America is a fast-paced land.
Alright, I'll admit it. I'm one of those nutshells who, when home babysitting and bored, will go on Facebook and look at the pictures on The Comical Conservative page and then after a while switch over to the Being Liberal page to compare. At the end of it all I was quite angry at pretty much everything.
You know how it works. On both sides of the spectrum, name-calling name-calling name-calling. When you add the two together, everyone has been called a completely selfish, brain-washed idiot who blubbers at the face of a single face... and also the wise one who understands so much more because they've done all the research.
I'm honest when asked and I'll go ahead and say that I definitely lean more to the right side. This is how I've been raised. People on both sides of my family, both religious and atheist, both wealthy and not as much, many of whom are extremely intelligent and experienced, are conservative. Not to mention the fact that Arizona is typically a Republican state, and although my religion does not take a political standpoint,74% of it's members are also registered Republican.
But as I look into both, I start to realize that neither is totally correct. Yeah, I believe {in my own free, personal opinion} that one is much better than the other, but there are still issues.
If you've read my blog you know that I'm in my comfort zone when other people are happy and peaceful. Aren't we all? When the Pilgrims sailed to the New Land and years later the Revolutionary War was fought and a Constitution born, the main goal was to achieve freedom of smile. Even if it required initial hardship to gain it. I believe that the Constitution is a beautiful creation and it pierces my heart to think that our own government would fail to uphold it. {In a 2001 radio interview, Barack Obama is quoted to have said, “generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: [It] says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.” Hello?! One of the greatest purposes of this document-- the same document that influenced many other independence-and-democracy-seeking nation-- was to limit government power. Remember England's strangling grip on the colonies?}
Let's get real here. Tomorrow is the 4th of July and every All-American family is planning on a BBQ and swim party and a trip to see fireworks with their red, white, and blue to celebrate this wonderful country. It's problems just get frustrating, and so now I am going to spurt it all out.
- Probably my biggest problem with the liberal agenda is the whole abortion/"pro-choice" deal. {I've already discussed my opinion on this particular issue here.} I have absolutely no right to speak for those victims of rape or those women who have serious medical concerns; they have suffered plenty and can make the decision as they wish. But for the vast majority, well... Let's be blunt. If you want to get all lovey-dovey, it is NOT the baby's fault. The baby has every right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that you have, so if you don't want him or him, ADOPTION. I know personally some wonderful families who are unable to get pregnant and have to wait for years on the waiting list to adopt a child. Then you have the whole deal of taxes to cover birth control or companies having to pay the insurance. I'm sorry if you "can't afford it." Because as my friend Chandler pointed out in a class discussion, the best form of birth control is abstinence. Makes sense, right? Lesson here: deal with your own friggen sex.
- However, one thing that leaves me uncomfortable with the conservative party is immigration. This issue is a big head-spinner whatever side you look at it from, but I'm concerned that the typical Republican may not look at it from an understanding point of view. First off, it's not as simple as just "Washington needs to put up the dang wall already" as I've heard people say. The border is 1,969 miles long, and even then it won't prevent people from entering. It's also extremely expensive, costing $20 million per 28 miles. The average yearly amount spent on border enforcement in general is $1.4 billion. And if no one already realized, this nation is already in at least $16.7 trillion worth of debt. Then you have the 11 million people who are already here, living illegally-- and the question is, would shipping them back home or granting them amnesty cost more? Also, rarely do these people "take jobs from Americans." People coming from Mexico where minimum wage is $4.25, unemployment is high, and social programs are few are way more willing to accept those dreaded jobs and for a lower pay too-- ever wonder how much more some things would cost if Americans had to pick the fruit, scrape the meat from crab shells, or clean the stalls? Now for the moment put aside any problems for the U.S. when it comes to illegals and put yourself in someone else's shoes. Can you imagine living in a situation where your family is starving and almost no work is available? Keep in mind that we do not choose the circumstances we are born in, and as a person born in the U.S.A., the country with the highest standard of living, I know that I am nothing more than lucky and grateful. If there was a better option, I'm sure people would take it, because crossing the border is extremely difficult {more than $2500 payed to cross per person not to mention the over 2000 deaths in the past decade} . And gaining citizenship legally is a really long, hard path as well because there is a cap to the number of people who can come per country, and in places like Phoenix, it can take 11-15 years to get permanent residency. People are desperate! Now I'm not saying that we should have illegals, however, I do believe that we should increase the number of green cards available because I know people would seize the opportunity in an instant. {thank you to sources including Time Magazine, The Arizona Republic, and the U.S. Border Patrol's Department of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C.}
- So gay marriage was just legalized across the country. This is a very difficult, controversial topic. In my own {again, very personal and free-spoken} opinion, homosexuality is morally wrong. I have been raised in a strong Christian home that taught me these values, not to mention the fact that I have a boyfriend and am quite straight anyway. But then I realize-- just because I believe that it's a sin doesn't mean that other people do {I just believe they'll find out on the other side-- again, opinions opinions!}. Similarly, just because I and others believe that alcohol is bad doesn't mean that the Prohibition worked. I know gays who, even if I don't agree with them, are amazing people that I totally adore. For the issue of homosexuality, at this point I'm just like let's let everyone leave each other alone. As long as my future children understand the religious principals of The Family Proclamation and gays or lesbians don't infringe upon the rights of straight people by forcing Christian or other similarly-believing churches to marry them, I'll stay out of their business. We already had enough trouble in my own church back in its early days when everyone else opposed polygamy.
