Explosive Expressions

As most everyone knows, the former Secretary of the State, Colin Powell, has endorsed Barack Obama for president. This is a pretty significant event for a number of reasons. Powell is a well-known retired Army General who played a key role in both the first and current Iraq war. He is known for preferring diplomacy to outright war, earning him the title of "The Reluctant Warrior." He is well respected by members of both political parties, and was even rumored to be a possible opponent to Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential election. To say that Powell is an influential figure is an understatement, at best.

On October 19, Powell officially endorsed Obama. He explained his reasoning which seems to boil down to a few items:

• Obama is reaching out to everyone, not a targeted group



• He thinks Obama is a "Transformational Figure"
  



• He is troubled by the way McCain's campaign is trying to insinuate that Obama is Muslim or a terrorist, instead of talking about the issues
  

He said a few things that really resonated with me, marking him, at least in my book, as a true patriot. Specifically he said the following about the insinuation that Obama is a Muslim :

"But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America."

That's an incredible statement. Seriously, who cares if he's Muslim, Christian, or Atheist. At the end of the day, do you feel he can lead the country, and do you agree with the agenda he has set forth. If you do, then his race, religion, or whatever is secondary. I'm not sure who said it, but I heard a quote on the news today. It went something like this. Noone is asking you to like Obama. Noone is asking you to be his friend. We're asking you to look at what he wants to do for the country and vote based on that. If you believe in what he believes in, then you should vote for him.

Others want to continue muddying the water. Let's take a well-known political mouthpiece, Rush Limbaugh. Rush had this to say:

"Secretary Powell says his endorsement is not about race," Limbaugh wrote in an e-mail. "OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."

What an asinine thing to say. Of course, he defends his statements:

"So what if it's race?" Limbaugh said on his radio show. "Why is it so hard to admit that it's race…What's so problematic about admitting it?"

The problem is, I'm not so sure it is about race. Sure, Powell is black and so is Obama. But, umm... I'm white and so is Limbaugh. I wouldn't vote for Limbaugh just because he's white, would you? Oh, right.. we're the majority... Yeah, so I guess that doesn't hold water. Regardless, I think it's stupid to immediately assume that the endorsement is because of skin color. We're talking about a well-respected Republican breaking ranks and endorsing a Democrat. This doesn't happen every day, you know.

Oh, and as for Powell? Well, he had already mentioned the race thing anyway:

"I can't deny that it will be a historic event for an African-American to become president."

That's a far cry from claiming his endorsement is race-based, though. But who cares if it is race? I don't believe anyone is hiding the fact that Obama isn't exactly white. But, jumping up and down and screaming about his race isn't going to help anything. In fact, I think the way he's been handling everything is incredible. Instead of making this about race, and playing on the race card constantly, he has ignored that completely and made his campaign about the issues. In the end, it's the issues that count. And, as can be seen by the steady self-destruction of the McCain campaign, people want to hear about the issues.

Seriously, I don't care about Mr Ayers and his ties to domestic violence in the 60's and 70's. Although, for the record, I completely agree with his 2001 statements. The situation was different back then, and to regret his acts would be to disavow what he was trying to accomplish.

I don't care if Obama was Muslim, or even if he still is. And I'd probably understand if he was hiding that fact, given the current anti-Muslim climate in America. Though, of course, that wouldn't help his campaign much. But so what. This is government we're talking about, not a church.

So let's try and pull this country together and make decisions like grownups, not like petty little children who have nothing better to do than pick on people.

Posted by Jason Frisvold

Thanks Fergie...

Posted by Jason Frisvold

Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

You can always tell when an election is near, the political ads get worse and worse. It's pretty stupid, really, when you have to sit through a 30 second video that bashes the hell out of a candidate and then spends 1-2 seconds, at most, telling you that "so and so has approved this message." Ok, so candidate X is an asshole and shouldn't be elected. Great. But, who the hell is candidate Y? They approved the message, so they must be against everything they bashed the other candidate for, right? Well, I have no idea! Candidate Y didn't bother to say a damned thing about themselves...

