In honor of Veteran's day and the very American action we all (hopefully) partook in on Tuesday, I figured I'd start with a few thoughts on the state of the union and then end on a lighter note with a few character updates.
First, today is Veteran's Day, which for those of us working a public universities and workplaces, this means a day off. For many others, this means very little. Which is kinda sad since we are supposed to be honoring those Veterans who have fought to protect and spread our ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now there may be some irony in the idea of using war to spread the ideal of life, and I definitely know some people who would say that it is completely wrong. I definitely take the stance of talk it out not fight it out, but I don't think war, in and of itself, is always the wrong choice. I do agree with the message that if you love something, its worth fighting for. Is war today the same as it was in World War II, when we were fighting to end genocide and defend our land and spread democracy? Yes and no. Genocide comes in different forms, defending our land is a war often fought at home. And spreading democracy is a tough sell when using bullets. And of course its more complicated than my simplifications here. Yet we have a strong military and still exist as the land of hope. If we use our strengths for the good of others, I see a lot of benefit in that. The problems come when we try to define the "benefit of others" and the slippery slope of when is it the benefit of ourselves. Also, if you are fighting to defend our country, does that mean you also are fighting to defend people in other countries? So war is messy. In all senses. A lot of bad comes from it, and lately I think that is all we hear about. But a lot of good can come too. And today we honor the good men and women who know the horrors and hopefully the benefits of being in the armed forces.
For those of you that don't know, Nov 11th is Armistice Day, when the ceasefire was called to essentially end WWI. This is why Veteran's Day happens on 11/11 and why we either get the Monday or Friday nearest that day off. When I think of Veterans, I think of my grandfather and great uncle who fought in WWII. Sometimes I think of the disable vietnam vets. But the face of veterans is changing. More and more its friends of friends or family who went off to fight. Its students I work with that have come back from Iraq and are now trying to finish their schooling. Veterans are getting younger and younger. I don't know many current soldiers or those who have toured. There just haven't been too many in my life. I have a cousin in the coast guard, a former student's boyfriend who keeps rejoining the Army, and Spotty Sister's bf is in the Navy. None have discussed with me the types of action we associate with war, but they've all seen stuff I know. And they are all proud of what they do. So if they are proud, I stand by them. Its a tough job, tougher than most, and I'm glad there are those willing to do it. Thank you.
All of us citizens had a duty to do on Tuesday. Election day on a presidential year is a big deal. We are electing the "leader of the free world". That has ramifications globally. While we look at countries like Egypt and say, good job on that election there, other countries look at us and hold their breath, wondering who its going to be. The president of the United States holds a lot of sway in our world. So, there's a big of global perspective that most people probably didn't think about in an election season that constantly went back to domestic economics. Jobs jobs jobs. That's what it seemed to be about. And the deficit, and the spending, and the taxes. All domestic issues. All financial domestic issues. At least according to Republicans. That's all I heard (and trust me I hear a lot living in a swing state. You think the amount of commercials for YOU was bad?) The Republicans ran on the ticket of we can fix the economy. Personally, I liked a lot of what they stood for. The idea of hard work in the face of adversity. The importance of family and increasing family values. The limit on government spending (except on military). The limit on taxes. The idea that we should not penalize someone who has worked hard and finally achieved the American dream. The idea that the wealthy can help our country out by creating jobs. Those are messages I get behind.
For the Democrats, my facebook was flooded about social issues. "If you don't vote for Obama, you are saying I as a gay man, as a woman, as an immigrant, as a minority, and poor person, as a working person, am worthless to you" That was the messages I was seeing. Social social social. Gay rights, women's reproductive rights, immigration issues. Student loans. Tax the rich so they can give a little more back. Make cuts where necessary. Universal health care. These aren't bad messages either. I like giving people rights. I like thinking about all those people who struggle daily and need just a day or two of support to get back on their feet. Or a month or two. I like everyone having access to a doctor. I like higher education and think it shouldn't be cut. I like students and think they should have time before they jump right into paying for school without a job.
