The Simple Man Wins, again…
I did go to work today. It was hard. Not as difficult as it must’ve been for Kerry and Edwards, but still it was very difficult to roll out of bed today.
To get up and say to myself “Oh crap, four more years of this…this crap” seemed redundant and neccessary. Actually, upon reflection, my thoughts were more like a 50 gallon oil barrel full of blabbering, inchoherent fodder that one might expect from a nine month old child. I felt stunned. Suprised. Amazed and angered that more than half of my fellow Americans did not agree with me.
I dressed for work and headed out the door in a daze of disbelief thinking how could I be in the minority? A twenty-eight year old web designer living in Oregon.
Ok, well I am a minority if you’re talking about strict population and me being from Oregon. But hey, I’ve lived on the other side of the fence for most of my life being raised in and around Dallas, Texas. I’ve seen first hand what living in a state with almost no government, no compassion for anything short of money, and a set of morals that makes about as much sense as the Atkins diet. I don’t think people here in Oregon know how good they have it. No sales tax, the Oregon Health Plan and a beautifully simple culture that makes me proud to be a resident of Oregon.
So anyway, I spent half the day at work today working on Flash and eating greasy Mexican food. I spent the other half of the day looking for an article that would help me feel like I belonged in the mess that’s been unfolding over the last couple of days and in counseling. That’s right, counseling. I think my wife pre-emptively signed us up for counseling today somehow knowing that we’d really need it.
Let me take a moment to list out some stuff in the Other things that sucked today department:
- The same sex marriage ban passed with flying colors. And by flying colors I don’t mean the rainbow flavor of colors.
- Romulito’s Mexican food made me sick as a dog.
- The GOP extended its lead in the Senate and House of Representatives. If you don’t understand what this means and you did vote in the election this year, I’m assuming you’re a Republican so just read on and don’t worry your pretty little head about it.
- I was told today by a coworker that they (they meaning their television, I’m assuming) are saying that three spots are due to open up in the Supreme Court over the next four years.
November 5th, 2004 at 4:20 pm
Hey Matt,
I identified with your experience on Wednesday! I also forced my self to watch both Kerry’s speech and Dubya’s. I wrote a frustrated and sad commentary to a group of guys that I work with spiritually, and in that I realized that I must interact rather than react. We really don’t need to wallow in the fraction of our society as much as we need to find ways to come together. I knew a long time ago that it would probably not be a political process, but a spiritual one. I mean spiritual, not as religion, but that which is inside all of us seeking to understand the meaning of the fact that we are all one with everything on the planet, and beyond. I decided to challenge myself to not get caught up in the event of the election as much as become even more intentional in my life with my students, my family and friends, and hopefully to reach out beyond that.
My own spiritual growth comes from many experiences in my life, including a wonderful few years involved in the Arica Institute. Now I find reading Ken Wilber, and others a way of understanding that the levels of consciousness in our society are the way they must be in our given time. If you want some help with some of these thoughts, get a copy of Wilber’s, “A theory of Everything”.
Anyway, I just wanted to send some energy your way, and suggest that we are all needed to keep the path of unity alive, irregardless of Dubya and the many others who are at the same point in their evolution. We do not have to join them, but we do have to recognize that we are them, and they are us!
November 6th, 2004 at 4:31 pm
I read your web update, and I wanted to give you some feedback. I, too, voted for John Kerry. I am a lifelong Republican who had never before voted for a Democratic Presidential nominee, so that includes votes for such dynamic Republican leaders as Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Bob Dole. Point is, it took a lot to make me change. Mostly for me it was the sad state of our international policy, including the war in Iraq and our arrogant attitude towards our allies and the rest of the world. We are on a dangerous path in the Middle East, and I have grave conerns about how it will end. I’m not sure John Kerry could have done anything about it, but he at least understands things are not going along swimmingly. The other concern that I have about my Republican roots is the way my party’s policies are being increasingly dictated by the religious right. Clearly our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) did not intend for the religious believes of any group, beliefs that manifest themselves today in issues like abortion and gay marriage, to be forced on any other group. They also believed that these kinds of issues were better left to the states to resolve, so that political decisions would reflect the majority opinion in smaller, regional population bases. The idea that Oregonians might choose a different course of action than Texans is still viable today.
Now is there any good news in this turn of events? Well, as a small business person, and an investor with some fairly significant financial resources, from a purely selfish perspective, yes, there is. The Republican Party has traditionally stood for minimal government interference in business (although Enron probably enjoyed much less scrutiny than LaVelle Vineyards) and a relaxing of the regulatory controls that make operating a small business particularly onerous. George Bush has talked openly about reducing that red tape and even providing incentives for small business to offer health care to its employees. Frankly, I would love to be able to offer my employees health care. As an investor, I like the way the stock market has already reacted favorably to the elimination of the uncertainty caused by the campaign. George Bush is not likely to roll back the tax cuts (John Kerry had said that he would), and business (the real creator of jobs in this country, not the government) should have firm footing for the next four years. Good for me, again.
You know, Matt, I’ve traveled all over the world and seen many different types of political and social systems in action. In Canada and Western Europe, for instance, they have all the govenment sponsored programs to which many Americans aspire, i.e. national health care, a guaranteed pension program that travels with you from one company to another, unemployment protection that makes losing your job a minor irritation, up to six weeks vacation per year, and more paid holidays in a year than we have in a career. However, they also have an income tax structure that is truly ridiculous. The top tax bracket in Sweden is 71%. Canada is not far behind. What this does is kill individual initiative. Once you reach a point where you can only keep $.29 of every dollar you earn, you just don’t care about working harder or taking more risks. And that includes the owners of small businesses (the job creators) who lose their incentive to grow ever more profitable businesses. Workers begin to look for more perqs, rather than more money, and the disincentive to produce eventually effects an entire way of life.
Another thing I’d ask you to consider. Not all Republicans are like George W. Bush. Some of the most thoughtful people I know are Republicans, people like George Will, John McCain, and Peggy Noonan (who wrote a wonderful book about Ronald Reagan called, “When Character was King”). And some of the most conservative Republicans in the country are now openly questioning the war in Iraq, people like Pat Buchanan and Tucker Fredricks. So not all is lost just because John Kerry lost the election. Here is a guy who only a year ago was a virtual unknown at the national level, a liberal senator from the small state of Massachusetts who was often confused with Senator Bob Kerry from Nebraska. And after a disastrous start (largely orchestrated by Kerry himself and then pounced on by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) this man won 49% of the popular vote and almost won the election. What might of happened if the presidential candidate had been a more mainstream politician with a better story, i.e. Wesley Clark, John Edwards, or even Howard Dean.
The situation is sad, I agree. But it is not hopeless. The world deserves much from a country that has been a beacon of hope and freedom for most of its existence, and I believe we will eventually find our way. Not as an arrogant, self-indulgent superpower, threatening the rest of the world with our military might, but as a steady voice of reason in a world of ignorance and hate. I hope George W. Bush finds that path, because like it or not, he is my president now for the next four years.