Leslie’s Politics (in short, kind of.)

(*Some things weren't clear, so they've been edited. Thanks!)

Disclosure: Politics and choice were never presented to me at Greater Beckley Christian School, which I attended from the first to twelfth grades. We were taught that one party was right and one party was wrong. We were taught the following:
1. Christians are Republicans.
2. Non-Christians are Democrats.
3. Homosexuals are evil.
4. Abortion is never a valid choice and the only people that “supported it” were the people who would have one.
5. The people who kill people absolutely deserve to be killed also.
6. If you don’t have a good job, you and your family don’t deserve proper healthcare.
7. Welfare is evil and for lazy people.

Because until I was eighteen, I spent just about everyday with the people telling me this and didn’t know that “thinking for yourself” existed, in November 2002 when I turned eighteen, I obviously registered myself as Republican. Since then, I am absolutely a completely different person with totally different beliefs.

My beliefs about Christianity have been completely changed. I still call myself a Christian but I am not religious. I have a relationship with my God and that is personal. It has nothing to do with anyone else in the world but me. I let my relationship and discernment help me make educated decisions about me, my life, my family, and how I will raise my daughter. I believe in a new covenant that started with Jesus and that the covenant in the Old Testament of the Bible was replaced with the new one, not just simply added to. (I will further address religion at a later date.)

The Issues that Ruffle People’s Feathers:
Abortion. I am pro-choice. I am not “pro-life” and I do not even support the phrase; that implies that supporters of choice are actually supporters of death. I could not personally ever have an abortion, but I do understand that some people believe that they are making the right decisions for themselves when they choose to end a pregnancy. It is the personal decision of the person or people involved in the conception, pregnancy, and/or upbringing of the child that has been conceived. I cannot hold other people to the same standards that I hold myself to because people are unique. Each situation is unique and each person has his/her own unique set of values, goals, etc. I cannot expect everyone to live by my values and I do not expect everyone to have the same values that I have. If someone tells me that something I decide is good for me is wrong because it goes against values that they have, I cannot respect that because they are closed-minded. I refuse to do the same and tell someone that abortion is wrong for them and wrong for everybody.

Death Penalty. Jail has several purposes. Without question, jail restrains dangerous people and people that have broken the laws that this country believes are universal and worthy of being punished. They are taken from society to keep the people that are not in jail safe. Jail is also for punishment. The people in jail (generally—I am not referring to the people that are in jail unfairly) have done something wrong so they are not allowed to be out in society doing things they’d much rather be doing than being in jail. Jail is for rehabilitation. Time spent in jail is meant to help the people in there learn that they made a mistake and should probably not do it again. If we believe that criminals can be rehabilitated, then we should not take their lives. The death penalty assumes that people that have taken the life of another person are beyond rehabilitation. I am also going to add that every-day-argument that if we value the life of the murdered, why do we not value the life of the murderer? Both were children at one point, both grew up, both made decisions. Both are humans. We cannot devalue life. It is not our place. (I actually have a lot more to say about this and will link you to what I have to say when I get it up here.)

Homosexuality. Marriage, etc. Once again, it is not my place to tell a person or people what is right for them because his/her values might be different than mine. (See again: new covenant.) I am not going to say that homosexuality is right or wrong because again, each individual person is unique and has every right that I have to make his/her own decisions. What is right for me is not always right for everyone else. Again, if someone were to condemn me for my sexuality, I could not offer them my respect on that issue because I have made the decision about my own sexuality. I personally support gay marriage. I believe that if someone wants to marry someone else, nobody should have the right to stop them. We should not stop two people that love each other from making a committment that they want to make to each other. Love is beautiful no matter what color or gender it is made of and people who diminish the love of a man and a man or a woman and a woman are saturating the world with hate and ugliness. As a side note, I am choosing not to share my sexuality. Some may know and if you do, great-I trust you enough to tell you. (*edited for clarity. Apparently the first time, I wasn't so clear.)