So who did I vote for? Well I had to weigh a few things:
Though the media has blown the debate into a lot of different directions, and the Republican men sure don't know how to talk about it, abortion is an important issue for me. Obama is pro-abortion, I am not. And to me, that has less to do with women's rights, health care, and all the other stuff tacked on, and more to do with the fact that I believe it's life at conception and thus killing a baby is murder. People may give me crap about ignoring those inseparable components, but I think they are separate issues. I don't like contraception either, but you don't see me making that the sticking point (the exception being the morning after pill), but the abortion itself is wrong in my opinion. And I don't see me advocating to stop what I consider murder as imposing my religion.
Gay marriage. Its fine with me. Get married. People deserve those rights. My church doesn't support that, and that's fine. Everyone still needs a legal marriage certificate. Let two people get married. Republicans don't support this and actively oppose it. Disagree completely.
I think we should have a smaller government. Obama has increased government role. This was actually a huge issue to me. I don't necessarily trust government to be everything for everybody and it usually falls short. Spending on a bunch of things that it does not necessarily need to be spending on is overstepping its role. This goes for the debt, the deficit, and the ways government creates jobs. A bailout worked but if people are going to rely on that, or on taxes to the rich, or on other government systems AND loopholes to get by, then what is the motivation to work hard. Instead, let's just find the easy way through. (Is that the reality of the American dream? DUN DUN DUN).
Education. Fairly underdiscussed in the election. As someone going into education, I think it should have been touched on more. Obama mentioned college students, Romney mentioned k-12. Between the two of them maybe I would have felt the system was getting attention. Instead, it was just pandering. I guess it was all pandering, but still, not enough about education.
So in the end, amongst all these considerations. Amongst the math of tax plans not adding up or financial plans never being laid out, I made my decision. Much to what I'm sure is the anguish of my dad, who swore to disown us if we voted for him, I voted for Obama. The saying is better the devil you know then the devil you don't. I can see past his charisma, which inherently makes him more trustable than Romney who looked fairly untrustworthy in the primaries especially. I am no so naive to think they aren't just politicians with a number of personal goals. But I genuinely though our current President was more authentic and real in his care for everyone in this country. Romney felt more out of touch. Now there are advisers for that, I acknowledge. But the big thing that stuck me was I felt Obama has a better global reputation, a better understanding of the job, better interest in immigration, and had a 4 year learning curve to understand this job. I want to build on what I perceive have been 4 fine years, not great, not awful and I just didn't think that was going to happen with Romney. I think it would have been a stop, reset, lets start over. I would have voted for Bush part 2, for similar reasons, and many of the reasons I didn't like Kerry were the same I didn't like Romney. Ultimately, I voted for Obama before, and I stand by my decision to let the man get stuff done in the next four years that continue our country. I don't believe the doomsayers. I think we as Americans are adaptable to change, and a little consistency will be good. We survived Bush and people were saying the same things then. As my dad pointed out, politics for this election was about Romney trying to prove why Obama shouldn't be president, not why Romney should be president. That's how midterm elections work. Well, I needed Romney to tell me why he SHOULD be president. Ultimately he didn't. And so I cast my vote. Now let's rally around the greatness that is our country and see what the next 4 years bring us.
A few updates:
Cali Foodie and I are headed to DC this week to visit P. Diddy. Diddy's been working for CNN and I haven't seen her in several years. It's time to change that and to see our nations capital for the first time. I'm stoked to essentially live in the Smithsonian for two days, though I have a feeling that won't quite happen like that.
Next week I will be in SoCal for Thanksgiving. I arrive on Wednesday and plan to spend the first two days with family. On Friday, Spam Boa and I are seeing the new Bond film!! And then going to a hangout at Mama G, Bridges, and Kareem's new apartment, the Beige Yeti. I hope to see Brock and Clark and Alejandro and Sunshine Knives and Nemesis and RC Tequila and the list goes on. Naysayer P Squirrel will also make an appearance, specially when I visit him at the University on Sunday. In short, its a catchup time for a whirlwind 5 days.
Final note: Go see Wreck It Ralph, its great.
