Change is in the Air!!!

Posted by meli on Wednesday, November 05, 2008 in military/retirement, social justices and controversial topics | No comments

Can you feel it? Can you taste it?

Hopeful, optimistic, grateful, joyous, encouraged ... all great feelings to wake up with. I'm feeling so - sunny!!!

I am so very optimistic about the future of this country.

I cannot wait to get started, and see where we go.

Obama is a very inspiring man, with brilliant ideas, and a character that will work tirelessly to make those ideas become reality. I am proud to have supported him throughout his campaign. I am proud to have cast my vote for him. I am proud to call him my next President.

As soon as the race was called for Obama, my children all squealed and let out whoops of joy for Obama! What a wonderful memory for them to have.

For the McCain supporters, again, I'm sorry. I know how disappointed you must be feeling. I've felt it for the past 2 elections. I poured my heart into Gore, and wished beyond words for him be elected. I believe in that man so entirely, his vision, and to have that taken away - it hit me hard. I also supported Kerry. He wasn't the candidate I would have liked to have been chosen for our nominee, but once he won that position, and I got to know him, and his stance, I fully supported him, and again - that ended in utter disappointment. So I get it. And I'm sorry.

As for the bitterness that just doesn't seem to be dying down, only worsening, it's just not helpful to anyone. Jumping on a piss box, and spewing hate and disgust isn't helping this country that you claim to love so much, is it? Be disappointed, be unhappy, even be discouraged ... but also get to know Obama. So many of the things I hear nay sayers saying are just so completely inaccurate, or so skewed that they no longer hold any validity. So much speculation and uneducated guesses are being thrown around as fact, and the majority of them just aren't true. So that leads me to believe that many of you haven't fully researched Obama. Perhaps you completely disagree with one or two of his positions, and so you determined he wasn't your candidate, got behind McCain, and refused to learn anything else about Obama. Look into it, I am fairly certain you'll be able to find some common ground. Not 100% I'm sure, even I don't stand on 100% common ground with the man, but I would wager a bet that you'll find a piece there that you can agree on, and that's a start, right? You love this country, well here is your chance to not abandon it. You may not like the elected official, but you are still part of of our nation ... jump off the pissy soap box, and lets find a way to work together!

As to answer a few very specific grievances that I've been hearing/reading that sort of relate to me in one way or another.......

The first is that the vast majority of votes for Obama were cast for no reason other then he's black. I did not vote for Obama because he's black. That wasn't a factor in my decision whatsoever. He had my support and my vote in the primaries, but there were a few months before that where I was unsure if I would vote for him. I was up in the air between Obama and Clinton (and no, not because she is a woman). It wasn't until I found out exact where they stand on every issue, the ones important to me, as well as the ones that I didn't really care much about, that I got fully behind Obama. I support and voted for Obama because I agree with most of what he believes in. Because I admire, trust, and respect him, not only as a person, but also his politics. He is the man that I fully believe will bring respect back to our country. He's the man that will inspire pride to return to a lot of us. He is the man that will set us back on the road that we strayed so far from. I fully researched him, his position, his voting record, etc ... and THAT is where he earned my vote. The color of his skin is irrelevant to me. The color of ANYONES skin has always, and will always be irrelevant to me.

The second greivance is about military pay suffering. I am a military wife. My husband has served this country for almost 11 years, so this issue effects me directly! Although this is all just speculation, I'll play along and answer ... I really, and I do mean REALLY could not care less if we don't get the yearly pay raises that we were seeing with the Bush administration. Yes, more money was nice, and yes, I do think that on a whole, the pay system in the military is no where near sufficient enough for the sacrifices we have to make, but I would gladly have not accepted those pay raises if it had meant putting that money to alternative fuel and renewable energy. If it meant that the future of the polar bears, and every other living being on this planet would be protected by fiercely working to overcome the effects of global warming. If it meant funding for schools didn't have to drastically be cut, forcing many elective and art programs to be canceled. If it meant many programs within the military itself, for family support, didn't have to be cut because there was just no funding available. If it meant children didn't have to die of curable illness and disease simply because their parents didn't have health care available to them. To be living in an economy that is teetering on the edge of utter disaster, in a debt so huge it's hard to see a way out ... really, a steady pay raise is the last thing on my mind. I could go on and on, but I think I made my point.

More pay is nice, yes, but at what cost? For me, the sacrifice was far, far too great. I am grateful that my family has a steady job and a constant income, if it means our income will not be going up at the rate it once was - that's fine with me. Really, it is. There are real huge problems in this country that need to be addressed, and the cost to ignore those problem because there is no funding available is just way to great!

I know that concept is probably hard for a lot of Republicans to understand. I know one of your biggest platforms is to lower taxes, and raise pay. Sure, in theory, that all sounds nice. Make more money, sweet! Not have to pay as many taxes, friggin awesome! But once those dollar signs leave your eyes, and you actually see the impact of decisions such as those, it's just not worth it! Again, the sacrifices to make that happen are far too great, and I will be the first to say I'll be HAPPY to restructure our family's budget without those pay raises in order to help our country take care of itself, to give my children a world that is thriving, not dying.