Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Thank You, Joe

Joe (aka, Jason) the plumber came through for me. Yesterday they fixed my hot water heater... the blogging moratorium has been lifted. Yeah!

This work of Joe's makes me think that I need to reconsider who I'm voting for in next Tuesday's election.

Seriously, not really because of my water heater fiasco (which was caused by lime scale build-up because I have hard water), but because of something that happened on Sunday. Our church put this non-partisan insert in the church bulletin listing both of the candidates' views on a number of issues (view the listing that was included in our Sunday announcements by clicking here). At first I didn't really read the insert--I was blinded by my disgust at the church's reference toward politics. Although this declares to be non-partisan material, I have very strong views about the separation of church and state--if we want the government to remain hands-off about our operation, we need to be 100% certain that we're not in any way endorsing or denouncing a particular candidate.

Once I got over my fury, which was manifested through a terse conversation with my sister who was equally disgusted by our church's dalliance in the land of no return, I looked at the paper and considered the options. I had been thinking, after reading another article (see original blog here) that I was in the McCain camp, but then (after considering the issues on this paper) that I should be voting for Obama. I'm a registered libertarian and am quite liberal (compared to my fellow Baptists), but I'm really on the fence about this election. Then I ask myself, "Who cares who is elected as President because, with our system of checks and balances, no single politician can change the course of human history? Also, are we so silly to think that one person can revolutionize our government which is chronically slow to change?"

What really gets my goat about this election is that all the focus has been on the Presidential election and my state hasn't been giving much play to our gubernatorial election, local elections, or the senate/representative races that are going on throughout the state. I need to do some more research to consider my voting options, but we all need to get a grip that the Presidential election is one amongst many elections, all of which are important. My governor is incredibly important in affecting my day-to-day life with the policy that he/she proposes and we have an important referendum being voted on (about the abolition of property tax assessors as an elected office in the state of Indiana) that has hardly been touched at all.

I think, and I understand this is a rant, that our perspective is off in the United States right now. We were a country that was founded on the principle of the power of the States, and we're totally disregarding the importance of those state officials so we can gawk at the celebrity circus of this Presidential campaign.

That was heavy, eh? See, that's what Joe does to me... he gets my plumbing all worked up. (That sounded untoward and wasn't intended as such.)

2 comments:

Sabrina said...

WHAT! You are a Libertarian????!?!?!?!? I AM A LIBERTARIAN!!!!! We are so seperated at birth!!! Long Lost Twin Sister... I knew you were out there!!!!!
I completely concur with the whole notion that one person can make all these big changes. It is not one person, it is a whole mess of house reps, senators, govenors, judges, advisors, etc... that are making these decisions. I get so frustrated when i hear that people throw all their proverbial eggs into one presidential candidates basket.

Literature Crazy said...

How scary is that? Seriously, did your parents steal you from a hospital in Indianapolis on 12/12/1978? Weird...

To me, and maybe this is me being too Christian-y, but I find it offensive that Obama's campaign is being touted as bringing hope to the people--there's only One who can bring true hope, and I don't like that (as he claims to be a Christian) that he would allow his campaign to be run under that banner. Seriously, he's not the returned Jesus Christ, he's a politician who can be swayed by PAC and SIG lobbyists. (Which is one of the big reasons I don't want to vote for him, on principle as I question his integrity, but I find his politics to be reasonable... not 100% perfect, but reasonable.)