I've been wanting to post, but work's been hella busy. So here I am, finally.
I wanted to ask you a question. What is the one most important topic you're considering when you vote? Or maybe, rank the top three. I just want to see what's on everyone's minds when they vote (or, like me, did vote in the past tense).
My list:
1. Affordable health insurance for everyone.
2. A focus on renewable energy efforts that will end our dependence on oil. Not just foreign, either.
3. Getting out of Iraq on November 5th, if possible, and developing a healthy working relationship with the rest of Earth, outside of the U.S.
I ask this, as on my facebook page, I posted the question, "if you're voting for McCain, I'd like to know why" and got a lot, mostly the same, issues on peoples' minds. What I saw, in no particular order:
1. abortion
2. don't tax the wealthy
3. Obama is a socialist/Marxist/communist and not an American... or, he supports terrorism.
I have to say that abortion comes up equally as often as 'not taxing the wealthy'. Is that the heartbeat of America? We're focusing on regulating a woman's body more than making sure that kids have textbooks and lunch at school? Of course, that's a bit of hyperbole on my part (no one wants kids to go hungry or without copies of 'From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankenweiler'), but I'm saying that we, as a nation (all of us) have lost sight of the basic care of other human beings. No one volunteers anymore. No one meets their neighbors anymore and takes care of them.
On that note... ideas on how to return to that? Did we ever have it?
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6 comments:
Good stuff, Nic.
My top 3:
1. Increased funding for education and early-childhood programs for the poor.
2. Affordable health care.
3. Improving diplomacy/the global perception of the U.S. and working with other nations to fight terrorism and monitor rogue nations.
As for the comments on your Facebook page, I guess I'm not a "values voter", because abortion does not even enter my mind when I think about the candidates.
I understand why this is such an important issue to people. Who likes the idea of killing a cute little unborn baby? But my problem with the Pro-Lifers is that they don't seem to want to talk about what happens to the kid once it's born, particularly if the mother keeps it? The bigger, and harder to address, issues are sex education, safe sex, and educating parents.
I heard a great piece on This American Life about a guy who runs a program called Baby College in Harlem. He focuses on kids from birth to age three, and the results later in life are staggering. The kids have much higher test scores in the third grade. The studies referenced in the story showed that children of professionals heard millions more words than kids in poor households. The ratio of encouraging words to discouraging words were opposite in the two kinds of households, and you can probably imagine which kids heard more encouragement. This has a huge impact on kids' brain development.
But all that stuff is complicated and it involves funding those programs and actually working with poor people, and who wants to do that?
The revelation that Palin's young daughter was pregnant just after Palin was tapped to be VP was such poetic justice. How's that abstinence-only education working for ya? I've been listening to old Loveline episodes, and Dr. Drew and Adam rant about how the religious right was protesting the Morning After Pill and even boycotting until pharmacies don't carry it. These folks feel the pill is the same as abortion. The fact is that it simply prevents the implantation of an egg, but they still don't like it. They just don't like the idea of young people having sex outside of wedlock, but obviously it happens, and I just don't believe you can legislate morality.
I feel that so much time and energy are wasted on trying to prevent abortions (protesting outside of clinics and trying to overturn Roe v. Wade) and trying to keep gays from marrying. There are so many more things we could be doing. Just imagine if even one tenth of those protesters sat down with a kid and did some after-school tutoring.
Good question, Nic.
1. Competent management. Without that, plans and positions don't matter.
2. Commitment to life by standing against war, violent crime, capital punishment, poverty, curable disease, and abortions (not making them illegal, but making them unnecessary). As Ryan said, so much energy is wasted on anti-choice activities that could be used to actually make a difference, like providing education for teens and loving homes for unwanted children.
3. Affordable, accessible health care.
Novanglus,
Why do you want to stand against curable disease?
Interesting to hear from you two... and i think we could all get to the point that we'd agree that, at the core, there are around five or ten ideas that we have and are concerned about. I want to freely admit here that sometimes I let my mind get to wandering too much and actually place some 'left-wing' things too high. I consider the right for gay men and women to marry very important (and I think we're a shit-hole of a nation for actually even ALLOWING a vote to happen on it... we didn't let states vote on slavery, for instance), but in the end, making sure our kids have healthcare and food and proper highschool educations is more pressing, in a way. Plus it's something we can all agree on... that kids need medicine and food. I wonder if we'll ever be a nation who is really accepting of all people and lifestyles... so we're obviously not ready to let women love women and men love men. Let's focus on what we can do, then, and fix some busted up shit.
(also, a wonderful hello to novanglus, who we all know and love. :) )
oh, and dave... i want your top three or so 'things i voted on'. you can email us privately if needed. i know you don't like to talk about spearheaing Man/Sheep Love initiatives here.
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