Until today, the bravest thing I had ever done was a tie between getting divorced and moving into an apartment by myself a year ago.
Today I received a copy of "Vote For A Man, Not A Puppet" by Charley Reese and forwarded it to my parents and grandparents. I actually added a preface begging them to think very, very hard about the kind of world our current president is creating and whether my children should have to bear the brunt of it.
I have avoided talking electoral politics with my conservative family as much as possible because it causes me near-physical pain.
It's a similar pain that I feel when I come into contact with right-wing media, and I know I impoverish my view of the world by avoiding it. So I'm trying to steel myself and venture out to some of the "readable right" blogs identified by lefty bloggers I trust.
But the pain of interacting with my family around politics is all wrapped up in the pain of knowing that we are often working as cross-purposes in the world, though their values often feed my conclusions.
I don't know what their reaction will be.
The letter is below - not particularly well written, and I think I should have left out the part where I said I wouldn't tell them what to do with their vote. Of course I would!!! :)
I'm forwarding something that I would like you to read. But first, I'd like to say a few things to preface it. I don't know how any of you will react to this, but I have to do it anyway. If you feel I've overstepped, I hope we can talk about it.
We're coming up on one of the most important presidential elections of my lifetime so far. I would never try to tell you what you should do with your vote, but I'm begging you to think very hard about what kind of world our current president is creating. It terrifies me, and it terrifies me that my children will inherit the brunt of it.
My feelings about this have become even stronger since I saw Farenheit 9/11 on Friday. Michael Moore, who made the film, is an unrepentant liar and I don't believe more than a third of what comes out of his mouth. He says he's making films that show his opinion, but unfortunately he also seems to feel entitled to his own set of facts - which may or may not match up with what actually happened.
But in this film, the majority of the facts he presents are similar to or identical to much of what I've been seeing and reading in the past year in media both mainstream and alternative. And even if I believe only 1/3 of what Moore says, it's enough to make me very afraid.
This is an administration that has invaded another country without committing enough troops to get the job done and keep our people safe, declassified documents for solely political reasons or to try ruining the reputations of critics, passed the PATRIOT Act and is trying to make it permanent even though the government had all the information it needed to get the idea of 9/11 ahead of time and just didn't manage it well, holds people incommunicado in detention just because we can get away with it, withdraws from international treaties, and insists that U.S. personnel be above the law of international courts.
It orders government employees to keep the true costs of legislative changes a secret until after key votes, orders federal agencies to refuse to comply with Freedom of Information Act Requests, and alters scientific documents and research based on religious and partisan ideas. Now it has ruled that federal agency employees can't attend international meetings sponsored by the World Health Organization unless it's approved by a political committee.
It ran up a huge deficit and increasing government spending ***even non-defense spending*** ...even the Heritage Foundation, which is usually rah-rah-Republicans, says that Bush is out of control on spending especially when viewed against the massive tax cuts.
And don't even get me started on the endless parade of deception.
George W. Bush is not a good man. Please think about whether he should be leading the most powerful country in the world before we get to November.
If you need any additional information, please ask me.
Comments (3)
Props to you.
Um, yeah, hi. I Googled "Flooded Lizard Kingdom." Too curious not to. :-) I'd return the favor by showing you mine, but apart from comments on blogs and an open-archive discussion list, I don't have much of an internet presence.
Posted by Shane | June 28, 2004 11:26 PM
WOW! You'll have to do a follow-up on the response to your missive. Or the lack of one, which I suppose is possible...
Posted by JPed | June 30, 2004 9:53 AM
Brave. I hope it turns out well.
If you are up for some detailed reasoning behind some other viewpoints, I find the The Volokh Conspiracy (http://volokh.com/) a good read. Some friends who are "right" of me pointed it out some time ago. At first I wasn't impressed, but I've changed my mind and I now find it worthwhile. It is more libertarian than conservative though. They also have guests from both the left and right, including Cass Sunstein (left of Volokh) who wrote some really interesting stuff recently (http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2004_06_21.shtml#1087950677).
Posted by Travis | July 1, 2004 6:46 PM