Travel safe everyone! I know I plan to :)
-James
Listening to: "Arc of Time (Time Code)" Bright Eyes
Reading: AV interview with Mark Hamill http://www.avclub.com/articles/mark-hamill-revisits-sushi-girl-batman-and-the-sim,88473/
Playing: League, and starting to wonder why
First, today is Veteran's Day, which for those of us working a public universities and workplaces, this means a day off. For many others, this means very little. Which is kinda sad since we are supposed to be honoring those Veterans who have fought to protect and spread our ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now there may be some irony in the idea of using war to spread the ideal of life, and I definitely know some people who would say that it is completely wrong. I definitely take the stance of talk it out not fight it out, but I don't think war, in and of itself, is always the wrong choice. I do agree with the message that if you love something, its worth fighting for. Is war today the same as it was in World War II, when we were fighting to end genocide and defend our land and spread democracy? Yes and no. Genocide comes in different forms, defending our land is a war often fought at home. And spreading democracy is a tough sell when using bullets. And of course its more complicated than my simplifications here. Yet we have a strong military and still exist as the land of hope. If we use our strengths for the good of others, I see a lot of benefit in that. The problems come when we try to define the "benefit of others" and the slippery slope of when is it the benefit of ourselves. Also, if you are fighting to defend our country, does that mean you also are fighting to defend people in other countries? So war is messy. In all senses. A lot of bad comes from it, and lately I think that is all we hear about. But a lot of good can come too. And today we honor the good men and women who know the horrors and hopefully the benefits of being in the armed forces.
For those of you that don't know, Nov 11th is Armistice Day, when the ceasefire was called to essentially end WWI. This is why Veteran's Day happens on 11/11 and why we either get the Monday or Friday nearest that day off. When I think of Veterans, I think of my grandfather and great uncle who fought in WWII. Sometimes I think of the disable vietnam vets. But the face of veterans is changing. More and more its friends of friends or family who went off to fight. Its students I work with that have come back from Iraq and are now trying to finish their schooling. Veterans are getting younger and younger. I don't know many current soldiers or those who have toured. There just haven't been too many in my life. I have a cousin in the coast guard, a former student's boyfriend who keeps rejoining the Army, and Spotty Sister's bf is in the Navy. None have discussed with me the types of action we associate with war, but they've all seen stuff I know. And they are all proud of what they do. So if they are proud, I stand by them. Its a tough job, tougher than most, and I'm glad there are those willing to do it. Thank you.
All of us citizens had a duty to do on Tuesday. Election day on a presidential year is a big deal. We are electing the "leader of the free world". That has ramifications globally. While we look at countries like Egypt and say, good job on that election there, other countries look at us and hold their breath, wondering who its going to be. The president of the United States holds a lot of sway in our world. So, there's a big of global perspective that most people probably didn't think about in an election season that constantly went back to domestic economics. Jobs jobs jobs. That's what it seemed to be about. And the deficit, and the spending, and the taxes. All domestic issues. All financial domestic issues. At least according to Republicans. That's all I heard (and trust me I hear a lot living in a swing state. You think the amount of commercials for YOU was bad?) The Republicans ran on the ticket of we can fix the economy. Personally, I liked a lot of what they stood for. The idea of hard work in the face of adversity. The importance of family and increasing family values. The limit on government spending (except on military). The limit on taxes. The idea that we should not penalize someone who has worked hard and finally achieved the American dream. The idea that the wealthy can help our country out by creating jobs. Those are messages I get behind.
For the Democrats, my facebook was flooded about social issues. "If you don't vote for Obama, you are saying I as a gay man, as a woman, as an immigrant, as a minority, and poor person, as a working person, am worthless to you" That was the messages I was seeing. Social social social. Gay rights, women's reproductive rights, immigration issues. Student loans. Tax the rich so they can give a little more back. Make cuts where necessary. Universal health care. These aren't bad messages either. I like giving people rights. I like thinking about all those people who struggle daily and need just a day or two of support to get back on their feet. Or a month or two. I like everyone having access to a doctor. I like higher education and think it shouldn't be cut. I like students and think they should have time before they jump right into paying for school without a job.
So who did I vote for? Well I had to weigh a few things:
Though the media has blown the debate into a lot of different directions, and the Republican men sure don't know how to talk about it, abortion is an important issue for me. Obama is pro-abortion, I am not. And to me, that has less to do with women's rights, health care, and all the other stuff tacked on, and more to do with the fact that I believe it's life at conception and thus killing a baby is murder. People may give me crap about ignoring those inseparable components, but I think they are separate issues. I don't like contraception either, but you don't see me making that the sticking point (the exception being the morning after pill), but the abortion itself is wrong in my opinion. And I don't see me advocating to stop what I consider murder as imposing my religion.
