It Makes Me Crazy!!!!!!

NOTE: Avoid this blog if you are politically sensitive.

I tried watching some of the Republican Convention (a few minutes last night and a few tonight). It just makes me CRAZY!!! I am so tired of the scare tactics (if we elect anybody except a republican we will be taken over by terrorists - they're everywhere - they're under your bed at night....)

"Every day the media reports incidents of terrorism, crime, and aggression. I have never been to a country where tragic stories of death and bloodshed did not fill the newspapers and airwaves... but the overwhelming majority of the human race does not behave destructively; very few of the five billion people on this planet actually commit acts of violence. Most of us prefer to be as peaceful as possible.+ - Dalai Lama

"If we get involved in fears about the future, we shall miss the chances that the present offers us."

I just refuse to play into the politics of fear and control (whether is be terrorists or border control). We are a country of free men founded on a constitution guaranteeing those freedoms. Fear has been used as the mechanism by the last eight years of government to erode our basic freedoms and try and maintain control of the government. As I have been doing name extraction from the 1870's more of the people I extract were born outside of the United States than in it. And yet we have come to believe that our borders are no longer open to those from other countries (especially if they are from the southern hemisphere - we don't seem to have a problem with illegal Canadians). The Republican Party has become so right-winged and conservative that I do not relate to them. It is the party of me and my wealth. Let the poor be poor because they deserve it. Let the sick be sick because if they worked hard enough they could pay for their health care, but I am certainly not my brother's keeper. So many of the attitudes now seem to be diametrically opposed to my beliefs and the teachings that I have studies for years (care for others, peace not war, greed and consumption are not good, etc.) Well, I have ranted enough. It only takes a few minutes to get me going. I just have to avoid most of the politicking until the election and then just cast my vote and move on.