My only political rant...promise.

OK, I know I am practically kicking a dead horse with this but I had the PLEASURE of having to listen/tolerate Bill O'Reilly tonight. I work at a job where I spend approximately thirty to forty-five minutes hooking up a series of electrodes to a person before I monitor them all night,(keep your seats, it's as glamorous as it sounds) and I had a patient tonight that insisted on watching this.....person....(I'm trying not to sling mud here...he does that enough) while I hooked her up. Well tonight Bill was......Bill, lashing out at anyone that has any different view, social or political, and basically insulting the intelligence of any that do not practice AND preach the right wing conservative DOGMA. But that IS what the belief system of the Republican party is right??? HATE and FEAR anything that is not like you....
I was raised in an extremely conservative God fearing Southern Baptist home, moved away and was exposed to different creeds and personalities in college; atheist, agnostic, conservative, liberal, apathy, and fanaticism. I consider these social interactions as much of my learning experience in college as I do my time in classrooms, I learned a lot from just listening to people. Now, much to my mother's dismay...no it's not a phase... my views have changed drastically during and since college. My point is the fact that Bill got me thinking, we have an unbelievable need for change in this country. The fundamentalist extremists that run this country are literally running it into the ground....I mean there are detainees in Guantanamo Bay being held on suspicion....for YEARS without trial, simply on their skin color and creed/religion. I watched an interview with a general that audited that prison, and while not verbatim, he said that a fraction of the population in that prison are being held justifiably. I know what you are thinking, people that are not American citizens are not entitled to the rights of said person but that is an incredibly slippery slope. OK, Ill get off that soapbox and get to a point that hits home....
As of Saturday, 3,921 U.S. military personnel have been killed since March of 2003...that does not include the wounded...or the mothers, wives, and children that have to care for the wounded....whether that is putting up with the nightmares, helping out of bed, or even changing diapers. I hope that puts the same image in your head that it does mine. As we go about our lives there are government agencies crawling all over our civil liberties to "defend freedom in America" OK, what about the nearly 4,000 people that have died fighting a war in a country half a world away against a country that couldn't even harm a U.S. citizen 200 miles outside of its borders.....Were they protecting our freedom here???? It literally makes my skin crawl to think that there is a CHANCE that those people died in vain....I don't even like to entertain the idea....I refuse to believe it!! which is why WE have to do something about it...here is a quick vocabulary lesson.

Fascism: A political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

OK, while we are not quite there...we are a hell of a lot closer than I care to be. I met a girl this weekend in Lawrence KS that gave me a good feeling about the upcoming year. She was in the area campaigning for Obama, she was volunteering her time for a cause that she believed in and most importantly CHANGE. Lets get this party out of office....this girl is traveling many miles for change...drive to the damn polls....we have NO excuse. I know none of what I have written is groundbreaking...new....or even entertaining, but it's eating at me and I had to get it off my chest. I'm ending this with a quote from Timothy Leary, just because you are told something.....it doesn't necessarily make it true.

Think for yourself
Question authority

Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.


Think for yourself.
Question authority.