"A Problem Page For All!"

My views after September 11th...they were sickeningly, blindly patriotic, and I remember writing a message to the terrosist in my diary: "WHAT has America done to you, ever? Are you just jealous, infuriated, that we stand for the most ideal things: freedom, justice, harmony, eqaulity, etc?" I'm so ashamed of that. I don't know why the hell I would ever just assume that our country had done nothing to deserve it. I don't know why I never considered that there has to be a reason for every action, even if it's not a reason I would accept.

I started becoming a feminist when I was about 15, I think. I've been an environmentalist and advocator of population control since I was 4 or 5, from what my parents have told me and what I vaguely remember.

That's not really answering the question of when I started becoming a true liberal, though. I've always leaned to the left (the left side of my body, I've noticed, is a little stronger than my right, I've noticed! And I've always liked my left hand better, too). All the things that liberalism stand for stand for my views. Just the name, liberalism, doesn't it sound great? It stands for freedom, ahh, no restraints, fresh ideas, liberty of thought. In contrast, to me, coservative sounds like an old, itchy tweed coat in a dark closet, afraid to come out.

I always longed for the courage to do stuff like glue appliques to my clothes, get a bunch of ear piercings and wear loud, clashy earrings hanging every whichway, to speak my mind about radical things, to put strange bumper stickers on my car, and as I got older that personal liberalism came around. Nathan was really the guru of it all -- he really liberated me in a lot of ways!

What about you??