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Did we Vote our Rights Away?or should we force Christianity on the United StatesThe Election has passed. Apparently the people spoke: after hearing MTV and rap stars plead to the youth to get Bush out of the office after not finding Bin Laden and pulling the wool over the country’s eyes to fight a man his dad couldn’t kill when Bush I was in office over a decade ago, Republicans (probably via talk radio) had every conservative in their cars listening to the radio get pumped up to help them keep their religious demigod in office for another term. Don’t think I’m right? Listen to MTV. Listen to talk radio. Well, people listened to the rap stars, saying “Bush is Bad,” and people listen on the radio say that we have to stay with this Republican leader. If you’re a Democrat, it doesn’t matter if you like Kerry (I heard someone interviewed on the Daily Show say that ‘Although Kerry is a douche bag, he’s better than Bush’), just vote for the Democrat party. And any Republican listening to talk radio heard only of the perils of what Kerry would do to this country if he were elected, and people nowadays don’t understand what war is like (no, we’ve had a different image of war ever since we let reporters in for live action coverage of war situations, starting with Viet Nam, we’ve been able to see the gore of it and we want out). And everyone listening to talk radio heard conservative radio hosts like Shawn Hannity calling every military veteran and every supporter of his beliefs “a good American” (because letting the government tell you it’s okay to kill a lot of people people makes you a good American, that’s the standard they’re going by...). Those listeners to the radio shows don’t need to agree with everything Bush ever says, but it is good for the American people to keep him in for another four years. Great. But what does this mean for us now? The first thing I heard Bush say to select people in his cabinet after he knew he won reelection was that now that he won, ‘now we can work on getting everything done in my plan.’ He said my plan? Bush’s plan? What plan does he exactly have for America? And I know he talked to Kerry in that next-morning phone call, and Kerry told him that this was a divided nation, and he has to work on uniting everyone, so the country doesn’t continue to segregate itself along political lines. And yes, Bush’s acceptance speech talked about bringing this country together so we could all get what we wanted. And yes, when Colin Powell, the first black man in the Secretary of State position, retired (which he claimed he would do before the election ended), Bush asked Dr. Condoleezza Rice to take over as the Secretary of State (and people don’t mention that she is the first woman — let me correct that, the first black woman, ever in this cabinet position). And yes, for attorney general Bush nominated Alberto Gonzales, a son of migrant workers. I’m sure that if a Democrat was president and this happened, the media would be all over the wonderful things this president is doing for equality, but its never mentioned in a Republican is president. Well, I suppose some points sound good for him. And I don’t know what the people in the military would say, that we still have forces in harms way in Iraq. I’m sure that all are proud, but I’m sure that some still think it’s right they are there, while some think it’s wrong and want their loved ones to come home. And depending on what news station you’re listening to with live feed from the military stationed there, you’ll hear the same diversity in answers from our military there. I know that some don’t want to be there any longer, but they signed up for the military and they won’t go against their Commander in Chief. So is the answer to bring them back? Or would bringing them home prematurely prove to the Middle East that we will back down prematurely, allowing the country to fall to ruin again so that their forces can become stronger again to attack us?
I suppose I could start talking about improving the economy now, but what I see now in my colleagues and friends now more than anything else are worries about religion and losing our rights because Bush was reelected. Now, I know they want to expand powers under the Patriot Act, which includes: Outside view: Patriot Act problems: • ...Like the “sneak-and-peek” provision, allowing secret search warrants that do not require the police to notify the person being searched. • Another provision allows the government to obtain secret intelligence court orders, without any probable cause linking the target of the order to suspected criminal activity (that makes me personally feel safe). You think they’ll only use the Patriot Act for terrorism-related crimes? Don’t be so naive: the administration has been using the Patriot Act to prosecute cases that have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. • By eliminating the notion of “due process,” the Government can now attack people in non-terrorism crimes. The library book you rented can be monitored by your precious government. Angel Stewart, writing for http://www.houseofconfusion.com, even stated that “The Patriot Act makes the Thought Police a real possibility... A crucial part of the checks and balances of the American system has been disabled.” The Patriot Act has allowed the unnecessary surveillance of innocent people. Did you hear John Kerry saying in one of the Presidential debates that thousands of hours of surveillance tapes that have never been watched? Well, if the government is undermanned for these innocent-people-surveilence tapes, who can we get to watch us in private? I think the Patriot Act can even legislate against anyone distributing information that is outside of the norm - which means that if Children, Churches and Daddies doesn’t watch it’s back, we could be violating the Patriot Act by producing this magazine. Wow, I feel so safe now. I can go to sleep with comfort and ease now. I suppose I shouldn’t get on my soap box about the Patriot Act, but I should be thinking about friends I have talked to who have considered leaving the country because Bush was reelected. They considered it because they are sure now that rights as their same-sex partner will not be granted to them. I know, I know, I heard Bush say that he believes there should be rights given to same-sex partners, even if it is not by considering their union a “marriage.” But when my friends heard that Republicans wanted to make a Constitutional Amendment to make marriages only between a man and a woman, and when they heard that I think 14 states made state laws defining a marriage as only between a man and a woman, their worries escalated. When one of them is ill and hospitalized, they need permission form anyone else to be with the one they love in their time of need. My friends considered Canada when considering leaving the country, and John (cc&d’s web language master for Perl Scripts, and the author of last month’s editorial) noted that hits to Canada’s web sites for immigration skyrocketed after the election results came in. Hell, I even heard of a web site that would find a country you could defect to, depending on what political views you held. John knew someone in the military — a lesbian in the Navy, more precisely — and she stressed that the white man (people like John) have no idea of what discrimination is. That cards are stacked against you when you love someone that is not what God defines as a proper mate. Hell, the cards are stacked against you when you’re a woman, or if you are anything other than Anglo-Saxon (sorry Black, Latinos, sorry Chinese, Native Americans...), and the way this country is now being run, the cards are stacked against you if you don’t believe in a Christian God (sorry Jews, Hindis, Muslims, sorry atheists... you’re screwed too, because you don’t fit our perfect mold). All of these things that are expected of people, they’re starting to sound like we’re looking for our Arian state. You know, I’ve heard people say that Bush is like Hitler, and that seems ludicrous to me. But when looking at definitions, I wonder how close to a fascist he actually is.
I don’t suppose I helped answer any questions about what to think now that a President has been chosen. Maybe we’ll remain as confused about how we can get ahead in our world as we did before the election. Is there a way we can find our answers ourselves and not rely on the president to do our thinking for us?
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