9-11
My husband and I saw the new movie "9-11" last night. I didn’t want to see it because I felt I had seen it all in real time, as had most Americans, and didn’t want to relive the horrors. While it did bring back the horror of those times, it was also realization that America has forgotten how real and how horrible terrorism has become in our world. Seeing the steps unfold again reminded me that the fighting over most of the world today is no different from that awful day in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania just a few short years ago. Only today it’s not in my American back yard. It’s not happening to people we may know, work with or people we personally connect to because we are "Americans." Because the terrorism has not happened in the US in such an in-your-face way since 9-11, we have become distanced from the outrage, the threat, and the reality. We have allowed the popular media and political division to turn the public’s outrage into an agenda clothed in the rags of terrorism.
I do not say one political party is superior to another because each is only made up of it’s many members, individually different in significant ways. And, although members usually belong to specific political parties because of their general idealism and doctrine, it is foolish to let the media push voters into generalizing specific members by party. As Christians, it is our duty to assess the heart and soul of each elected official’s agenda and decisions not the media’s spin (which often fulfills the media’s agenda not the citizens.) But, I digress . . .
No matter your political affiliation, you cannot (should not) let the world slide by without knowing who to elect and why. You cannot do this by only reading or listening to the major news media reports. You cannot get a whole picture of what our military is doing by simply listening to one candidate debate another or their press releases. You cannot see world situations by taking mini bites of the news with your breakfast cereal. Let me give you an example to the impact of voting for candidates with little research to see if they actually do and will represent your beliefs.
In spite of the majority vote by California citizens to not allow grade school textbooks to be changed in the manner of SB 1437, elected Assembly and Senate officials has passed such a bill. There are three others (SB 1441 and AB 606 and AB 1056) pending with worse results for the traditional family. Seventy-six percent of the voters said "No" and still the officials who were elected to represent the citizens of that state disregarded their constituency for their own personal agenda. Where were the 76% voters when these officials were originally elected? SB 1437 has been sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although he originally said he would not pass any of these bills, he now says he is rethinking (meaning someone is putting political pressure on him). Understanding that the governor has political ambition beyond this position will help you understand he may now bow to pressure that does not represent his own voters. It is a lesson for all Americans in the necessity of voting for the candidate that represents your own personal belief system. You cannot do that if you do not research how they have voted in the past, if they voted when they were in former positions, statements they have made, personal and political choices they make, and their reputation on integrity and fairness. And if you are a Christian, you should know their history making decisions that reflect your beliefs.
You, as a working American, have the opportunity to have a broader view of how your candidates perform. You can have the world view in better perspective from your exposure to more information. You have the ability and resources to know who does what they say and who is all talk. You have the power to influence who makes your decisions in local, state and national government. It will be the most important thing you do in the next election. Eventually, it can determine the way your child will be educated, it will mean if your religious freedoms are compromised, and it will determine how your country will fight terrorism. You cannot allow candidates who do not represent family values to succeed because you simply didn’t get off your duff and do your Christian duty. The California bills have the potential to spread to the rest of the states (as has been the case over the years). They are not bills designed to insure fair and equal treatment of all peoples. The bills were not designed to protect the innocent, the minority, the underprivileged. They are bills designed to impose sanctions upon religious freedoms of all our citizens. They are designed to subvert your religious and moral freedoms. Please make your vote count in each election.
I do not say one political party is superior to another because each is only made up of it’s many members, individually different in significant ways. And, although members usually belong to specific political parties because of their general idealism and doctrine, it is foolish to let the media push voters into generalizing specific members by party. As Christians, it is our duty to assess the heart and soul of each elected official’s agenda and decisions not the media’s spin (which often fulfills the media’s agenda not the citizens.) But, I digress . . .
No matter your political affiliation, you cannot (should not) let the world slide by without knowing who to elect and why. You cannot do this by only reading or listening to the major news media reports. You cannot get a whole picture of what our military is doing by simply listening to one candidate debate another or their press releases. You cannot see world situations by taking mini bites of the news with your breakfast cereal. Let me give you an example to the impact of voting for candidates with little research to see if they actually do and will represent your beliefs.
In spite of the majority vote by California citizens to not allow grade school textbooks to be changed in the manner of SB 1437, elected Assembly and Senate officials has passed such a bill. There are three others (SB 1441 and AB 606 and AB 1056) pending with worse results for the traditional family. Seventy-six percent of the voters said "No" and still the officials who were elected to represent the citizens of that state disregarded their constituency for their own personal agenda. Where were the 76% voters when these officials were originally elected? SB 1437 has been sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although he originally said he would not pass any of these bills, he now says he is rethinking (meaning someone is putting political pressure on him). Understanding that the governor has political ambition beyond this position will help you understand he may now bow to pressure that does not represent his own voters. It is a lesson for all Americans in the necessity of voting for the candidate that represents your own personal belief system. You cannot do that if you do not research how they have voted in the past, if they voted when they were in former positions, statements they have made, personal and political choices they make, and their reputation on integrity and fairness. And if you are a Christian, you should know their history making decisions that reflect your beliefs.
You, as a working American, have the opportunity to have a broader view of how your candidates perform. You can have the world view in better perspective from your exposure to more information. You have the ability and resources to know who does what they say and who is all talk. You have the power to influence who makes your decisions in local, state and national government. It will be the most important thing you do in the next election. Eventually, it can determine the way your child will be educated, it will mean if your religious freedoms are compromised, and it will determine how your country will fight terrorism. You cannot allow candidates who do not represent family values to succeed because you simply didn’t get off your duff and do your Christian duty. The California bills have the potential to spread to the rest of the states (as has been the case over the years). They are not bills designed to insure fair and equal treatment of all peoples. The bills were not designed to protect the innocent, the minority, the underprivileged. They are bills designed to impose sanctions upon religious freedoms of all our citizens. They are designed to subvert your religious and moral freedoms. Please make your vote count in each election.
posted by Diane Gibson at
12:32 PM
