An Open Letter to the World (WARNING: Rambling Manifesto Contained Herein)

(This post started one way, and mutated and mutated– it was supposed to be more structured than it ended up, and what it ended up being was essentially a stream-of-consciousness reflection on the state of the world.  As a result, internal consistency may not be entirely ensured– I jump from place to place, and quite frankly, I didn’t get any sleep before I write this.  Take it for what it is, and read it when you have a long amount of time to spend.  About halfway through it, I think I have a bit of a religious experience in there, and that’s why I go on at length about the value of humanity there.  I’ll probably do more like this in the future.)

Dear World,

What can I say?  We’ve got a lot of problems.  Not between you and me, necessarily, but I mean… the World’s problems become my problems because I have to live here.  I don’t feel like blaming anyone for anything.  I don’t think any individual causes any single problem, but I think we all (including myself) at least contribute in some way.

On Obama, 1.25 years later

Well, Obama’s been in office for about a year and a quarter, and in that time, I’ve seen Hope and Change flood down the tube pretty rapidly.  Really, the guy made a lot of campaign promises, and he’s lived up to a lot of them on the aggregate, but only if you take every individual policy separately and break them down– and even then, many of them he’s only technically done.

So, we got our “historic” health-care reform bill.  No single-payer system, no public option, nothing except a mandate to make everyone buy into the same crappy insurance we’ve already got.  And boy is it crappy.  I had better when I was on my father’s military insurance, and the policies there were draconian, to say the least.  Instead, I get to buy into an insurance plan that won’t cover my needs, because almost no policy exists that covers my personal needs.

On Technology and the Advancement of the Human Condition

(This piece is going to be particularly long, because I’m going to cover a variety of subjects in one article to make up for my epic failure of “BLOGSPLOSION”.)

A constantly replicating problem for me during debates I have with people regarding the American political process centers around the notion of rights and what they mean to us.  There are many individuals who ironically refer to themselves as libertarians, who somehow believe that human rights are limited only to those things spelled out in the Constitution of the United States of America.  Besides being blatantly wrong by the very words of the Constitution itself (Amendment IX), it fails to account for the fact that humanity exists beyond the borders of the United States.

On What I Believe

I received an e-mail not too long ago:

” I would like to support your trip…and you…,but I need to know your beliefs. I am neither party either.”

This is my response:

“Put very simply, I believe that we as human beings all deserve the best healthcare we can get, and that if our government can so easily find money for tanks, bombs, bailouts and bridges to nowhere, then it can find the money to ensure that no one in this country dies because they lacked for funds.

On Going to Washington, D.C.

Well, I don’t know how to say this, but something in me just kind of snapped.  I’m sick and tired of feeling helpless, of not being able to get my voice out to the people who can make a difference.  So, I’ve decided to take things directly to Washington.  I’m gathering donations and selling what things I can to get up to D.C. as soon as possible to talk to as many people in congress as possible, and maybe even the President.

On Guns

Recently, a friend of mine seemed to think that I’m some kind of flowery peacenik hippie liberal who hates guns and seemed surprised that I wanted to buy one.  This seems to be a common mistake, I think; there’s a strong correlation between people who favor policies like a robust social safety net, Universal Health Care, rehabilitative corrections and those who favor gun control.  Problem is, it’s not a direct causal link.  My anarchist attitude towards life requires individual self-defense to be a high priority, and as a result, I must say that I’m a hardcore gun nut.

On Avoiding An Author

It got posed to me earlier today by a friend about the issue of refusing to read the works of an author whose personal opinion you offends you deeply.  Basically it goes like this:  Orson Scott Card, the famous (some would say infamous) author of the bestselling “Ender’s Game”, has made many statements which are fairly homophobic.  He’s referred to gay marriage as marking “the end of democracy in America”, and supports laws banning homosexual behavior to make an example of people who engage in it, among other things.  A friend of my friend asked her to try reading some of Card’s works, pointing out that his fictional works have nothing to do with his political statements, but my friend refuses to give him a chance, because his public statements have been deeply hurtful to her.

On Abortion (Part 2: Electric Boogaloo)

I re-read the piece I wrote the other day on the abortion issue and how it’s becoming a big thing in the debate over the ‘public option’/'ObamaCare’, and while I was not necessarily disappointed in it, I don’t think I rounded it out properly.  So, instead of making a huge edit and then trying to drag people back to the re-finished and remastered product, I’m just going to add this addendum– there may be more in the future, as this is a complex issue that can’t just be addressed in a single post (no matter how long).

On Abortion

You know, I really didn’t want to have to write this piece.  I really hoped I could just sidestep it and not cover it.  It’s a topic that is covered ad nauseum; it’s a pointless debate to have, to be honest, because it’s so polarizing and so dependent on the initial premises that each individual person accepts that you can’t really reason someone out of it– in order to change their opinion, you have to change some fundamental perceptions.  These are perceptions which aren’t acquired through reasoning processes (on either side), but are themselves a matter of opinion, and you simply cannot reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into.  So, I was just going to avoid it entirely– it wasn’t going to be worth the headache.  Then, yesterday, a friend who I respect greatly made a comment about being opposed to the “Public Option” insurance covering abortions, and then today, this gets dumped on my internet doorstep:  Abortion issue becomes part of health reform debate.

On Anarchy

This post is primarily prompted by a discussion I had yesterday with a friend over Facebook chat.  At issue was the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to become the 111th U.S. Supreme Court Justice; I agreed with the fact that her confirmation was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but I was not exactly ecstatic over the pick.  Regardless of how “liberal” or “conservative” any judge that gets nominated to the Supreme Court, they’re hardly going to line up with me politically.  The reason being is my own affinity for the ideals of Anarchist philosophy.

On Politics Itself

I have a strong love-hate relationship with politics.  On one hand, I love politics; I love the nature of debate, the battle of wits, the challenge of crafting an image, the difficulty of maintaining a reputation, the art of negotiation, the power of policy to shape lives, and the people who care enough to descend daily into the arena to duke it out (yes, even Republicans, though in a different way).  On the other hand, I hate politics; I hate the nature of conflict, the battle of egos, the challenge of fighting for even the barest minimums, the difficulty of watching icons fall over minor indiscretions, the art of sliming the opposition, the power of policy to punish and degrade others, and the people who fail to care about any of this as it tears at my soul to watch.