Barack Obama has clinched Democratic Candidate for President.
For the first time in my life, I will be able to vote for the presidential candidate of my choosing rather than against the presidential candidate that I think will do more damage.
“But what you don’t deserve is another election that’s governed by fear, and innuendo, and division. What you won’t hear from this campaign – or this party – is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon.”
Senator McCain agreed with President Bush that “talking to ‘terrorists and radicals’ was no different than appeasing Hitler and the Nazis.” (New York Times 5/16/08) This was in response to Senator Obama stating that he would engage in discussions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the democratically elected President of Iran.
I’ll be the first to acknowledge there’s a lot I don’t know about international relations, diplomacy, and politics. But it seems to me that there is a difference between talking to someone and agreeing with them.
Isn’t it possible that we can engage in coversation with another party without caving in to every one of their points? Isn’t that what happens when we have political debates? Does allowing someone to talk automatically mean that you agree?
As soon as you plug your ears and start yelling “la-la-la-la-la, I’m not listening to you” you have effectively cut off and eliminated any opportunity to learn. The more you get them to talk, the more you learn about their vision, their plans, their motives, what makes them tick… That knowledge is power, not a weakness.
Oh, yeah, we’re Americans, we don’t need to learn anything from anyone else, they should just learn from us. Why is it that the rest of the world hates us? Freedom? More likely arrogance.
I’ll cut this short and just leave you with this clip of Senator McCain calling for talks with Hamas
In the few short months between my trip to Alaska for a family reunion in August and my trip to Alaska for my father’s funeral in October, I read Sarah Vowell’s book Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World. The book had been sitting on my shelf for nearly a year before I finally picked it up and started to read.
The first essay in the book was called “Shooting Dad,” a coming of age story of sorts: a progressive minded young woman grew up in the middle of nowhere in a house full of republican gun fanatics, yet finds her way home to a reconciliation with her father during an outing that involves his cannon. Hmmm, could be the story of my life.
My dad was famous around town as the guy with the Moose Gooser – A cannon that he kept at the house and packed up to take to every home game and most away games of the Palmer High School football team, the Palmer Moose. He was obsessive about that cannon and spent hours loading the shells by hand before each game.
I went to one game with him to watch him fire the cannon. That was this August and it was his last game. I read Sarah Vowell’s essay a month later and it was exactly what I needed to hear. No matter how extreme our political differences, he’s still my dad. And I love him – and I miss him.
The story is as funny as it is touching and well worth the time to read it.
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