I should have said...
During the course of this past weekend's events, someone questioned my dislike for President Bush. A group of us were hanging out, and the person questioning me was someone who I didn't know. I was caught off guard, so I didn't have my mental list of reasons and explanations ready. When he asked me why, the first thing I that came to mind was dishonesty and the war. So I blurted it out. Someone else threw in, "yea, but aren't all politicians dishonest?"
So immediately the talk moved to the topic of the war, and immediately I was dubbed unpatriotic and unsupportive of our troops. The guy who was questioning me was from Canada, and his argument was that we (Americans) live in a free society and people are dying for my freedom to say what I want and live how I want and that I should be thankful for this, and therefore I should support what's going on in Iraq and the rest of the world. Which of course is complete and total horseshit (I would think he, being from Canada, should understand this concept). I tried to explain that there's a HUGE difference between not agreeing with the reasons for war and supporting troops; and that I can support the concept of what the troops do without agreeing with the war. I told him that I am probably more thankful than 99% of the population, who don't even have an opinion, and probably could care less because, "it doesn't affect them". I said that I have the utmost respect for people who will volunteer for the military, because I sure as hell wouldn't. I appreciate what they do, but I tried to explain that supporting them and supporting their mission are two very different things. Nonetheless, these comments from this guy from Canada caught me very off guard.
We were all drinking, and someone decided that we shouldn't be talking politics so the topic was dropped. I would have liked it to continue, but it made me think and now I am ready to defend my opinions a little better.
Now if someone asked why I don't like the president I would say: "Well, I am not religious and don't agree with his religious beliefs and faith based policies and his desire to make others believe what he believes, I am not rich and certainly don't agree with his economic policies, I am an environmentalist and I don't agree with his environmental policies, and I don't agree with his foreign policy. I think the war in Iraq is unjustified, and although I support our troops who put themselves in harms way, I don't support the mission. I think Bush is a disgusting and extremely corrupt man who lies straight-faced to the American public. I think that a man who has presided over more than 100 executions while governor and signed a bill saying life support can be dropped when patients can't pay is disgusting and has no right to say he "errs on the side of life". I think that a man who was convicted of insider trading multiple times in the 80s should not be making economic decisions that are destroying the middle class." And on and on...
I should have said something like that.
So immediately the talk moved to the topic of the war, and immediately I was dubbed unpatriotic and unsupportive of our troops. The guy who was questioning me was from Canada, and his argument was that we (Americans) live in a free society and people are dying for my freedom to say what I want and live how I want and that I should be thankful for this, and therefore I should support what's going on in Iraq and the rest of the world. Which of course is complete and total horseshit (I would think he, being from Canada, should understand this concept). I tried to explain that there's a HUGE difference between not agreeing with the reasons for war and supporting troops; and that I can support the concept of what the troops do without agreeing with the war. I told him that I am probably more thankful than 99% of the population, who don't even have an opinion, and probably could care less because, "it doesn't affect them". I said that I have the utmost respect for people who will volunteer for the military, because I sure as hell wouldn't. I appreciate what they do, but I tried to explain that supporting them and supporting their mission are two very different things. Nonetheless, these comments from this guy from Canada caught me very off guard.
We were all drinking, and someone decided that we shouldn't be talking politics so the topic was dropped. I would have liked it to continue, but it made me think and now I am ready to defend my opinions a little better.
Now if someone asked why I don't like the president I would say: "Well, I am not religious and don't agree with his religious beliefs and faith based policies and his desire to make others believe what he believes, I am not rich and certainly don't agree with his economic policies, I am an environmentalist and I don't agree with his environmental policies, and I don't agree with his foreign policy. I think the war in Iraq is unjustified, and although I support our troops who put themselves in harms way, I don't support the mission. I think Bush is a disgusting and extremely corrupt man who lies straight-faced to the American public. I think that a man who has presided over more than 100 executions while governor and signed a bill saying life support can be dropped when patients can't pay is disgusting and has no right to say he "errs on the side of life". I think that a man who was convicted of insider trading multiple times in the 80s should not be making economic decisions that are destroying the middle class." And on and on...
I should have said something like that.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home