Politics

I'm not going to say much about politics....I don't know if I really have anything to add that hasn't been said much better by others. Yesterday when reading www.salon.com I read an interesting letter that someone had sent in. I hope they don't mind me re-posting it here:

I voted for Kerry, and obviously I'm angry and extremely discouraged at the outcome of the election. But it is high time that everyone acknowledge that the majority of this country has put its support behind President Bush.

You can say all you want about the Republican fear machine -- which is not to say that it isn't a powerful force -- but you have to hold everyone accountable for their own actions. And if the country can't see the problems with Bush now, can they ever? There is a much larger, and yet simpler problem here than you seem willing to admit: The majority of people in the United States support what Bush stands for. They oppose gay marriage, they believe Saddam had a hand in Sept. 11, and they believe that we can and must, indeed, that we have a right to eradicate all our perceived international threats. You saw it with your own eyes.

I watched at 7 in the morning here in Barcelona, Spain, as the popular vote tally of my home country gave an advantage to Bush of more than 3 million votes. Can I blame Bush for the votes he has received? The true identity of this country must now start to become apparent.

-- Zach Green

I don't like the feeling that my beliefs are so different from so many people in this country. I don't like that so many people are so judgmental, because as the media is telling us, this race was won/lost because of "morals". I know that it was a small margin, but it still feels like a lot of people (because it is!). None of this has made me doubt my beliefs, but when people say "Yay! America's Great! It's just Bush that's bad!!" they obviously are deluded. But I doubt that anyone, in any country, feels that they agree with the rest of their country about most values.

I've seen a few people comment that "this isn't the country we learned about in school", but in some ways, it is. This is the America that destroyed the native people of North America. This is the America that wanted to keep slavery, to prevent women from voting, that had the Stonewall Riots.... We are moving more and more towards an America where one cannot choose their own religion without persecution, or live their lifestyle without being disenfranchised. It scares me.