Are humans wired in such a way that the only way to influence them is to point out the negative aspects of "the other guy?" Have we fallen that far into depravity that we cannot decide who should rule us based on positive input from the candidates? Perhaps the human race deserves what it gets. Perhaps we deserve to be in the situation we're in with finances and war.

McCain and company have fallen even deeper into the well with their latest attack on Obama. Did you know that Obama has associated with a man by the name of William Ayers? Mr Ayers was a member of a radical movement in the 60's and 70's called the Weather Underground who were known for violent demonstrations against the government. I don't know his entire history, but in the end, he became a distinguished professor at the University of Illinois.

Ayers is apparently a supporter of Obama, and even held a fundraising event for him. When Obama first started in politics, and was fighting for education reform, Ayers was there with him. Because of this, McCain has started bashing Obama for "associating with known terrorists." But let's get serious here... First of all, how often are people in shock and disbelief when they find out that someone they've known for years is actually a bad person? How often do you see people on TV who knew serial killers, rapists, etc., exclaim how those people were "upstanding citizens" and "great neighbors?" Assuming outright that Obama even knew who Ayers was, beyond his career at the college, is ludicrous. Does McCain take the time to delve into the background of every single person he associates with? And besides, these are events that happened 40 years ago, when Obama wasn't more than a boy.

But if we believe McCain, then we also have to believe that Ayers is polluting the minds of the students he teaches. They're taking his class, so obviously they are being taught by a known terrorist. Right? Shouldn't he be fired immediately? Hell, let's send him to Guantanamo with the rest of the "known" terrorists.

Or, we can take a look at what Mr Ayers does today and realize that perhaps he has changed his mindset. He made statements in 2001 about his part in the bombings and the violence. He stated that he did not regret what he did, and perhaps that he didn't do enough. He also said that he wouldn't discount the possibility of doing the same thing if he had it all to do over again. A lot of controversy surrounded those statements, especially in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. But you have to look at the mindset of the time and realize that he was fighting what he thought was injustice. He was doing exactly what the founding forefathers said to do. He was doing what he could to abolish a government that he felt was no longer effective. And he wasn't the only one. Perhaps he took the wrong steps to fight injustice, but he felt those steps were necessary.

Today, Mr Ayers is a professor. He fight for education reform, and is a leader in his field. He has written many books on education and ethics. To say that he is a terrorist discounts all the he has accomplished to date.

I think, however, that McCain is playing on the fears of the American citizen. For the past 7+ years we have been told that terrorists are out there. They're everywhere, and they want to kill us. We have been told to watch out for them, report anything unusual, be vigilant. We have allowed the government to take away our liberties and subject us to insane procedures to ensure our safety. We have heard the rallying cries of "Think about the children" and "We must keep America safe from terrorism." In short, we have become so afraid of this perceived threat that we are willing to give up anything. And now, McCain is trying to associate his opponent with terrorism in an attempt to sway voters.

Unfortunately, I think that most mainstream Americans are too stupid to realize that this is nothing more than a ploy. A ploy in bad taste, I might add. We have been brainwashed by the leaders of our country and now they own us. We have been told that we are in a financial crisis and that we have to do something about it. The government asked for more power, and we gave it to them. We were told that terrorism was a threat that we needed to fight. So we let the government start wars over it. We were told that we needed to give up our liberties in order to be safe, so we did. We are sheep. Sheep being led to the slaughter. And even when we see the writing on the wall, we choose not to read, but to move forward blindly.

Perhaps Ayers wasn't too far off all those years ago. Perhaps we do need to rethink our government. I don't think we need to run out and start bombing things, but we definitely need to do something to change the tide. We need change. Will Obama provide that? I honestly do not know. But I feel that McCain is nothing more than another Bush and we definitely can't handle another 4 years of that. And if he died in office? Well, then Palin would step in. I don't know about you, but the thought of her running thing scares the shit out of me...

Posted by Jason Frisvold