Brewed Nature

A pound of Thoughts; A smidgen of Sarcasm; A quarter-cup of Concern; Two leaves of Bay; One Clove. Steep for days, constantly stirring with a branch of Oak.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Why I'm Voting For Obama

My ShoutLife friend, Lisa Holloway, posted the following blog to which my reply follows:

The Obama Conundrum Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - 10:04 PM

Rather than hi-jack my own (other) blog to continue making Obama quips, let me just put it out there: What about Obama do you find reassuring?
---
Lisa Holloway

New Horizon Writing
Visit My Website

First, let me start off by saying I am never reassured by any politician.
Here's why I am voting for Barack Obama:

I would normally vote for an independent, but this election is too important to me to END the Bush/Cheney tyranny that's plagued this country for eight long years. So I have to support Obama to make that happen.

Obama's tax cuts will help anyone who makes less than $250,000. I don't know many people that wouldn't help. In my opinion, if you're making over $100,000--you're well off. Over $200,000--you're rich so you can afford to help spread some love. And if you're a small business owner who can't figure out how to keep your income under $250,000 by investing (protecting) the rest of your money into your own company, than you don't deserve a break. Large corporations should have to pay much, much more into our society. CEOs and profiteers can easily take a cut in pay and still live very well--and that money could help raise those who deserve it--the worker bees. Increase their salary. Even Obama said in the last debate that he has no problem taking a cut in pay. **PERSONAL EXAMPLE: In my town, the city board thought it wise to provide tax cuts for incoming corporations like: Target, Walmart, Borders, Barnes & Noble--because they need it. Right. This shut the doors of many of our smaller locally-owned businesses like bookstores and gift shops and ma & pa grocers who couldn't compete and lost business. Why not give small-business owners a tax break? Oh, wait, that's what Obama wants as well. What a smart man.**

I want health insurance. And I don't want pre-existing conditions to stop anyone from getting it. McCain's plan of a 5,000 dollar tax break to all won't help everyone--especially those who have more severe health problems and require more expensive policies. Ok, so you have $5,000 to finally purchase that health insurance you've needed for years but had to go without--now, how are you supposed to pay for the rest when your policy is costing you more than that? And the whole idea of purchasing insurance from other states just brings about way too many problems to get into here. Besides, shouldn't the richest country in the world provide health care to all its citizens? Shouldn't good health be a civil right? I don't see how it's not. America is listed 24th for Infant Mortality Rate. That's pathetic and embarrassing.

Abortion should be a legal right for women. Whether it's legal or not, if a woman wants an abortion she will find a way--even if that way kills her. Making abortions illegal won't change the number of abortions per year. Whether I would have an abortion or not is not the issue here. Each woman should be able to make her own moral decision--especially keeping in mind the Free Will we were all granted by God. It should never be regulated by the government. Just like prohibition--that didn't work either for the same basic reason. Laws will never dictate singular actions-just punish them.

I believe, even though Obama is a politician, that he is sincere in wanting to help American citizens to the best of his ability. I believe that he is a good man.

Obama will create green jobs and lessen our dependency on countries we should not want to deal with for our oil--which is the only reason we deal with these countries in the first place. Our country will become more self-reliable and it will boost the economy while cleaning up the planet.

Obama understands, better, what many citizens are going through financially due to his own financially-challenged upbringing whereas McCain has no clue with his seven houses and his wife's inheritance. (Saw a clip the other day where she said it was such a bother to fly around all over with a commercial airline that she decided to buy a personal jet for her and the hubby. How convenient for them.)

Obama is young, intelligent and hard working. McCain is physically weak and was, supposedly, in the bottom 5 people of his college class. I am TERRIFIED by the notion of Palin becoming President if anything should happen to McCain.

Obama wants to bring our troops home--out of a war that should never have begun (in Iraq) in the first place. Bin Laden is hiding where? That's right, in Afghanistan--so we think. THAT'S where we should be (and should have been all along) until he's found. Now THAT would protect our freedoms and bring about the revenge Americans crave. THAT'S where the al Qaeda are training to kill Americans. War should never be a business. Halliburton and its shareholders should not profit from death.

I could probably go on, but this is enough for you all to attack me with, I figure.

Peace,
Lydia

Grandma's Gone--Stream of Thought

I recently found out that my grandmother passed on in March of this year. My brother and I weren't notified because of cut family ties, which we're both quite upset over. My grandma was more like my mother than my own mother was. She was loving to us both. We lived with her until I was 7 and my brother, around 10. This is a stream-of-thought piece I wrote after thinking back on how good our life was with her--until we moved out. Things changed drastically then--it seemed our childhood ended after grandma's house. But that's covered in other posts here.

My brother and I became best friends in my grandma's backyard. We had a sandbox and a swing set, but we tended to gravitate toward the trees instead. He in the crab tree and I in the shorter cherry tree. He would pelt me with fallen crabapples. I never retaliated with cherries; instead, I'd return confiscated crabapples--our form of dodgeball. Flowers, trees and croquet. Sticks, squirrels and a pet dog. We'd return from school, watch Spiderman and then out to the backyard! We spent hours out there. I dare say for us both that it was the highlight of our childhood. The eight-foot tall wood fence was our barricade from the neighbors--keeping our imagination safe between the two of us. Squirrels ran along top the fence line clicking and gawking--stuffing bits of nuts into their suitcase-cheeks, jealous of our play. I eagerly helped grandma weed while she taught me the names of all the different perennials that were bedded in the bordering garden around the grassed-in square. We'd help grandma collect fallen branches and twigs, and tidy the yew hedges that framed the flagstone walk and steps into our hidden retreat. It was heaven to me. Accompanied by my two favorite people--Scott and grandma. Uncle Dennis would visit every weekend, and Scott and I had the grand pleasure of preparing the family game of croquet--setting up the little wire brackets made of bent hangers. Ivy, Wild Ginger and hundreds of Lilly of the Valley clumped tight against the wood fence. Grandma would call us to dinner and we'd reluctantly file into the kitchen through the back door. After our prayer, we dug in, shocked at how hungry we were. Gingersnaps or Oreos for dessert. Sometimes cobblers. The dog sleeping under the extended, 50s-style counter with a red and green ameba-looking pattern, the smells of homecooking, the jar of Easter-colored eggshells above the sink--all of it always an added comfort to our meal. After our bath with GI Joe and his scuba gear, we'd play with our wooden Noah's Ark set, our wodden train set or our Tinker Toys. Grandma would shuffle us off after a while, into our bed--the same bed. Too bad for Scott that I still sometimes wet it. But we were still best friends. And we always looked forward to the next day's adventures in Grandma's backyard.

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