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2004-08-26 - 10:39 a.m.
Talking Girl and I were talking about something politically related yesterday, I don�t remember what�but we are both people whose views on politics come from a deep seeded belief in choice, opportunity and keeping this environment in tact for future generations. Both of us know why were always follow the democratic candidate and even though I have never pulled for a republican candidate I leave that option open, because you just never know when a Republican might just pull through and stand for the right things and be a better candidate than the Democrat. Talking Girl feels the same way. So we were discussing that, discussing the reasons we are going to be voting for Kerry this fall and a girl (who I really like and enjoy being around) comes into the conversation and says, �I don�t care who is running, I always vote Republican, I am a Republican through and through.� I have had a similar conversation with this girl before about religion, because in addition to being a Republican through and through she is also a Catholic through and through. So, just like when I asked her WHY she was a Catholic, I asked her WHY she was a Republican. And she didn�t have an answer other than, �I just am.� This is the problem with our country. People just follow what they were brought up knowing, without ever looking at WHY they are that way. I know exactly why I am a democrat. I know that when it comes to money I lean more towards the Republican side. I have very strong views on welfare that are not at all like a Democrat. But I also know that without making a lot of people suffer, we can�t reform that system to work better and the Republicans would be more than happy to just do away with it and be done with it. And while I would personally never have an abortion and absolutely believe that it is wrong and sad and scarring, I also know that it is better than the alternative which is having more needy children than we do now. The only way to curb the abortion rate is for better education and a Republican would never do anything to better sex education, I think if they had their way they would teach nothing but abstinence, which is a far worse choice than the piddly sex education we have now. And most importantly, I am an environmentalist. It is a really difficult way of life to get into, it is hard to not waste, it is hard for me not to buy gallons and gallons of bleach every week and bleach the fuck out of everything because I am also kind of a germaphobe. Thankfully my education has taught me that it is not good to kill all germs all the time, and my education has also taught me that pouring cleaning supplies non stop into the drains is really bad for the environment. It is hard for me to not just throw things away when I have no more use for them. But I am learning to donate, learning to pass along, learning to find other uses for things because our landfills are out of control. I am learning to not buy new things, even though I like new things, because there are just as many used things out there to buy that work just as well. I will never buy a new washer and dryer, even though I CRAVE a new washer and dryer. I will never buy a new car even though that would be really nice. We don�t need to buy everything new. We should use the old things before anyone is even allowed to make new. We need to learn to use things to the fullest before buying new. Too much waste. Too much waste. And Republicans don�t give a rat�s ass about the environment. Anyway, that girl couldn�t tell me why she was a Republican, all she knew was that she was voting Republican. I plan to find something for her to do that voting day so she can�t vote. It�s one thing if you can tell me why you are voting some way, if you know why, but if you don�t know why you have no business voting. None. It should be required that you state exactly why you are voting a certain way before you are allowed to cast your vote. It�s very interesting about Republicans. The women that are Republicans that I know are a very clear sort. They are mothers. Like Beaver Cleaver mothers. PTA, soccer, Boy Scouts, every last thing you can think of. They make dinner for their families every night, they clean all day, they don�t read, they get their hair done religiously, they have nice fingernails, they are snobby dressers, they sterilize their utensils before eating any food at a restaurant. They waste, they waste, and they waste like you wouldn�t believe. Everything is new and shiny and clean. I just don�t get it. Everything they do has no bearing on the future of this country except that their children will grow up to be successful money makers behaving in the exact same way as their parents. Destroying the earth and contributing nothing substantial to the future. They are the landfill fillers, they are the ground water contaminators. They are the resource guzzlers and they are dangerous because they believe everyone should be just like them and if they aren�t they shouldn�t be thought twice about. The thing about them is that their way of life will eventually destroy the earth. What good is being some way if you don�t have a planet? The environment should be every person�s main concern. Because without a place to live what is the point of having any opinion or way of life? We will all be blown up, burned up by the sun, killed by dehydration or by some super germ that comes from all this crazy, obsessive sanitization (and I am not talking about healthy sanitization like sewer systems and water cleaning and you know keeping your house clean enough so you don�t get the plague, I am talking about these people that slather hand sanitizer on every five seconds and get their carpets cleaned twice a month and pour a cup of bleach down every drain in the house every day and spray Lysol on every surface of the house after breakfast lunch and dinner. Another Republican girl I know throws away her plunger after every use and refuses to eat leftovers or feed them to her family for fear that some bacteria will have grown over night.)�we will be non existent unless everyone starts paying attention to what they are doing to this planet. In other news�things are rolling with this move thing. I am getting somewhere with this house. I actually am starting to see that it all can be done and done quickly with just a little focus and a lot of elbow grease. I hope to get it on the market before Eric and go on our housing trip to Spain at the end of September. There are only two things I won�t be able to do and those are updating the electricity and fixing the leak in the basement. I will do those things if I can sell this house for the asking price, but if they want it for some negotiated price they can fix it on their own. I really hope I don�t have to wait a year for this house to sell. I really hope it goes fast. It would be nice for something to work out quickly for me. It needs to because I don�t think I can move to my husband until this house sells. I will need to stay here and work to pay for this house and other bills. So it must sell fast. Besides that, I will be living here with nothing until it sells. I will have, when we are finished with this renovating, an air mattress and an alarm clock and maybe a table to put my computer on. I can�t live like that for very long. But�the best time to sell this house will be in November because it is really pretty here at that time. And calm. And you won�t notice how hot, or how cold, this house can get. So I really hope people look at this house then. I have a feeling I will have to move cats to Spain without me because of regulations on temperature. It can�t be too hot or too cold. So I can just NOT imagine living here without my cats, without furniture and without anything to make this my home. It will be sad. So I must really hope hard that this house sells shortly after being put on the market. |
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