Government Accountability ...

So I was thinking about a political science class I had a couple of years ago, and a survey which was mentioned briefly during one lecture. There is an international organization out there designed to rate governments on their transparency versus corruption. I don't remember exactly where the US fell (it is 13 right now), but I do remember that Finland was rated to have the least corrupt government in the world. Here is the thing: It also had the most suspicious people in the world. The country with the population which had the lowest opinion of its government also had the least corrupt government. If you think about it, this makes sense. It is a cause and effect relationship. People rule the government in a democratic society, a point which I cannot raise enough. When people are so suspicious of the government that they look for everything it does wrong, that is the healthiest thing possible for a society. When people do that, the government cannot get away with corrupt or dishonest activities. There is a lesson in this. People trusted Obama all through his campaign, with everything he did not say, and every issue he did not address, they trusted him. I did not, but now that is of no significance. NOW, however, NOW they need to start questioning everything he does. Please question. People have already started to excuse Obama's mistakes, and he has not even gotten into office to make them yet! If he goes socialist, it's McCain's fault for calling him one, so the socialists will want that. If he goes radical democrat, it's congress' fault, because they will be pushing him and he might not be able to stand up to them. If Obama makes any mistakes, it is only because he was given the hardest job of being President of anyone since FDR! Obama wants to be a certain thing, but if he is not, it is not his fault! That is not the point, the point is what gets done. People need to elect the person who can help the country the most, not the person who they believe has the best intentions. But you elected him, now HOLD HIM RESPONSIBLE! I understand cutting a person a little bit of slack, "I understand why they made that mistake," but do not blame someone else for the President's mistake. We are taught not to do that for ourselves from such a young age, hold the president up to the same standard you were taught to hold yourself to. Never stop questioning. Never stop thinking of what your solution to problems would be, and questioning why the president's does not match that. You might decide that his solution is better. You might decide that he made a mistake. You must not simply believe that, because the president says it, it must be true. You must not simply believe that, if things go wrong, there was nothing the president could do about it. You must hold the president and the government accountable for their actions and the results of such actions. You must be ever critical, or the transperancy of this country's government is going to decrease tremendously, and once corruption enters, not only is it difficult to remove, but it makes everything else work less well. Even if Obama has good intentions, being critical is going to help. It will keep him trying his absolute hardest. It will give him ideas he never had before, and alert him to problems he may not have seen. Always hold the government accountable; it works for you, you do not work for it.

I am so Sick of People Saying ...

They were never proud of this country before. I have never heard a more ridiculous statement. I have never heard a statement which so blatantly dismissed the history and culture of an entire country. I have never heard a statement which so completely disregarded the ideas and values of an entire segment of the population (and if you think I mean racism, you are just stupid enough to be the one saying you had never been proud of your country before. If you think America was built on racism, discrimination, hate, etcetera, if you that that is what this country has stood for since its founding, then I URGE you to leave, because someone with such a low opinion of a place should never seek to reap the benefits of living there. Morals should guide everything we do, and if you have willingly participated in a society which is so morally bankrupt, in order to better yourself, then you are worse than the society is. Move to a country where that is not the case, if you can find one.) since I heard Obama's statements about "clinging to guns and religion," "uneducated, poor white people not wanting to vote for a black man," or how about Congressman Murtha's calling his constituents "racists," then "rednecks" and then getting reelected! (I swear if he had to appologize again, he would have said "I am sorry for my statements, but my constituents should understand that I do not mean this exclusively of them, but of all of small town America) Electing Murtha again was a terrible idea. The man has so little regard for his constituents that he cannot possibly have their best interests at heart. Obama has the same disregard for the American people. I wonder if people feel the need to prove themselves to people who do not care about them in order to show that they are good, or better. That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. They will never respect you more for voting for them. They will never be thankful. They will just see you as weak, someone they can manipulate, someone they can use to achieve their own ends. That is exactly what Obama is doing with you, if you are someone who is only newly "proud of your country." Michelle Obama said this early on in the campaign, and she had to appologize for it. Barack Obama said it three days before election day, and people decided it was the thing to say, just like gucci sunglasses and uggs are the things to wear. Voting for your country because, if a certain person is elected, it will somehow prove that you are superior, in this case, that you are not racist, is, to date, the absolute worst reason I have ever heard for supporting a candidate. If you vote for Barack Obama, you get an "I am not racist!"' bumper sticker, along with a whole line of clothing and accessories. You excuse every immoral thing he has ever done, everything he has ever said, because he is black. You make excuses for things you would never do, yourselves (I hope ... ), and which you absolutely would not tolerate out of any other candidate, because he is an African American. Do you REALLY have to lower your standards that much to support a black man? That is the truly racist viewpoint. John McCain said he "truly began to know how much he loved America" when he was suffering at the hands of brutal interrogators in Vietnam. When he was tortured every day, he began to realize how much his country meant to him. Barack Obama and his wife began to "be proud of their country for the first time," when it awarded them the nomination for Democratic candidate, and, later, the presidency of the United States of America (however corruptly certain people had to act for each step to be achieved ... ). Somebody raised the question "how is that different?" Perhaps other people realized how stupid that was, and that is why I have never heard it answered, but this is why it is different. When John McCain said it, he was giving to America. When Barack Obama said it, America was giving to him. If you put it on a personal level, it is like if your friend said "This is the first time I have realized how much I appreciate you." when they have had to make some sacrifice for you, versus if they said it when you gave them a particularly nice birthday present. Would you be friends with the person in the latter situation? I have never heard a statement which so immediately removed any shadow or echo of respect I ever had from the person who uttered it.

