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shadowlight[Our guest commentator today is Sally Black, an outspoken critic on social issues. We're now presuming that allegations that she is a feminist werewolf are, uh, distortions at best.]
Hey, people. This wasn't gonna be my first commentary, but due to time constraints, I have to get this one out soon. More general barks will have to wait until later. I also wanted to write a commentary supporting a ban on bear-baiting, but if y'all can't piece together for yourselves that bears are an important part of the forest ecosystem and that luring them into traps to kill them purely for your own amusement is twisted and wrong, then nothing I say is gonna have small enough syllables for you to understand.
Now that the bear-baiters are gone, I'd like to urge the rest of you to vote on November 2nd. Vote early so you don't forget, and if you do forget, turn around and go back and try again. Don't be turned off by the crassness of the political races. Don't be turned away by shifty polling place tricks. Don't get turned around by weird butterfly ballots. If you registered and they try to say you didn't, raise a fuss. If the ballots are unclear or hard to read, have them explain it to you in minute detail. Voting is your right as an American, and I want you to demand that right and exercise it to its fullest extent. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for in the Presidential Race. Your decision's none of my business. All I'd ask is that you think your choice over carefully first, and not base it solely on one or more of the following lousy bits of reasoning.
1. "I'm voting for Bush/Kerry because Kerry/Bush looks creepy." Honestly, most of your politicians look creepy. I don't know if it's something to do with the gene pool of your rich white men from old-money families, wear and tear from decades forcing themselves to smile when they don't really want to smile, or what, but it's not an accurate gauge of anything. Abraham Lincoln had Marfan's and clinical depression. Do you really think he'd look good in shirtsleeves and natural light on CNN? How about FDR?
2. "Kerry flip-flops on the issues". Weren't your last two presidents accused of being flip-floppers? In fact, weren't they generally considered by sizable pieces of the citizenry to *be* flipfloppers? Wasn't Bush's own father an example of how the ability to change one's mind when confronted by new information or circumstances can be a great asset as a politician and a strategist? Isn't his son an example of how an inability to change his plans even when circumstances completely reverse around him can be catastrophic? I sometimes think, if a nuclear war wiped out 90% of the Earth's population, Dubya would turn to Cheney and say, "Well, Dick, now that the whole Iraq thing's taken care of, I think our first priority should be more tax cuts to stimulate the economy."
3. "We can't change leaders in the middle of a war." In that case, you might never change leaders again. You see, you can win a War against a country (if you plan well and work hard enough). You can win a war against an organization (if you stop trying to swat flies with a sledgehammer and use an intelligent approach). You cannot, however, ever win a war against an emotion (like "terror") or a type of human endeavor (like "committing terrorism" or "using drugs"). It's a fundamentally impossible task. You can influence people's choices, but you can't ever force them at tank-point to change their ways. You can't be everywhere, watching everyone, all the time. You can't kill Death with a gun, because killing causes Death. Why, then, have your solidiers been sent to attack Fear with their "Shock-and-Awe" bombing tactics?
4. "Bush is a Christian." Whereas Kerry is, obviously, a Buddhist, right? It's those Tibetan robes he's always wearing that give it away. Look, which God you *profess* to serve doesn't mean squat if you don't serve His (or Her or whatever) purpose by acting according to an appropriate moral code. You shouldn't have to *tell* anyone you're a Christian. Act enough like Christ that they'll just know it. In fact, act enough like Christ that everyone will think you must belong to their religion, whatever it happens to be. I know humans can't always be that perfect, but your current leaders don't seem to be making much of an effort. The fruit is rotten on the branch. In November, you can smell it in the air.
5. "I'm not voting for Kerry because I know anything about him. I'm just voting against Bush." Y'know, Adolph Hitler was elected to his office by the people of Germany. I can't help but notice that Hitler, while dead and not an American citizen, is, nevertheless, not George Bush. When you say, "anything is better than this!", you'd better hope really hard that you're right.
6. "I own a multinational conglomerate. I vote what's best for GlobalMegaCorp." Okay, first, when did the hypothetical person you made up so you could dodge taxes start running your life instead of vice versa? Second, (and try to follow along with this one, because it's apparently hard for humans to grasp this sort of thing) democracy is rule by the people. If the people use that power for their own self-interest, even to the detriment of others, then this nation will be ruled by evil beings--its own people, oppressing each other. I'm asking you to vote your conscience, not your checkbook or scorecard; for the greater good, not for a chicken in your pot that came from someone else's dinner table. For that one moment, you have power over a nation. Reign justly.
