Welcome to my blog!

(I originally wrote this on the day of the inauguration)

This is an historic day... a day when "white will embrace what is right"... Yep, that is what Rev. Joseph Lowery said today for the whole world to hear. I'm just a bit confused as to why I am apparently one of the few who is really disturbed to hear this from this, uh, man of God.

I guess this day is what finally set me over the edge, so to speak, to sit down and actually start my own blog page. Americans have typically had similar values and views to each other - not the same, but at least similar. For the most part, we all cherish the freedoms and hard-fought rights that our founding fathers put into place. Ideologically - sure there are differences (think how boring this country would be if we didn't have different opinions) - but similar values. The election of President Obama was to be the zenith of America's journey - from the departure from the darkness of racism and the coldness of hatred to the end of the journey - the election of a black man to the highest office in the country... American's proved we are no longer the cold-hearted racists of the past who would have the audacity to make comments based on color ... er... on race ... um, on... well - oops!

"...white will embrace what's right".... pretty colorful. Well, good job, everyone! Narrow-minded bigotry is alive and well in 2009. On the very day, in the very event that symbolized the beginning of this new life, the very last speech had to be made by a person who obviously has a racial bias (or two). This was to be the moment of healing; the moment of the beginning of change; the edifice on which is to be built the rest of our future... Unfortunately, a building built on sand sinks during the first sign of turmoil.

These speeches today were to show us we had made the right choice, that we had grown beyond the ignorance and stupidity of the past - that we stood at the door of something beautiful and wonderful. Instead, it was just more of the same old racially charged rhetoric by a bitter person - I thought we were supposed to be past all that.

What does all this show me? That we must NEVER let down our guard as a people. There were things during the campaign that we ignored because we wanted so bad to believe in the beauty of an entire country looking beyond race. We didn't have the reaction of a people that we should have had when the press was silenced when they said something the campaign directors didn't like - or when the religious leader of a candidate says horribly racist and anti-American comments and we didn't raise an eyebrow - or when we found out that the man in whose living room a candidate formulated his campaign was an American terrorist, or when we found out that a candidate believes the Constitution is an extremely flawed document, or when ... well, I think you get the picture... We wanted so bad to believe that we had advanced beyond all of the insignificant issues, that we completely forgot to look at where the candidate stands on the issues - we didn't even bother to find out what the candidate believes!

We, the people, need to stand up for rights for which our founding fathers and their contemporaries fought and died. Does the press need to be silenced? NO! Does religion need to be silenced? NO! Do we need the government telling us how to believe, what to believe, how to spend our money, our time, our lives? NO! NO! NO! NO! and NNNOOOOO!!!!!

This site is dedicated to intelligent, spirited, and beneficial debate. Let's keep the government on their toes... not by causing problems or by creating drama where none exists, but by analysing the world around us - and then by SPEAKING UP. The choices made by the government - the choices made by the people that WE THE PEOPLE put in office. We need to never forget that WE are THEIR bosses - and there is accountability in being the boss... we need to know what's going on, ask questions, and provide PLENTY of feedback to those who work for us.

Ignorance is not bliss... let's spread the knowledge!