Write Or Wrong 82

Four More Years

That's right, you heard correctly, George W. Bush will be the leader of our country for four more long years. On November 2nd, Election Day, the people of the United States of America flocked out to the polls in record numbers and voted in Bush for his second term as president. This time around he did get the popular vote, fair and square. And, of course, as all presidents must, he won the electoral vote. But this doesn't make it any better. We have just voted in a man who has no business in the White House. A man who has not done good things with his presidency. A man who is bending and breaking the rules that our forerunners have set to ensure fairness in our country. And this marks a swift, cold power shift in the United States.

First off, let me come out and say that Bush and his religious angle to government is bullshit. Has he heard of a little phrase called "separation of church and state"? So many of his decisions revolve around religion. Take the stem cell research topic that has so many folks in the religious right up in arms. I'll give bush credit in that he actually allowed for 70 lines of stem cells to be used for research. But he did so, it seems, in time only to sway some supporters who were mostly with him but pushed back because of his stance of the topic. Let's be honest, what do religious beliefs have to do with this? Are we not allowed to use our human ingenuity to work to decipher the human code and develop ways to help cure the illnesses that ravage our population? Is it because these stem cell samples come from aborted foetuses? Well, if that's the case, let's get into that. Does the president, using his religious beliefs have the right to ban abortion? Well, obviously he's working towards that. But what should be asked is, why is he imposing his religious beliefs on us? Why is he trying to use his faith to shape our lives. He has said that he is tolerant of other religions and beliefs but in doing this he's not demonstrating that ideal. He's slowly eradicating peoples options and making them fall in step with the hardcore Christian beliefs that abortion is wrong. What about those people whose beliefs are different? What about those who don't share the belief that abortion is wrong? I mean, we all have our different faiths, and it's beautiful that we can all worship them individually, but it is not our place to impose the aspects of those faiths on others. Plain and simple.

Also, I've been reading a lot about some of Bush's fellow republicans who have recently been voted into office. A lot of them have some very extreme views on things. I was reading about how one republican wants to make it illegal for unwed mothers to be teachers. What is that? Why should that be illegal? Is there something about an unwed mother as a teacher that would turn her students into a Satan-worshipping cannibalistic rapist? No! Of course not? It's the idea that a person has had sex out of wedlock. The hardcore religious folks see that as a bad thing. They think that having a teacher who is an unwed mother would perpetuate that "lifestyle". Does that make any sense to ban that? You're just persecuting people because they are different than you and last time I heard, that was illegal.

And let's move on to another topic where people are being persecuted because they are different: gay marriage. Now, please tell me a good reason why gay marriage should be illegal. Why is it that Bush and his ilk feel the need to protect the "sanctity of marriage"? Why are they protecting it from gay folks? What are they going to do that straight people haven't already done? Let's be honest, heterosexual folks haven't exactly done a great job in marriage as of late. The divorce rate in this country is sky-high and we let celebrities like Jennifer "JLO" Lopez and Brittany "Ooops, I got married again" Spears destroy the beauty of marriage with their quickie weddings resulting in divorce, or multiple weddings . . . all ending in divorce. This is just another ploy to persecute gays and keep them as second-class citizens. Oh, the president and other politicians may pay lip service to the gay population and how their rights and well-being matter, but when forced into a "separate but equal" situation people have to start realizing how wrong that is. Gay people are exactly that, "people". They are just like you and I and deserve the same rights afforded to everyone. Why people keeping making divisions like this still bewilder me.

Also, let's get down to the voter breakdown. Hispanics turned out in record numbers to vote. And a great deal of them, the majority in fact, voted for Bush. Hispanics, what the hell is wrong with you? As a Hispanic I can say with certainty the Hispanic population has made a grave error. I'll concede to the fact that most Hispanics fall into the Christian demographic, and nearly all of those, Roman Catholics. As such, they seem to have an affinity for the president's religion-based beliefs. Hispanics, let's not kid ourselves, the majority of us come from poor neighbourhoods that get little to no aid for educational and health programs. You have some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in all of the nation and the tax breaks that the upper class folks get and the effects that it's supposed to have just barely trickles down to you. Also, there was a big deal made about how the young people of this country were going to be a big part in how this election played out. Well, that wasn't the case. I read that only 1 in 10 people in the 18-24 age group went out and voted. That's just sad.

But I guess what I'm writing about here is useless in the end. All of us here on this site, be it Chad, Troy, Karl or myself have always tried to be informative and progressive without being outright nutjobs. Well, most of the time anyway. But it's getting disconcerting that all that I've written is for naught. All the stuff that people like us, and other wonderful writers and journalists have written has fallen on deaf ears. People just don't want to hear what we have to say. Or, in this case, read what we have to write. They want to feel safe under the thumb of Bush. They agree with his religion-as-government ideals and his shoot first mentality. "Bush, the Born Again Cowboy". I guess that appeals to people. But we'll keep on writing and fighting and hopefully some of you will read what we've put here and maybe agree. That's all we can hope for. It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you actually tried. At least we all tried. Until next week, folks.