Challenges

Being on a very conservative college campus when you are a known (or at least expected) radical liberal can be interesting. This is all the more true when you have a presidential election. 

For one thing, all during the primaries, I was expected to vote for Barack Obama. While I did like him I was skeptical and instead went with my gut. This surprised a lot of people. 

Fast forward to the election and people knew who I was going to vote for and asked me why I had jumped onto the bandwagon. Little did they know, I wasn't completely sold on Obama still. As one of my professors can attest to, we had a very in depth conversation on whether or not two extremely liberal people could vote for McCain and still consider themselves extremely liberal. Beyond this, how can they justify said action? We eventually came to the conclusion that regardless of who either of us voted for or who one we would be content. But this scared both of us. Why were we content with McCain when we didn't agree with many of his policies nor with his leadership style and definitely not his party's action for the previous (almost) 8 years. 

This is where we came upon another hurdle.... Eventually, though we both decided that the majority of people who agreed with us politically could not be having this problem and thus we would be saved from having to examine this issue further. But like the bulk of the rest of America, we were torn...what were we to do? We had to vote with our hearts but we just didn't know where they were leading us....

Another fast forward. Election night. I found myself among a group of both very liberal and very conservative people sharing a television in the same room as two NPHCs sharing another television. As excited as we all were to see the results, we all knew what it had come to nonetheless. We were going to experience history being made...and that scared us. Were we ready for this? We were/are just kids...what do we know about history making moments? 

And a final fast forward. Inauguration day. I found myself amazed at what was going to happen. At how much history had been made during my lifetime...and I was excited. I was also fearful for the challenges that the new president would face. So now, I look at how President Obama has changed the face of the presidency is such a short time and I am happy to say that I voted for him. It took me some time to "jump on the bandwagon" and I'm still not sure that I'm not it yet. But I cannot wait to support my president, evaluate his accomplishments, and defend his policies to those who do not understand.... 

And that is why I am happy to say that I voted for this great man. It was a challenge for all of us to make history that day. But we must continue to come together to make history even now. 

How to Make Terrorism Funny!

Ok, so this may not be the best title but one look at this article from Neatorama and you will have to agree. These are the "Top 10 Strangest Anti-Terrorism Patents" and they are hilarious! 

Basically the entire premise of whomever came up with any of these must have been to combine two parts comic books, one part black ops, and two parts cocaine and to mix until dizzy and then say "Go!" ala Speed Racer. 

Enjoy!

Best Thing EVER!

Ok, I read this short story in my Torture class in the fall and it is the best thing I have EVER read. It is by Ursula Le Guin and is called "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas". Truly, truly amazing. 

Here it is!

Are you feeling Schizophrenic?

Ever wonder what happens beneath the comics that grace our daily papers? Well, one person did. And from this, he developed the website Garfield Minus Garfield. 

The basic premise of this is that we all suffer, but what happens when you suffer alone? What would happen if we took a hard look at Garfield comics and the life that Jon lives? Underneath it all, as Dan Walsh found a schizophrenic man "and the empty desperation of modern life" (Walsh). I truly think that it speaks volumes of our modern world. It is really easy to find yourself falling in love with Jon and the pain he goes through without Garfield or Odie. The desperation, the loneliness, everything just screams existentialism. And, as I heard from TIME Magazine, Jim Davis never really thought of Garfield this way. 

As I remember, Garfield Minus Garfield was brought to Davis' attention and he loved it. He had never intended Garfield to be a commentary on the loneliness of suburban life, much less for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. 

But garfield Minus Garfield exposes us to thoughts and feelings that we all experience. So, as Walsh says on the website:  "Let's laugh and learn with him [Jon] on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb." I couldn't have said it better myself!

Find Garfield Minus garfield here. 

Newsjunkie!

Well, I've become a bit of a newsjunkie. I spend hours on end on this new website I've found. It is from the Havaria Information Service. They compile important news alerts from around the world onto one giant map. You can see volcano eruptions, earthquakes, droughts, typhoons, hurricanes, wildfires, large scale vehicle incidents, etc on this site. It is amazing. 

Basically what I find the most interesting is that it reports things that you would never normally hear about, such as the 27 earthquakes to hit the Baltic Region in the past 3 days (all around 3.0, but still), the wildfires in Turkey, volcano eruptions in Meso-America, and more. YAY!

Here it is!

Took You Long Enough!

I have some great news from my favorite blog ever GlobalDashboad. 

Read it here!

Sorry Dick (Cheney) The World Says No, No, No!

Ok, so I have a new favorite site, it is the WPO site that I told you about the other day. 

They released a new report this week detailing how people (for some reason) are against torture! And again backing up my earlier statements that Bush (and cronies) should move to Nigeria. 

I think this document should be an eye-opening document for the Bush Administration. Well, maybe they will listen to the opinion of the world over just the United States. Or is it that all of them are terrorist supporting countries (I doubt that Mexico, Great Britain, or Poland are harboring/supporting many "terrorists" but I may be wrong.). Nonetheless, I think that if 57% of the world's population says that torture is wrong in any form and only 26% say they would accept limited torture of TERRORISTS (No, Bush and Co. NOT suspected terrorists, but honest-to-goodness terrorists.) that this should be the turing point whereby Bush, Alito, Gonzales, and Cheney all say "Sorry world, we've been allowing the torture of people and many of them are not shown to be directly linked to terrorists. And by all means, we deserve to be held accountable for our crimes," (ICC take note!). But let's be honest, this will not happen. It should but it won't. 

Moreover, if you are among the 26% or the 9% here then please give me some rational because after reading about torture in so many ways this past fall (in a class designed to spark discussions on torture) I simply can't in good conscience say "Go ahead and water-board this man for information," in any situation I can imagine. 

I am constantly reminded of the story of Omelas. Where one person is tortured in order to bring about prosperity for the rest of the community. But the ending is what gets me. Those that chose not to walk around and act as if everything is ok despite the knowledge of what is occurring receive a much better life.  As such I just have to say, I am one who walks away from Omelas.