In Response to those Bush pop-up ads...

(For my People and Politics class a couple years ago)

Why I'm a liberal:

In such a world where hate is in itself a slang word and the practice of which is the doctrine to our gods Right and Wrong, do we retain the option to fight fire with fire, as our ancestors (be they Roman, Athenian, Homoerectian, etc.) before us? Forgive me for my ignorance, but I suggest a weapon beyond the purchasing power of even our defense budget: tolerance. For the bonds of society may be a yoke upon us as humble oxen, but not as humbled cattle. And the “amber waves of grain” is not subjugated nor looked upon condescendingly by the “purple mountain’s majesties” but as brothers each from the womb of Our Lady Liberty and as an equal part in the fifty-star force we like to call America. I stand for the right to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” in order to maintain not “A more perfect union” per se, but to remain, more importantly, “one nation...indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all”. Need I a donkey?
As such, I am persecuted by those who place themselves above the nation. They call me blasphemous because I call them “comrade”. However, I would like to make one thing clear: though I support a right, it does not mean I exercise it. On the contrary, I am a devout Christian. But lo, Jesus sat upon a donkey. Forgiveness, my dear Watson, is the key to the first principle: Life. Be it eternal or mortal, there is not one human that can decide that we do not have this right. As such, we rebuke those who believe they do, we call them murders. Yet, vainly using the name of Justice, we kill those who kill? (Do ya see what I’m gettin’ at?) And our hypocrisy seeps out upon Hippocrates, for how else do we obtain the necessary injections and gasses to kill our killers? Even further, we stand by our fair-weather oath to for go the whole dignity principle and, instead, force people to exercise their right to Life, instead of letting them waive it in favor of a Happier beyond. Friends, Romans, Countrymen: Caesar has left the building.
We stand united. For a cause such as liberty for all demands that we put aside beliefs to the contrary for the better of the whole. We are all but pie slices in the circle of life. Yet we deny that we are all one pie in favor of imperialistic, chauvinistic, and many other –istic beliefs that bring us to, dare I say, symbolic cannibalism. Is cloning any different? I say not. The only question in the Alzheimer mind of the Elephant is whether it should be available to the powerless plebian. Call me a stubborn mule, but aren’t we equal? Do we not deserve the power of healing prescribed by our own body? The argument, however, is that the government may dictate how we use our body. Why not our property too? Hey, while we’re at it, let’s forget the whole capitalism thing and follow a Stalin-inspired fascist-communism (red is so in these days). Or, we can put the blindfold back on Justice, and allow us the right to govern over our individual self, be it the uterus or the chromosome, and allow us to make all decisions concerning our health.
Like I said, I apologize for my ignorance. I am colorblind. My father is Hispanic, my sister and brother are African-American, and my relatives are rednecks. My mother taught me, when I was very young, to view humans as ice cream: she and I being vanilla, and my siblings being chocolate. I still haven’t really been able to grasp the concept of prejudice: I just don’t understand it. I mean, we’re all ice cream, right? Either way, we all taste good. I guess this concept expands to the fact that we all have goodness inside of us. Because of my firm base in God, I refuse to let “an eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth” rule period, but I especially worry of expansion into “a life for a life”. As a child, I didn’t know this made me a liberal. However, history has made me painfully aware in three words: Nixon, Reagan, and Ashcroft (the later challenging my great state of Oregon in favor of his fair-weather fundamentalism). They are ice cream, nonetheless, but their constituents are flies (ßyes, that is an allusion). Even the people I trust to give me the flipside to our conservative media like Billie Joe Armstrong, Serj Tankian, and Art Alexakis, usually accepting of others behavior (as is most any rock musician today), cannot condone the personal and political actions of the current (appointed) administration. Overall, I’m just a tree-hugging, pacifist, left-wing , and sometimes stubborn donkey. I am liberal, hear me bray.

(this one is an editorial I submitted to the paper, but they sent it back, it was WAY too long, I just got a bit mad)

