opinions

Sometimes I wish I lived in a state (or even city) where more people understood my point of view.  I heard from someone that after Obama was announced as the next president of the United States, people took the streets in Portland, Oregon to celebrate.  Here in Indiana I had to celebrate with my family from the comfort of my living room.  I couldn’t even call my friends because many of them are McCain supporters.

I’m not saying that I have anything against that.  I believe that everyone is entitled to their opinion and it isn’t my place to try to sway or persuade anyone to my side.  I just feel outnumbered a lot and would love to feel like I ‘fit in’ with my friends, or even just the random people I see on the street.  Here many of them have McCain posters in their yards, stickers on their cars and buttons on their coats.  And at school I was told by a friend that I couldn’t sit with her the day I was wearing my Obama t-shirt.  I know she was joking, but many people around here wouldn’t have been.  I need a more liberal state.  Or maybe I just need to move back to Bloomington, one of the most liberal towns in Indiana.

That actually doesn’t sound half bad.  I’ve missed Yogi’s, Jiffy Treat and Upland Brewery.

election day

It still counts if this was supposed to be written yesterday and wasn’t, right?  I think it does, and that’s all that really matters.

Yesterday was election day.  I was so excited about it that I didn’t even grumble or complain when my alarm went off at 5:30 so I could shower and get to the polls before my 9:00 class started.  I made it there around 6:45 and was done around 7:15.  I had to wait in line outside for a while which kinda sucked because it was a little chilly and I didn’t have a warm jacket with me.  Just the blazer that I happened to be wearing.  But for the chance to have my vote counted, I didn’t mind.

After voting I headed to campus and barely made it through my first two classes before deciding that the sleep I’d gotten the past few nights wasn’t enough and left to go home and nap.  I did get a little sleep but then started to get very excited about the election and started watching MSNBC to see what was being said.  I was surprised at how much national coverage Indiana was getting about how it was a swing state.  Having lived here all my life I am very used to the fact that it is a Republican state. Indiana votes republican in every election and has for at least as long as I’ve been alive.  Seeing all the experts debating over which was Indiana was going to go got me very excited about the outcome of the election.  I even got to hear my little home county mentioned on the national news.  Little shout out to the LPC!  La Porte County, all the way, baby!  OK, I’m done now.

I even almost stayed awake to hear McCain’s concession speech.  I woke up in the middle of it and it took me a second to figure out what was going on.  I was so excited that it meant that Obama won, but I couldn’t help feeling bad for McCain.  And the people that were in his audience booing while he was speaking.  What was with that?  He could have picked better people to have around him during that time.  Especially since everyone there had been invited personally.  I couldn’t believe he had to tell his crowd to show some respect for the new president-elect.

After that, I didn’t make it to see Obama’s speech or to see Indiana turn blue.  I was there to see it turn light blue before all the votes were counted, but didn’t know it was official until this morning when I woke up to go to work.  I was so excited to see that, I don’t even have the words!

I’m very excited and interested to see what the next four years will bring.

something to think about

This was sent as a response to a mass email sent out by a school classmate of mine urging every contact he has to support McCain in the upcoming election.  A former professor of mine, Shahrokh Towfighi, who is a professor of economics at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (where I attend school), sent this and I feel that it really helps to shed a light on the whole Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin issue.  I’m not posting it to try and sway a vote, or even to publicly announce my support for one candidate or another.  I just think it is an interesting read that should make people think.

Here it is:

A question of perspective :
Obama/Biden vs McCain/Palin, what if things were switched around?…..  think about it.

Would the country’s collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit?

Ponder the following:

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severely disfiguring car accident, when she no longer measured up to his standards?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of  corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

You could easily add to this list.  If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Background:

Barack Obama:
Columbia   University – B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware -  B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law – Juris  Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of  899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University -  1 semester
North Idaho College – 2 semesters -  general study
University of Idaho – 2 semesters -  journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College – 1  semester
University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism

Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land, as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.

The only thing I want to say in response to this is make your voice heard. Vote on November 4th!!