When I was young, we used to visit my grandparents, aunt, and cousin, on my dad’s side. I would sometimes stay longer, particularly in the summers. My aunt was a teacher, so she did academic things with my cousin and I. We would go to the “back room” of my grandparents, and do geography lessons with the map that was on the back of the door to the room. We had to watch the news and pick stories to write papers on. Yep. That was my summer vacation. I’ll never forget when she had my cousin and I write the instructions for making a peanut butter sandwich. We went into it, thinking “this will be easy”, and then realized what happens when someone takes your written instructions literally.
Years later, it wasn’t too surprising that I chose to study political science in college. My dream was to be like Christiane Amanpour. Originally, I wanted to do a dual major with journalism, but quickly found out that the journalism track at my school was more for regional news reporting, and my focus was definitely on political and social issues world-wide. One professor told me my paper read like something out of New Republic. I was so flattered, until I realized that’s not what he wanted. I graduated with a BS in Political Science, a second major in English Literature, and a minor in Philosophy. This is really just a summary for those who stumble onto my blog. This is my background, and even though I found a paycheck in IT as an application developer, my heart is still in being an aware citizen, helping not just participate in discussions of social issues, but to help frame the discussion.
I started this blog, because this election year is such an important year. It is critically important for US citizens to wake up, start paying attention to our elected officials, and to those vying to be elected to represent us. We have a lot going on in this country and the world. A lot of complex issues, concerning equality, the environment, and international relations with leaders of countries where we either have allies, enemies, and sometimes both.
I’m going to start writing articles (blog posts for someone who has interest in journalism, but isn’t being paid to do it), in the fashion of what my aunt taught me as a kid. Pay attention to the news and write about what is important and why. Hopefully my writing skills have improved some, since those days. I don’t expect my blog to gain any huge following, but I have strong feelings about the candidates, the issues affecting our citizens, and how we as a species are treating each other globally.
To get it out of the way now, yes #ImWithHer. I support Hillary Clinton and am so excited to vote for her in the general election. It is past due for us to have a female President, and I hope we can flip congress to blue in November as well. I want to see Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnel voted out. I want to see Pence, Cruz, and Rubio shut down for good. I want to see the rhetoric of #BlackLivesMatter get the traction it needs to affect real change in our policing and ensuring that all citizens have absolute equality. I want LGBT rights to be secured in all states and to protect trans people from the hate of fear and ignorance.
I want people who make millions and billions to pay their fair share, and for those living in poverty to have real support, including mental health, so we can help them to heal and be provided real opportunity. I want our military budget to include real veterans support, because the first thing we should be doing, is ensuring that when they come home, there is NO red tape between them and the benefits they rightly deserve.
I am a bleeding heart liberal, who wants all Syrians to be able to go to school and not have a war in their schools, living rooms, and their hospitals. I want to see people condemn Trump for the selfish narcissist he is, who only cares about his own gain, and not the interest of American citizens. I want to see him defeated in November. I want people to vote.
If there is one thing I would hope my blog will do, it would be to convince people they should pay attention to all candidates running for office in any district that they live in. It would be to convince people that true patriotism is not waving a flag. Its voting. I want people to use logic and critical thinking in their debates of the issues. I want people to hold candidates and elected officials to what they say, how they vote and what they stand for. I want 100% voter registration and turnout, because we have no excuse for low voter turn out. We live in a country that prides itself on our democracy, while not taking part it in. I want that to change. I want to help discuss the facts, so that we can shape the discussion around the truth, and engage our citizens in our democracy.
Thank you.
Image Rotated 