w e l l ~ B L O G ~ t o ~ y o u ~ t o o !

03 November 2004
To the President and the Country  
I may be young, but I am not uninformed. I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I do not choose to affiliate myself with any political party. I voted. I voted in the last Presidential election as well. I did not vote for George W. Bush either time. Back in November 2000, I was even younger than I am now (obviously)--it was the first presidential election I could vote in due to the timing of my birthday--and I was also informed then. I listened to Mr. Bush's speech on "No Child Left Behind" and I thought on my own childhood and the rural school district I grew up in and I knew it would not work. It hasn't worked. That was the main issue for me in the 2000 election.

All that changed for the 2004 election. No. Not because of the attacks on September 11, 2001. Yes, I was frightened then--mostly because of that missing plane over the Pittsburgh area, and I was frightened for people I knew there. I supported attacking the Taliban. I thought it was the right and proper thing to do.

And then came Iraq. And all the lies. The lies that Mr. Bush told the American people. The lies coupled with fear-mongering tactics that tried to keep America in that paranoid September 12, 2001 mindset. The vague warnings that served to highlight where the country was in it's "Terror Alert." Mr. Bush wrapped himself in the American Flag making it so any questioning of his policies was a direct insult to America--or at least phrasing it that way. Mr. Bush: it should be the other way around. You should be willing to take a bullet to shield the flag, not use the flag as a shield against your incompetency and delusions of grandeur.

Because of all the happeneings between 2000 and 2004... and YES, I do include September 11, 2001 in that estimate as it happened on the administration's watch--after they deliberately ignored missives that it might happen. But because of all the happenings, I was more determined than ever to push the lever down for anyone BUT Bush.

Well, America: you've elected him again. You've bought into his deliberate fear-mongering. You've given into his emotional terrorism. You've deliberately hoodwinked yourself that Iraq and Osama bin Laden are related depsite all evidence to the contrary. You've watched the balanced budged and fiscal responsibility of the Clinton era be thrown out the window and the economy go into a downward spiral. You've watched spending increase in funding for a hubris-induced war so over 1,000 American citizens could be killed after the mission was declared "accomplished" in Iraq. You didn't accomplish the mission. "Major military operations have ceased" which is why stays have been extended and people can't go home and they're dying.

Then again, Mr. Bush never did have any respect for the National Guard. It was a way for him to get out of serving.

Well, I can just see civil rights being revoked one by one. I can see bigotry being legislated in an attempt to keep homosexual people as a group of sub-citizens: that if they want equal rights under the law, they have to change something about themselves that is as impossible as changing the color of their skin. "Gay" is the new "Black".

Staying steadfastly on course isn't a good thing when the course is sent to take back freedoms and rights that people have fought and died for. Even when the plane was flying lost over the Pittsburgh area, I was't as frightened as I was the evening of November 2, 2004 and the morning of November 3, 2004.

You see, I'm not a Christian. I do not follow that faith. I do not follow that belief. I'm terrified that my fundamental right to follow my pagan ways will be stripped from me. I'm terrified that many of my close friends will either have to hide who they are or leave the country. I'm terrified that I won't be able to write something like this in a few years. I'm terrified that any voice that is dissenting from what Mr. Bush desires will be snuffed out. If there should be a war on terrorism, it should start here in America, and it should start in this regime that is becoming exactly what claims to want to destroy.

Some wise person noted that people who give up liberty for security get and deserve neither. Yeah, well our liberties are going down the drain. After all, what are Liberty and Justice but two women who go hand in hand in America... and we all know what Mr. Bush thinks about homosexuality.

Someone else noticed that no good leader wants to go to war. Well Mr. Bush did. He wanted to go to war. He wanted to right some imaginary slight on his father's honor. Even Bush Sr. knew enough to know that deposing Saddam Hussein would come with too high a price-tag.

I fear for America. I fear that this country will be standing as a beacon of Democracy like we delude ourselve to thinking it is. I can only hope that there are enough moderates like Sen. McCain who will know enough to temper Mr. Bush's delusions. This is what I am terrified of: not Iraq; not the Middle east. I am terrified of America's President.

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 14:21