Gay marriage. Its fine with me. Get married. People deserve those rights. My church doesn't support that, and that's fine. Everyone still needs a legal marriage certificate. Let two people get married. Republicans don't support this and actively oppose it. Disagree completely.
I think we should have a smaller government. Obama has increased government role. This was actually a huge issue to me. I don't necessarily trust government to be everything for everybody and it usually falls short. Spending on a bunch of things that it does not necessarily need to be spending on is overstepping its role. This goes for the debt, the deficit, and the ways government creates jobs. A bailout worked but if people are going to rely on that, or on taxes to the rich, or on other government systems AND loopholes to get by, then what is the motivation to work hard. Instead, let's just find the easy way through. (Is that the reality of the American dream? DUN DUN DUN).
Education. Fairly underdiscussed in the election. As someone going into education, I think it should have been touched on more. Obama mentioned college students, Romney mentioned k-12. Between the two of them maybe I would have felt the system was getting attention. Instead, it was just pandering. I guess it was all pandering, but still, not enough about education.
So in the end, amongst all these considerations. Amongst the math of tax plans not adding up or financial plans never being laid out, I made my decision. Much to what I'm sure is the anguish of my dad, who swore to disown us if we voted for him, I voted for Obama. The saying is better the devil you know then the devil you don't. I can see past his charisma, which inherently makes him more trustable than Romney who looked fairly untrustworthy in the primaries especially. I am no so naive to think they aren't just politicians with a number of personal goals. But I genuinely though our current President was more authentic and real in his care for everyone in this country. Romney felt more out of touch. Now there are advisers for that, I acknowledge. But the big thing that stuck me was I felt Obama has a better global reputation, a better understanding of the job, better interest in immigration, and had a 4 year learning curve to understand this job. I want to build on what I perceive have been 4 fine years, not great, not awful and I just didn't think that was going to happen with Romney. I think it would have been a stop, reset, lets start over. I would have voted for Bush part 2, for similar reasons, and many of the reasons I didn't like Kerry were the same I didn't like Romney. Ultimately, I voted for Obama before, and I stand by my decision to let the man get stuff done in the next four years that continue our country. I don't believe the doomsayers. I think we as Americans are adaptable to change, and a little consistency will be good. We survived Bush and people were saying the same things then. As my dad pointed out, politics for this election was about Romney trying to prove why Obama shouldn't be president, not why Romney should be president. That's how midterm elections work. Well, I needed Romney to tell me why he SHOULD be president. Ultimately he didn't. And so I cast my vote. Now let's rally around the greatness that is our country and see what the next 4 years bring us.
A few updates:
Cali Foodie and I are headed to DC this week to visit P. Diddy. Diddy's been working for CNN and I haven't seen her in several years. It's time to change that and to see our nations capital for the first time. I'm stoked to essentially live in the Smithsonian for two days, though I have a feeling that won't quite happen like that.
Next week I will be in SoCal for Thanksgiving. I arrive on Wednesday and plan to spend the first two days with family. On Friday, Spam Boa and I are seeing the new Bond film!! And then going to a hangout at Mama G, Bridges, and Kareem's new apartment, the Beige Yeti. I hope to see Brock and Clark and Alejandro and Sunshine Knives and Nemesis and RC Tequila and the list goes on. Naysayer P Squirrel will also make an appearance, specially when I visit him at the University on Sunday. In short, its a catchup time for a whirlwind 5 days.
Final note: Go see Wreck It Ralph, its great.
Travel safe everyone! I know I plan to :)
-James
Listening to: "Arc of Time (Time Code)" Bright Eyes
Reading: AV interview with Mark Hamill http://www.avclub.com/articles/mark-hamill-revisits-sushi-girl-batman-and-the-sim,88473/
Playing: League, and starting to wonder why
I'm proud of you, my dear Jengler, for taking the decision seriously (and let's face it, yours was statistically worth 300 times more than mine given that you live in Ohio). I wish everyone weighed the pros and cons so thoughtfully. --Brock
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I still remember watching the election results come in with you four years ago. Exciting that you were in a swing state! Beeker
ReplyDelete