An Excerpt from the Diary of Captain Wilm Hosenfeld ...

About August 21, 1942, Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, of the German army, stationed in Poland, wrote this in his diary.

After 21 August 1942, Lying is the worst of all evils. Everything else that is diabolical comes from it. And we have been lied to; public opinion is constantly deceived. Not a page of a newspaper is free of lies, whether it deals with political, economic, historical, social, or cultural affairs. Truth is under pressure everywhere; the facts are distorted, twisted and made into their opposite. Can this turn out well? No, things can't go on like this, for the sake of human nature and the free human spirit. The liars and those who distort the truth must perish and be deprived of their power to rule by force, and then there may be room for a freer, nobler kind of humanity again. Captain Wilm Hosenfeld.

Captain Hosenfeld saved multiple lives, and was an articulate, intelligent, religious and compassionate witness to two of the greatest atrocities of the twentieth century, indeed world history, himself falling victim to one of them. The first was the holocaust, perpetrated by people of his own country, and the second, the Soviet gulags. The more than half century separating the present day from the Great Depression and World War II have indicated to many people that nothing bad can really come of our choices, that, at worst, tragedies will be short term, easily contained, and without serious, long term consequences, either military or economic. No choices we make can have dire consequences in the long term. They can. We are not voting to give either Barack Obama or John McCain an honor like the Nobel Prize, simply acknowledging their accomplishments and then living our lives as we have been living them for the last few decades. November 4th is not the finish line, it is not even the starting line. For the next four to eight years, and beyond, you will have to live with the consequences of your actions, of your decisions. With a heavily Democratic Congress, and, soon, a Democratic Supreme Court Justice, Barack Obama will have more power than anyone has had in the history of this country. Do you really know enough, with enough certainty, to risk a Barack Obama presidency? People who have lived in the most terrible dictatorships the world has ever known did not know that people who are now the world's most infamous leaders would do what they did. In 1917, Russians did not expect the Bolsheviks to sieze such utter power and rule so brutally for so long. They thought the situation could not get worse than it already was. I even believe that Lenin had good intentions. In 1933, no one suspected that Hitler would attempt the largest scale genocide the world has ever known, or that his government would be one of the most brutally authoritarian in humanity's history. In 1951, millions and millions of people genuinely mourned the death of their beloved leader, Joseph Stalin. With the story changing, the mystery, the secrecy, the complete lack of public support, or even public appearances, from people from his past, including friends or family, the questionable ties, the questionable statements, the absence of a voting record, the inexperience, the promise by Joe Biden of an international crisis, the lack of understanding of foreign affairs, the treatment of Joe the Plumber, and every question which has been raised by people of the McCain and Hillary campaigns and ordinary citizens, which have not been answered but merely diverted by personal attacks, talking points and topic - changing, I do not ask you to conclude with absolute certainty that Barack Obama is a horrible person and will make a terrible president. I merely ask that, as you enter the voting booth on November 4th, before you pull the lever, you answer to yourself whether or not you are willing to deal with the risks of an Obama presidency.