Well, this is the first year that I get to vote. I’m excited - but it’s bittersweet. Although I’m not originally from America, I was raised here since I was three and consider myself to be quite patriotic - I am very much looking forward to voting (and hope more “young” people will also). But I watched my first presidential debate ever and you know what came to mind?
Two 3 year olds in a sandbox fighting over some toy
“hey that’s mine!”
“no it isn’t”
“yes it is”
“didn’t your mother teach you to share?”
“no- you can play with it when you pry it from my cold dead hands”
“you’re a selfish $%*&head!”
“I’m not selfish $%*&head - you’re a $#%*in’ liar!”
“I’m not a $#%*in’ liar - you are!”
….
(minus the profanity of course - but you could see them thinking it)
And as **** so kindly pointed out to me on the phone - that toy they were fighting over is the United States of America. Personally, I never fully took notice of it until now - but with each president, America changes, the overall feel of America - so I do know that choosing a president can definitely change the overall “aura” of this country, but after what I’ve seen, hell if I know what the right decision is.
For me personally, I know it’s not Mr. Bush. Frankly, this country hasn’t felt the same since Bush has been in the presidential seat and I don’t mean that in a good way. The whole Florida fiasco sucked (just so happens I live in FL) and frankly, had I been able to, I would have voted for Gore (not that it would have made a difference).
Mr. Kerry has me worried simply because he seems a little, what’s the word, shady - but what politician isn’t? And as I commented on Keith’s website - this simply boils down to the question of “which is the lesser of two evils?” and right now , it’s a 51/49 split in favor of Kerry…
And slightly off topic, regarding all these websites I see touting the US death tolls or the Iraqi death tolls - it doesn’t matter where the people are from that are dying, what matters is that they are dying. I think I remember what the reason is that our soldiers are over in the desert fighting - dying - killing…I believe it had something to do with Osama Bin Laden (and where is he now?) and I know it had something to do with the twin towers (I still cry when I think about that)…but then it had something to do with weapons of mass destruction (huh?)…then Sadam Hussein came into the picture (???)…and now it’s all muddled in my opinion. I never really liked politics and only took it because it was a requirement for graduation - but I see things how I see things. Let Iraq sort out their country, bring our soldiers home - they obviously are not wanted there, no one has any damn idea where Osama is, Sadam Hussein is no longer a threat and the weapons of mass destruction are hiding…it’s time to focus on rebuilding America and I hope that one day it can be the country I’ve become so fond of living in my entire life. This has been the first year that I’ve seriously considered moving to another nation (i.e. Europe or possibly Australia)…but I don’t want to just yet - that little peace of paper that says I’m a citizen is barely a year old*. However, I want to feel safe here again and I don’t feel that way when I know our soldiers are half a world away fighting someone else’s battle…
*I have legally been a citizen since the age of 15, however, the INS told my father I would automatically become a citizen (which was true), but they neglected to mention he needed to get the paperword for me as well. I wasn’t able to get it myself until I was an adult and even then it took another 2 1/2 years to finally get through to the right department…it was called “red tape”