- Then we have the gun-rights problem. I lean more right when it comes to this, but I also believe the left has some good points. In less than a year the U.S. has experienced several shootings, including the Aurora and Newtown shootings I posted about. It's devastating to see the innocent perishing by the quick, merciless hand of someone so clearly grasped by the devil. However, remember the 2nd Amendment protecting the right to bear arms and the fact that, in times preceding the Constitution or its amendments, Americans had been facing some serious troubles with British oppression and the King's desire to remove weapons from Patriot hands so they would be left weak. In the eyes of Sir William Blackstone, the right to bear arms is the right to protect oneself. Fortunately we live in a republic and not under the tyranny of a foreign monarch. But living in a time where war is common and enemies pound their fists, you never know what can happen. 270 million guns being owned by Americans {the U.S. is the most heavily-armed nation} is probably an effect of this very thought: What if the freedom we enjoy today was torn from our hands tomorrow? We'd need a way to fight back just like our ancestors did. We can also take a look at history and see how Jews under Hitler's rule, not considered "citizens," were excluded from any benefits of the 1938 German Weapons Act and therefore prohibited from gun ownership {look what happened soon after that}. Also, in 1918 the radical Bolsheviks in Russia made it illegal for any one outside their party to own firearms-- this being during the Russian Civil War. And you can always keep in mind those stories of strangers breaking into the home. Thus, it is obvious then that we really should be prepared and have some of self-defense. However, concern also lies with the fact that guns can be used for offense as well, and we can't deny the number of people who have been murdered, like I said, in even this year alone. So do we need background checks before guns are sold? Or maybe the honest truth is the average citizen does not need machine guns. I'm not sure.
- With the whole Global Warming thing, I have heard several things from both sides. Especially in the past, I read several articles on the deterioration of the ozone layer and the destruction of habitat, etc.; I've also heard stories that the people advertizing the deal have been found hypocrites, flying the same privet jet planes they just announced to be terrible for the environment. My dad tells me about his youth when people claimed the world was slipping into a "Global Cooling." Really, the more I look into it, I believe Global Warming has been an exaggerated issue. According to the Wall Street Journal article No Need to Panic About Global Warming, an article signed by sixteen known scientists, the earth hasn't experienced an increase in temperature in the past decade {this being backed by the research done by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit, which took data from 30,000 stations worldwide-- thank you PolicyMic's article A Really Inconvenient Truth: Global Warming is Not Real}The biggest "enemy" to the environment was claimed to be CO2, however, keep in mind that plants need CO2 to grow and produce our O2. Studies show that many, many years ago life on earth greatly expanded when the level of CO2 was 10 times the level it is today. Not to mention the fact that CO2 is increased only when temperature increases, NOT vice versa. 31,000 scientists since 1998 have even signed saying that there is no evidence of Global Wamring. Guess how many followers of the IPCC are there to say there is? 2500. This being said though, that doesn't mean we can't make an effort to be green and treat our world kindly {as long as it doesn't take $106.7 billion of taxpayers' money like from 2003-2010}-- it's our home, and I'd rather be safe than sorry.
But obviously that won't happen. So in the mean time, I'm gonna do my best to research and vote for the right people when I turn 18, and even before then try to bring a smile to others' faces.
