and the cold wind blew...

given that around 200 clicks have hit up this humble blog over the past week w/o the link being present in my AIM profile, i'm assuming that some folks out there are actually interested in my thoughts. well then.
i think my writing professor put it rather simply.
if a friend lies to you, do you keep them in your life? or do you stop being friends with them? i don't understand. you wouldn't keep a friend around who lied to you.
this is, of course, a metaphor for the lies told my our president.

yesterday, i went through many different moods. reading the words "kerry concedes" honestly brought tears to my eyes. it just makes you wonder what u see that the infamous 'they' don't. i stood on people's doorsteps, and looked grown men in the eye of 80 years of age. these men had seen war, depression, the battle for civil rights, & yet still they would repeatedly tell me, "kerry's my man. i believe this is the most important election of my life." it is the faces of those who had seen much more than i, and who were truly troubled to the core by the idea of bush's reelection which are perhaps the hardest to shake from memory.
when i spoke to my mother earlier today, she, in response, said, "well i don't know if that's true." well ya know what, i don't know that it's not, and who am i to say? all i know is that we have a republican president, a republican senate, a republican house, and the appointment of a few supreme court justices on the line. how am i not to question?

and that is what it's really about. you have to question. question everything. i'm not saying that everything is conspiracy, or that all republicans are evil. one would probably be surprised to find the conservative views i hold toward myself personally. but what i am saying, is to keep an open mind. to not take the news as it seems. fox news is not the truth. cnn is not the truth. the truth is that while yes, 1000 us soldiers have died, so have 99,999 more iraqi civilians. this is war kids, just because it's not on our homefront doesn't mean we shouldn't feel it. women & children, families are being killed. the soldier over there believe that they are liberators, and this, i cannot hold against them. i wish them no harm. this does not mean, however, that i should not question the reason for us going to war in the first place.

at this point, i've probably got myself on some fbi list somewhere. yes, that's right, i'm questioning the almighty government. but by no means, no means at all is it because i no longer care for my country. absolutely not. i LOVE the ideals of this nation... the idea of life, liberty, and justice for all. what i loathe is the idea that we should trade these beautiful concepts in over a paranoia which cannot be proven.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

is it a crime to want my civil liberties? to believe in due process? to ask for a government which doesn't rally its citizens through fear?
i am not someone who is shouting canada. oh no. if you're not here, then you do not have a say. if you do not speak, then you do not have a voice. an election should not be the only time we take action. while i do not believe that it is up to any one individual to save the world, i do believe that we would all be better off if even every other person did their part.
48% of the country is left discontented. i am not a violent person, and i am not one to run away. what i do believe in, is taking a stand for what i believe in... and i believe in upholding american values, not bathing them in theocracy. i believe in freedom.
i believe that we can make a difference. and maybe i am young... maybe i am naive... but despite the grievous disappointment of the days previous, i do not ever want to not believe.