The election is fast approaching. Since that is the case, I have decided to present this paragraph of my I believe statement together instead of separately. Each of these have either had or are worthy of having blog entries of their own. But I will do my best to outline them here. As usual, feel free to flood this post with your own commentary!
Ah, elections! The time when we should be discussing issues but instead focus on birth certificates and dogs on roofs of cars. When the latest inadvertent misstatement is more important than the direction they'll take the country. When the election of the other guy will lead to a thousand years of darkness. In the face of that, I will continue to try to focus on some basic issues and what I believe is the direction we should take. And yes, I am taking a sacrifice in number of page views by going this route instead of the Mittbot Thurston Howell route or that darn Kenyan Socialist route.
I believe in common sense gun control. I believe in the separation of church and state. I believe we should attack bloat in defense spending just like we do every place else. I support gay marriage. I would not legalize drugs, but would strive to make the punishments more even and better fit the level of crime.
I believe in common sense gun control. and just by saying this simple, obvious phrase, I have guaranteed that I could never run for public office in South Georgia. The NRA and gun lobby is THAT strong. I have detailed this in my blog post American Violence: Guns and The Third Rail. I have recently reposted it on facebook and will do so again.
I believe in the separation of church and state. I don't think it was the intent of the founders to have state-sponsored religion, and even more importantly, I think it is an infinitely wise idea. I don't think a teacher should be leading a prayer at the front of the class. A undirected moment of silence is okay. Although moral beliefs inspired by religion inevitably influence the direction of our laws and regulations, it is very wrong for theological beliefs to do so, or for a particular style of worship be imposed on everybody else.
I believe we should attack bloat in defense spending just like we do every place else. Why people all upset over food stamp abuse, but give a pass to $700 hammers is beyond me. And now we have a major political candidate who wants to spend even hundreds of billions more on defense whether the Pentagon asks for it or not. That and slashing tax rates for the wealthy and large corporations somehow brings the budget into balance. Oy vey!
I support gay marriage. I can't do this justice in a paragraph. I'd like to say I've held this position for years, but I have only recently come to this conclusion. In the end, I couldn't see any rationale to object to it. Love should be stronger than hate.
I would not legalize drugs, but would strive to make the punishments more even and better fit the level of crime. In many ways, the war on drugs has caused more problems than it has fixed. But I am not a drug oriented person (except for caffeine and sugar) so I'm really uncomfortable with saying that mess is A-okay! On the other hand, I think penalties and punishments should be rethought. One form of cocaine used mostly by poor urban folks shouldn't be punished multiple times more harshly than the type of cocaine used primarily by rich white people. Marijuana? I just don't know. I've never tried it or had interest in it, but it seems to me like in reality, it is not as bad as alcohol. It'll still screw up your driving, I think.
Thanks for reading my short take on this wide variety of topics. Please feel free to ad your own comments.
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