Peace and Justice, everybody. That's my rant. We now return you to your regularly scheduled lives, already in progress.
Hey, people. This wasn't gonna be my first commentary, but due to time constraints, I have to get this one out soon. More general barks will have to wait until later. I also wanted to write a commentary supporting a ban on bear-baiting, but if y'all can't piece together for yourselves that bears are an important part of the forest ecosystem and that luring them into traps to kill them purely for your own amusement is twisted and wrong, then nothing I say is gonna have small enough syllables for you to understand.
Now that the bear-baiters are gone, I'd like to urge the rest of you to vote on November 2nd. Vote early so you don't forget, and if you do forget, turn around and go back and try again. Don't be turned off by the crassness of the political races. Don't be turned away by shifty polling place tricks. Don't get turned around by weird butterfly ballots. If you registered and they try to say you didn't, raise a fuss. If the ballots are unclear or hard to read, have them explain it to you in minute detail. Voting is your right as an American, and I want you to demand that right and exercise it to its fullest extent. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for in the Presidential Race. Your decision's none of my business. All I'd ask is that you think your choice over carefully first, and not base it solely on one or more of the following lousy bits of reasoning.
1. "I'm voting for Bush/Kerry because Kerry/Bush looks creepy." Honestly, most of your politicians look creepy. I don't know if it's something to do with the gene pool of your rich white men from old-money families, wear and tear from decades forcing themselves to smile when they don't really want to smile, or what, but it's not an accurate gauge of anything. Abraham Lincoln had Marfan's and clinical depression. Do you really think he'd look good in shirtsleeves and natural light on CNN? How about FDR?
2. "Kerry flip-flops on the issues". Weren't your last two presidents accused of being flip-floppers? In fact, weren't they generally considered by sizable pieces of the citizenry to *be* flipfloppers? Wasn't Bush's own father an example of how the ability to change one's mind when confronted by new information or circumstances can be a great asset as a politician and a strategist? Isn't his son an example of how an inability to change his plans even when circumstances completely reverse around him can be catastrophic? I sometimes think, if a nuclear war wiped out 90% of the Earth's population, Dubya would turn to Cheney and say, "Well, Dick, now that the whole Iraq thing's taken care of, I think our first priority should be more tax cuts to stimulate the economy."
3. "We can't change leaders in the middle of a war." In that case, you might never change leaders again. You see, you can win a War against a country (if you plan well and work hard enough). You can win a war against an organization (if you stop trying to swat flies with a sledgehammer and use an intelligent approach). You cannot, however, ever win a war against an emotion (like "terror") or a type of human endeavor (like "committing terrorism" or "using drugs"). It's a fundamentally impossible task. You can influence people's choices, but you can't ever force them at tank-point to change their ways. You can't be everywhere, watching everyone, all the time. You can't kill Death with a gun, because killing causes Death. Why, then, have your solidiers been sent to attack Fear with their "Shock-and-Awe" bombing tactics?
4. "Bush is a Christian." Whereas Kerry is, obviously, a Buddhist, right? It's those Tibetan robes he's always wearing that give it away. Look, which God you *profess* to serve doesn't mean squat if you don't serve His (or Her or whatever) purpose by acting according to an appropriate moral code. You shouldn't have to *tell* anyone you're a Christian. Act enough like Christ that they'll just know it. In fact, act enough like Christ that everyone will think you must belong to their religion, whatever it happens to be. I know humans can't always be that perfect, but your current leaders don't seem to be making much of an effort. The fruit is rotten on the branch. In November, you can smell it in the air.
5. "I'm not voting for Kerry because I know anything about him. I'm just voting against Bush." Y'know, Adolph Hitler was elected to his office by the people of Germany. I can't help but notice that Hitler, while dead and not an American citizen, is, nevertheless, not George Bush. When you say, "anything is better than this!", you'd better hope really hard that you're right.
6. "I own a multinational conglomerate. I vote what's best for GlobalMegaCorp." Okay, first, when did the hypothetical person you made up so you could dodge taxes start running your life instead of vice versa? Second, (and try to follow along with this one, because it's apparently hard for humans to grasp this sort of thing) democracy is rule by the people. If the people use that power for their own self-interest, even to the detriment of others, then this nation will be ruled by evil beings--its own people, oppressing each other. I'm asking you to vote your conscience, not your checkbook or scorecard; for the greater good, not for a chicken in your pot that came from someone else's dinner table. For that one moment, you have power over a nation. Reign justly.
Peace and Justice, everybody. That's my rant. We now return you to your regularly scheduled lives, already in progress.