- I'm staunchly pro-choice. While I may never choose that option for myself, I do not believe I have the right to make that decision for every woman, in every circumstance.
- I’m pro-gay marriage. I see most arguments against gay marriage as religious ones and given my belief in separation of church and state, I see no reason why civil institutions should bar homosexuals from marrying and benefiting from the legal advantages of marriage. Churches can make those decisions for themselves. It’s my personal right to not belong to a church that teaches against homosexuality (and I never will!)– but churches have the right to teach any doctrine they please.
- I’m against the death penalty. There are too many inconsistencies and prejudices in our judicial system to believe that everyone being sentenced to death is guilty. If one person is wrongly sentenced to death, the cost is too high
- I believe in universal health care. As a family whose bread winner is self-employed, losing our health care scares me. I worry our family is one major health issue away from having our insurance revoked and spending all our savings to keep someone in our family healthy. We have done well saving money in the past and still I worry, so I can’t imagine being poor and having this worry.
- I’m ok with higher taxes for the wealthy. I believe in a society that takes care of those less fortunate among us. Sure, the welfare system has its pitfalls and you can find all sorts of examples of abuse of this system, but you can also find examples of people who were able to make it through tough times and turn their lives around with the help of the government. It would be nice if we could leave this work up to charities and neighbors taking care of one another, but research shows the wealthy give less (percentage wise) to charities than the middle class…so you can’t count on it. I guess I believe there are a lot of greedy people out there who would rather buy another luxury car than help out someone in need in their community. So bring on the higher taxes...I'll happily pay them for a candidate who I agree with on all other ideological matters.
And so with that being said, I am sure it will come as a great surprise that I am endorsing Barack Obama for President of the United States.
I sort of live for election day every four years. I am sort of obsessed with politics. Our TV is perpetually on CNN these days. I am not really sure where my interest in politics started or how I became a staunch Democrat but I have been as long as I remember. I remember being in 6th grade during the 1992 election and hoping so hard that Clinton would win. I vividly remember consulting my magic eight ball several times on election day and that night, I excitedly sat down with my homework, which was to color in the U.S. map based on the electoral results and being so excited when Clinton won.
When I was in the third grade, my parents took my brother and I on a trip to Washington, D.C. I LOVED it! We visited every monument, historic site and tourist destination in the city. Our hotel room overlooked the Washington monument and I would fall asleep every night looking at it. I went home with a children's book of the Presidents and wore out the pages, reading it over and over. I checked out a book about the First Ladies from my elementary school library at least 10 times before heading off to middle school. On this trip, we visited the Georgetown University campus and at age 8 I declared that is where I would be going to college. I wore my Georgetown sweatshirt until I couldn't fit into it anymore and cheered on the Hoya basketball team from that day forward. Ten years later, there I was checking into my dorm at Georgetown University. To say Georgetown is a political school is an understatement. Being there for 4 years only heightened my love of politics. And here I am today, watching CNN all day, constantly online looking at the latest polling and hoping and praying this election turns out the way I would like it to.
I already did my part. We voted early on Friday. We had heard lines were running around an hour long, so we got in line about 2 hours before Joseph's normal nap time. The poll workers told us it was about an hour and 15 minutes from the end of the line.
This is Joseph's face as he sees how freaking long the line is!
We waited, we waited and we waited some more. At the one hour mark we weren't even close to being inside the building (where the line continued to snake along before actually making it to the booths). Here is the last picture before we actually got inside.
We're looking a little bored, boys!
At 3:00 we hit Joseph's nap time but we were inside the building and about 20 minutes away from voting. There was no turning back at that point. Joseph was fussy - so Rich walked around and around and around with him. Around 3:30 we finally voted! Two votes cast for Obama. In fact, we voted straight Democratic tickets (well except Rich voted Republican for Lt. Governor because he went to high school with the Republican candidate's daughter and thinks he is good guy). We were way past nap time by the time we left. Joseph fell asleep in the car on the way home...tired by his first experience with Democracy.
This was not Joseph's first trip to the polls, a few days before he was born, we took him to vote in the Democratic primary. Granted, he was inside my belly...but that counts!
This is my third time casting a vote for President. I've never known the feeling of seeing the candidate I support win. I'm hoping the third time is the charm. Either way, Tuesday night will be a late night.
2 comments:
I'm in total agreement with you on all the issues! Go Barack!
well, i will be voting for obama today, so you can be happy about that.
i don't agree with you about gay marriage, and i'm not going to try to convince you otherwise because i respect people's right to believe what they want. i will say, however, that i don't think all of the arguments against gay marriage are religiously-based.
(1) i think there is a strong legal argument that courts should not go about redefining marriage. if people want to VOTE to say that marriage = a relationship between any two people who love each other, and therefore authorize gay marriage, then that is fine. but i disagree with court decisions in Massachusetts and California that have said that gay marriage is a "fundamental right." it is not.
it is true that "marriage" is a fundamental right, but only insofar as marriage is defined as it has long been defined: a coupling between a man and a woman. thus, i cannot deny a homosexual man the right to marry a woman just because he is homosexual. but there is no fundamental, historical right for two men or two women to marry each other, because marriage has historically, in all of the laws and court decisions, been defined as a coupling between a man and a woman.
if the people of the united states want to change the definition of marriage to include gay marriage, or the legislature enacted a law to do so, that is in their power. but i think courts are wrong to redefine marriage on their own. that is legislative action that courts should not undertake.
(2) while, as stated in point 1, i respect the right of the people of the united states to create a right to gay marriage, i do not think it is a good idea and will personally vote in favor of civil unions for gay peoples, and marriage for heterosexual couples. in the state of California, these statuses convey absolutely equal rights and I hope that other states will follow suit.
as unpopular as this idea may sound, i think that the traditional family is the glue that holds society together, and i think that children have a right to be raised by a biological father and mother who are married to each other. while i recognize that's not possible in some circumstances and not even the best situation in some circumstances, i think it is an ideal to aim for. for a self-described "liberal democrat's" view on this, see this article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-blankenhorn19-2008sep19,0,2093869.story
(3) finally, and maybe this is a "religious" argument but it is more along the lines of religious freedom and not about accepting religious doctrine, i have real concerns about the clash between religious liberty and parental rights and gay marriage. if i trusted the courts to respect religious freedom when it clashes with the protection of gay marriage, i would not be as worried about the issue. but the courts have a poor record of protecting religious freedom when it conflicts with other "rights" like gay marriage.
now, do i actually think that courts will force churches to perform gay marriage religious ceremonies? of course not. i think that's preposterous. but will there be other consequences? i think so. churches perform many non-religious functions as educational institutions, charities, etc. *those* activities, which are not strictly "religious expression," can certainly (and have been) be curtailed if churches refuse to recognize gay marriage.
i also worry about parental rights. i'm sure everyone has heard about the case in Massachusetts where parents were not permitted to let their children opt out of sex education programs that taught about gay marriage.
i plan to teach my son that we are ALL children of God and that he is to love everyone and treat everyone with kindness. however, i will also teach him that marriage, no matter how the state defines it, should be between a man and a woman. will he be villified at school for so believing (as have many young people that i know?) i fear that he will be.
separation of church and state is important, but what concerns me is that the state, instead of adopting a state religion, has adopted a state *irreligion* where religious views are shunned and given second-class status. obviously the state should not set up and support a state religion (which was what the first amendment was intended to prevent), but i don't think that means that religious views and voices -- which have been such a fundamental part of american society -- should be silenced in favor of an increasingly condescending secularism. there's room for everyone.
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