MY POLITICAL STANCE

I gotta start this posting off by saying that for most of my life I have been a fence sitter when it came to politics. And my interest and attention to what was happening in the world much beyond my own environment was just about as pitiful. If something wasn't effecting me directly then I really didn't pay much attention. I see this as pretty much how a large percentage of the population is even today. So I certainly wasn't in that pond alone.

However, the events of September 11, 2001 rocked my universe and woke me up. For the first year I pretty much lived my life in fear and isolation. I didn't venture from my home much further than the grocery store. I didn't go anywhere and I didn't do much of anything. I lived that first year on the couch in my living room and listened to all the various news channels for at least 12 hours a day. NOT a very healthy lifestyle.

Over the next few years I managed to worked my way out of that trap (with the help of my husband and a few really good friends) and began paying attention to what was happening beyond my walls. Now listening to the news so obsessively really isn't very healthy but it did help to the degree that I figured out that I actually have viewpoints and opinions about some of the things that I heard and that I saw going on around me. For the first time in my adult life I actually became interested in politics, and this interest brought on a whole new set of fears. Which group of politicos should I align myself with? Most of my family are staunch Democrats, but I find their obsessive one track thinking on most issues, not to my liking. And I find that the few Republican's that I know to be a little fixed on the "we are always right" is also not to my liking.

So, I decided to join the ranks of "independents" or maybe even the "libertarians". I do not feel that I can give allegiance to any one party as I have disagreements all of them. I am an issue-alist (my own word). One issue that I feel strongly about may align with the Republican views, and another may align with the Democrat view. However lately it seems that I align more with the Libertarian!

Being of the Baby Boomer generation I certainly am not in agreement with some of the recent proposed Congressional changes. I believe that change is needed especially in the health care field, but to completely abort a system that is already in place (and works on some degree) to put in something that is basically untried would be a disaster of magnitude.

I watched the news yesterday to hear about the 9/12 Project march on Washington DC. I found it uplifting to see that there are so many others with a similar views. I'm not quite up to the point of going out to join up with them, but I do emotionally support these views. I truly hope that our Congress can look past their own stuck views and REALLY look at what's best for this country. I fear for the future of my daughter and grandson if the people that are representing my interests in Washington can't look past their own noses.