you an email.
And, by the way, a duck's quack does echo, in case you fell for that email as well.
I feel like I'm at an AA meeting when announcing that for the first time in my life I will be voting for a Democrat for President. I have never voted for anything other than a Republican. I have always thought of myself as a Republican. The state in which I live is heavily Republican and conservative. Most of, if not all, of my family and friends are Republicans. All these things make this seem more like a confession.
Another first for me is blogging about anything political. I have been blogging on various sites for almost 4 years and I have always avoided politics. One reason is that politic blogs are a dime a dozen. The other is I have never really felt passionate enough about politics to write about it. Besides, I have always preferred writing about things I found funny.
So, the question is: Why am I voting for Obama? This country is not in good shape. The past 8 years have been disastrous on many fronts. McCain is not the maverick the Republicans would have you think he is. He agrees with Bush on major policies that I believe need to be changed. McCain will only bring 4 more years of the same thing Bush brought us.
What's interesting is The Republicans keep pushing this Maverick image because they know of the American people's desire for a change. Problem is this man who voted with Bush 90% of the time is not a maverick. He will not bring change.
The republicans also keep throwing up smoke to keep us from realizing Bush and McCain are the same. There is a great article, found here, that illustrates this better than I could. Give it a read.
What I found most interesting in the article is when she points out what the country has been talking about the past couple of weeks with less than 2 months until we vote. Not the issues, but Palin selling a plane and Palin firing a chef and whether or not she was for the Bridge to Nowhere. Man, the Republicans are great at diversion, aren't they?
I don't care one wit about Palin's past. I don't care that she has 2 X chromosomes. I don't even care that she looks like Peggy Hill. We need to get this back to one issue. Where is each candidate going to take this country? We can't stay on our present course, and for that reason I am voting for Obama.