100 Things | Politics

13. I am pretty much a bleeding heart liberal.

I am for people. I want to have equal rights for people all across the board -- orientation, gender, race, religion and so on. When bad things happen to people, I think we should help them. That is what neighbors do so why wouldn't our government help too. When a single mom raising 3 kids on her own has to work 3 jobs - 1 just to pay for daycare and 2 just to cover bills and makes it nearly impossible to raise her children why wouldn't we want to help send her to school to get a better job. When companies are downsized, plants closed, jobs sent over seas - shouldn't we help that man support his family by giving him new job training? Help with insurance costs? I saw a conservative blog ranting about that people that work 3 jobs should stop having 7 or more kids. I actually don't know many people who have 7 kids but I do know people with 2 or 3 kids working multiple jobs to keep things afloat. As Bush said 4 years ago it is uniquely American to work multiple jobs and I just don't think it should be uniquely American to have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to make ends meet. It shouldn't be so hard.

When I was in college, I was involved in Amnesty International. A good friend started a chapter at our school it so I was like her co-chair. I also was involved 2 more groups one against the death penalty and other against nuclear weapons. I wrote letters and signed petitions and even canvased too. Now I get emails everyday from different groups to look over. I do lots of emails to senators and congressmen/women and esign online petitions.

I haven't always been as informed about politics as I should have been but being involved with Michael has changed that. One of his majors in college was political science and you can say it is one of his passions. He cares about America and is passionate about the issues that effect us daily. Politics is almost a daily discussion for us. He has a political blog so he leaves most of politics off here (otherwise you would see about 5 posts a day sometimes here on politics) but I do write about it once in a while. And with this election coming up I do see it becoming something I write about more. I read many a blogs where they say they aren't going to talk politics because it just isn't one of those things you should discuss with friends or family. Well this is my blog...I write about me and things I like, dislike, enjoy or care about. And being politically aware is a part of my life. As I said we discuss politics in this house daily. So why would I leave such a big part of me off my blog? So if you don't like it -- skip the posts.

When Bush ran the second time, I did a long list of reasons why I wasn't voting for him and included 2 to 3 sources for each reason. I have started that for McCain/Palin. I don't feel McCain/Palin represent me as an American or the issues I care about. I will have many reasons in my post why I don't feel they do. But I do believe Obama truly cares about the people of this country and our future. Hopefully I will get that post done by next week.

Monday we were up and out of the house fairly early as Obama was in our town. Which was a fairly big deal to me but also Grand Junction in general as Truman was the last democratic Presidential nominee that was here. We knew we wouldn't be able to do the standing in line to go to the event but we went to the airport. We got fairly close view of the his plane land and then we were about 20 feet from his car as it passed by and we got a clear view of him. I told Michael that if we had lived in a big city we never would have gotten that close. We came home and listened to some of his talk on a live stream of it on the web and then left again. A friend of ours was at the event and called us when Obama left the event. So we camped out on the route he would take back to get one more glimpse of him. And we did...just as close again. Michael even got a little shot of him as he passed. I know it was only a view a little glimpse of him but it still made me happy! History in the making right before my eyes. (I love this picture from the event as has a visible Grand Junction landmark in it....Mt. Garfield. It is something you can see from every spot in Grand Junction really and it isn't far from our home.)

So I decided to do as part of my 100 Things about me one on politics...as politics is something that is discussed daily in our house, a part of my life and I am pretty much a bleeding heart liberal.