Healthcare. This one isn’t so controversial, but plenty of people exist with the views that I was taught in my regime, er, school. I believe that we should have a system that will offer healthcare to people whose parents/guardians do not have a health plan until they are eighteen years old or until college graduation if they choose to go to college. It is not the faults of the minors if their parents/guardians do not have healthcare. Whether lack of education, lack of physical ability, hindrance of finding a job that offers a health plan—their fault or someone else’s, lack of care keeps the parent/guardian from getting some type of healthcare plan for their children should not punish the minor and force them to remain ill or hurt or keep them from getting proper care. Sometimes the parents cannot help but not have insurance and therefore cannot help their children. Sometimes parents are just apathetic about their children and while I hate to admit that happens, it does and that child has to suffer because of the apathy of someone else. I understand that we have some healthcare systems that offer underpriviledged children medical insurance (eg. CHIPS), but they are incredibly flawed as I have been able to personally see by the experiences of some people very close to me. If a mother and father get separated but do not plan on divorcing, they are both probably going to need jobs. With parents with two jobs making enough to live off of, the child is no longer qualified for CHIPS, but the person that has primary custody of the child is going to have to pay for food (because now she doesn't qualify for food stamps), random necessities, health insurance, and now a daycare service. Without an education and in states like West Virginia, she is going to have a very difficult time (if she can do it at all) that is going to allow her to afford all of that. So, no. I don't believe that we have adequate healthcare plans for children that are in situations similar and often worse than this cannot always get the healthcare that they need. My ideas are a kind of first-steps thing. Sure, socialized healthcare would be great, but Americans are too commercial and consumer driven for me to even hope for something that ideal-I'm just keeping it realistic folks. (*edited for clarity. I was too vague the first time through.)

Welfare, government aide, etc. Sometimes circumstances are beyond the individuals control and they just need help. I really don’t know how we can fix the welfare system from being cheated.

Putting our noses into the business of other countries. If we did it, we need to fix it in the most helpful, efficient, honest, unbiased way possible. The war on terror isn’t what it says it is. It is a war on people we think are terrorists. We had no business going into the Middle East after we didn’t find weapons. We assumed a group of people were plotting against us so we went looking in their land for their hidden weapons. We should have stopped when we didn’t find them instead of trying to force the rest of the world to be like us. We can’t even do democracy right here; we have no right to believe we can make other countries do it right. We assumed that what was right for us was right for another country. We shouldn’t have done that; we have enough problems of our own. We should fix what we broke and get out of there. I know that it sounds really heartless, but we can’t just go around trying to fix everyone else unless we develop a global police or a one world government. That is a bad idea, so we should have minded our own business. Ashamedly, I admit that we cannot help Darfur. If I cannot agree with what is happening in Iraq, I cannot support stepping into another country and trying to do the same thing. I do not support genocide or anything-ocide, but I can’t have a double standard.

Bipartisan system. We are, by name, the United States of America. If that is true, then why are we encouraged to pick sides of different people that want to be the leader of the country? I do not think it is a good idea for a united country to be fought over by two different parties. And if we must have two parties, why are the different people within the parties fighting each other? Shouldn’t they be working together? If you really want a Democrat in office, why are you fighting so hard against another Democrat? Don’t you have some kind of commonality and shouldn’t you be happy if another person from your party is qualified to do the job. Hilary Clinton should have stepped down a while ago. I think her actions are childish and reaching. Her actions are making people that might actually consider voting Democrat more confused and, as my friend Amanda said, divided. She offers her country numbers and rejoices when they give them back to her. But what does our country need at this point in history? I think we need something that we seem to have had nothing of for the past eight years and that is hope. She does not offer hope to the hearts of Americans and she does not try to offer it. She loves money and posters and color and shouting. Barak Obama offers hope of peace and asks questions of the people that come to him with questions. I think he inspires action in the citizens instead of allowing the citizens to expect the president to dictate what happens. That is what should happen. The president is the leader of the country, not the ruler. The president represents the people; he/she does not order them. Selecting from different parties is a round-about way of saying “I am better than you.”

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Voting isn’t black or white, male or female. Just because we think her husband did a good job does not mean she will do a good job. Just because he doesn’t believe in killing unborn children does not mean he will do a good job with the issues that are really important at this point in our country’s history. Just because he is black does not mean he'll enslave white people. Voting on values doesn’t work and if you vote because someone does or does not support abortion or homosexual marriage, you make an uninformed vote. Voting cannot depend on party and values; it depends on the issues that are changeable right now. Allowing yourself to check a box of someone for a single issue and not the big picture or even the main issues is irresponsible. We cannot vote values; we must vote issues.

Don’t waste your vote in November. Understand that diversity in values, color, gender, sexuality is what makes the world. Make an informed decision about the issues that need to be addressed right now. We need to be made peaceful and secure. People will always support or oppose abortion. People will always support or oppose gay marriage. We cannot always be at war. We cannot always be on the verge of depression. We cannot always be in debt. We cannot always spend $75 billion a day on the war when it should go to better use—education, alternate fuel sources, sick and dying people, inflation, the globe--because without the money, we’re depleting the globe and without the globe we’re nothing anyway and it isn’t our place to take that away from our great-great-grandchildren. We are just here for the blink of an eye. While the voting system is imperfect, your vote is still important and so is your conscience. Whether you vote for him or her or him or him, vote informed. Vote on purpose and with conviction. Don’t just check a box just because and then feel proud that at least you voted; that isn’t voting. Be passionate about these things; they do affect you personally and the people that you bring into the world after you.

*Now, for really, really short: I am super open minded and extremely tolerant.