The State of The Union Address – 2004

“Businesses are opening, health care centers are being established, and the boys and girls of Afghanistan are back in school.” Yes, it’s good that all our taxpayer’s money went to help Afghani citizens build back their economy after 9/11. And while Bush eloquently (cough, cough) addressed the Iraqi war for half his speech, he failed to truly elaborate on his plans to fight the battles here: the economy, education, civil rights, and the right to be safe from physical danger that is not caused by warfare. As he so stated: “Unless you act...unless you act”. Unless you act, America, we will be doomed to repeat the same travesties as we have seen from him. He has no clear plan, no direction, and no respect for the voice of America and the American way.
“We can go forward with confidence and resolve, or we can turn back to the dangerous illusion that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat to us.” Or, third option, it’s kind of far-fetched, but we could GET THE HECK OUTTA THERE AND STOP MAKING PEOPLE MAD! Apparently Bush has turned to using the same tactics to get people on board as the terrorists do: fear. “Each day, law enforcement personnel and intelligence officers are tracking terrorist threats; analysts are examining airline passenger lists; the men and women of our new Homeland Security Department are patrolling our coasts and borders.” Well, I hope so. Let’s not forget that 9/11 was more than a travesty for the citizens who died that day, but also for the fact that the CIA did not “catch” the information. What left us vulnerable was not Al Quieda’s “brilliant” attack, it was the fact that we didn’t stop it. And that was because of why, Mr. Bush? “You need to renew the Patriot Act.” But our CIA worked without it just fine during the Gulf War, Cold War, Vietnam War... pretty much every war except for yours. It does seem a little strange that we need this Act now, in a time where we should be building back the basic structure of America, and the brotherhood that begot us. Yet we are constantly trying to cope with the Crayola spectrum of colors to tell us exactly how secure we are. In acknowledging the current President of the Iraqi Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi, Bush said: “Sir, America stands with you and the Iraqi people as you build a free and peaceful nation.” After he’s done with that, maybe he can come back and help us with our own.
Yet Bush’s reasoning for helping these “poor, oppressed peoples” (who have certainly made up for their lack of food with a sudden abundance of “weapons of mass destruction”) is that: “I believe that God has planted in every human heart the desire to live in freedom.” What about Yahweh and Allah? Bush has continued to make Iraq a Holy war; Jesus v. Mohammed. As a Christian, I am offended that this man would dare use the name of the Lord in such a reckless manner, as he has done in these speeches. I’m pretty darn sure that God doesn’t want reckless murder, and that is what Bush has continued to provide us with: a reality show gone wrong. The plot behind the war, weapons of mass destruction, has not been proved, though we have given him ample time. The truth is, we needed money, and Bush has been smart enough not to address exactly who is rebuilding Iraq: his buddies that gave him the money to be “elected”. Yes, even before we had won Iraq, Chaney was selling contracts to oil companies. Though we get our oil from Kuwait, France and Germany get their oil from Iraq, and somebody needs to sell it to them. Hmmm...maybe that’s why they didn’t want to go to war. Maybe they had trouble with the last man we appointed to be leader of their oil fields.
Maybe, just maybe, they should have some say in what happens to Iraq. But, of course, “There is a difference, however, between leading a coalition of many nations, and submitting to the objections of a few.” Yes, because we all know how important Poland and El Salvador are in the world scheme. Bush consistently recognizes then denies opposition to the war. Face it, the only REAL country we got to help us was England, and that’s just because they wanted money too. The “responsibility” of America is not to make friends, be a hero, or guide other nations; it is to ensure that each American citizen is granted the rights that he or she is allowed.
But, I guess that it’s just too hard. In his response for our security against possible obliteration, Bush said “we're insisting that North Korea eliminate its nuclear program. America and the international community are demanding that Iran meet its commitments and not develop nuclear weapons. “ Gee – don’t strain yourself there. As for our war on drugs: “I call on team owners, union representatives, coaches, and players to take the lead, to send the right signal, to get tough, and to get rid of steroids now.” Yeah, they’ll get on that right away. “We expect third graders to read at a third grade level...“ We also expect you to read at a third grade level, Mr. Bush, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. The only thing Bush did by attempting to mention his half-plans for another term is frighten us. Maybe I just don’t understand. If we reduce taxes, yet institute more programs, where does the money come from? Oh yes, that pesky Social Security. “We should make the Social Security system a source of ownership to the American people.” See. Mr. Bush, we kind of already own it; it’s a little thing called popular sovereignty. Instead of forcing each person to put their sorely needed retirement funds in the flow of regular business, FDR realized that there needed to be a system of rules to protect it outside of regular commerce. That’s why he instituted the system to protect the people. Now is not the time to be tinkering with the idea of cutting Social Security.
And that’s what Bush is doing, tinkering with the idea of his America: an America that uses fear to govern her people. An America that uses one conservative morality to define the broader issues of love, hate, safety, health, and liberty. An America that uses political and economic lassiez-faire. An America that will jeopardize it’s future to pay for it’s past. An America that will not prosper. In his speech, Bush mentioned a letter he received from a young girl. It read: "Dear George W. Bush. If there's anything you know, I, Ashley Pearson, age 10, can do to help anyone, please send me a letter and tell me what I can do to save our country." Ashley, all you need to do is be an American. When you are old enough, vote for people who cannot destroy this great nation. If only the average Middle-class majority of Americans could simply stop trying to look at the miniscule tax-breaks and the ominous figure of safety for one minute, they’d see the other America, which has since re-emerged. That is the voting minority: the ill, the resident aliens, the children, the poor, the imprisoned, the unemployed: the dark side to the bright light of “prosperity”. Instead of following blindly the idol of Individualism, we need to remember to look at ourselves as a country this election, and do what’s right for America. A man that uses peace to define war, and money to define prosperity is not a credible choice for a leader. A man that can say that we: “must work together to counter the negative influence of the culture” is not a reasonable choice for leader. Finally, a man that would miss-use the name of his own God to further his agenda is a man that is deplorable, and should not even be a considerable choice for leader. The state of the union will be AWOL if we allow him to continue.