Food for Thought

The political blog was a difficult one for me to write the other night, perhaps because I have never been comfortable discussing politics. One has to research and read through tons of information to get the real story and be able to have an intelligent conversation. I need another life time to do that, so most of my life I have tried to know enough to vote for the big players, and muddle through the rest.

I have made an effort to do more homework on the matter, though I still feel very inept having any political debate. I will admit, it is an area I am weak in. But it is my responsibility to get more involved as I slowly carve out time for things that I never did...time for exercise, time for family, time for me, and time for doing my civic and public duties.

Obama's speech did that for me and for so many others---jump started us.

I talked with a lot of other people about this, and they too felt the excitement, the passion, and the inspiration from this young slight man on the podium. I regret not seeing Ted Kennedy speak, but did catch Eisenhower's granddaughter and a host of other intelligent dedicated folks who support Obama.

My friend wrote me the other day, concerned about the political move of McCain picking a woman as VP. He was afraid that it will steal some of Obama's thunder. I replied with a similar reply as quoted by our ex VP Al Gore: "If you like the Bush-Cheney approach, John McCain's your man. If you want change, then vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden".

To me it is a clear cut case of voting for who represents your beliefs, not whether you think "WOW-A FEMALE VP-I WILL GO FOR THAT", or because Hillary lost out so you are going to go for the man who picks the woman, or because you don't want a black man running our country. Though race and gender have played a part in this election (in a positive way) we need to look through that and chose based upon the best for mankind, and not only for the US (which is us in capitals, and very egocentric.)

It is time we listened to our hearts, listened to the politicians, and get smart about what is happening and chose the person who closest meets our beliefs...and make an intelligent decision based upon that. America needs to get smart. It hasn't looked too smart the past 8 years!

Though in my heart I know Obama is MY man, he may not be yours. What I do encourage you to do is go out and vote with an educated mind and decide what you want your country and world to look like, and may the best person win. Encourage all the people you know and come in contact with to vote. That will be my agenda for the 18+ crowd that I work with. In fact, our school is talking about a mock election for kids to vote, to prepare them for one of the most important responsibilities of entering adulthood. Rites of passage are usually being old enough to drink and drive- ---let's add VOTE!

Patti O Patriot - thank you for that one Judy Vars!

PS art work titled FOOD FOR THOUGHT..about genetic engineering of food!