Post Election: Thoughts of the Day

I woke up this morning and something seemed different. A new sense of calm. Of right direction. Not only for myself, but as something you can feel in the air.

I continue to watch some of the news about Obama’s new administration choices and what I find remarkable is that, with few exceptions – most are positive and hopeful. Even those stations that are pro-Republicans are somewhat toned down in their viciousness.

At the moment, I’m watching the Bush family welcome the Obama’s into the White House.

One of the things I feel is that with the Obama Presidency, all of us will be in there with him. I am hopeful that what I sensed in Obama as a candidate – that he will work on behalf of us, the American citizenry – and that he will keep us informed as to what is happening will in fact be what we experience.

I wonder if anyone else senses this shift in the air? That hopefulness for the future that seems to have permeated most everyone around the globe since his election. Only time will tell if all the ills of the past which derailed our country – and our planet – can be put back on a new track for the future.

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Hello world!

I’ve been needing an outlet for my thoughts on just about everything. So here I am, starting this blog to begin sharing my thoughts on a variety of topics that interest me and perhaps will interest you.

I’m a Mom with two boys. One in college, one finishing his last year in high school. They both live at home. I’ve been, for the most part a stay at home, relocated due to my husband’s employment with virtually no one to talk to who share my interests. While throughout the course of my life, my interests have been many, finding a passion for any one thing has – at this moment in time – dwindled to an almost lack of interest in anything.

Of course, my interest in politics has soared for the current presidential campaign. I have many opinions and a few I’d like to share.

I am a Democrat. The first election I ever voted in was the 2000, hanging chad supreme court fiasco. Without too much backtracking to that event, I just want to say that over the years I have – until recently – stopped watching main stream media here in the US. When I have watched the news I usually watch the BBC and sometimes the LINK channel.

I’m so tired of how inaccurate coverage of news really is. You can really learn more about most any topic on the internet which makes the blatant omissions in news coverage even more infuriating. While I can easily research people and events easily on the web, it bothers me that people even older than me, who don’t use the internet, base their decisions on what they see and hear on the news as if it is the whole story – the “gospel truth”. I grew up with the idea that news people have an obligation to report the news in an unbiased fashion, and with telling the whole story – both sides of an issue. Today, even with those I do now watch regularly because of the election, fail to tell us everything.

As I mentioned earlier, I began reducing the amount of time I spent watching the news after the 2000 election. Living in Florida during the 2000 and 2004 election fiascos I can tell you that in spite of what you did learn from TV reports, the fact that both elections were tampered with is something I’ll always believe.

I first suspected it the evening of the 2000 election when, while attending class a fellow student comes in complaining that she and two of her friends – who had registered to vote at the time they renewed their drivers licenses – were not allowed to. That was a voter registration program set up by then Secretary of State Katherine Harris. All three had registered as democrats. After class, I rushed home to watch the election coverage and then the chads hit the fan. Fast forward to 2004, where Dade County – the chad capital of the world – jumped right into touch screen voting, with no paper trail. Where some machines were only counting Republican votes.

All this left me without much confidence in the voting system here in Florida. To the credit of the county I live in, we have always used optical scanners, which I like. You actually have a piece of paper that can be recounted as many times as you like, quite quickly it seems, as our county was one that finished a recount before it was nixed by the US Supreme Court. (And found more votes for Gore in the process!)

To the credit of the Florida Supreme Court, they did rule for a recount. For that reason, I always vote to keep each one of them in their seats. The US court should have upheld their ruling. The US Supreme Court lost my confidence on that day. As late boomers, we have been taught that our votes are our civil right – the most “sacred” of rights we have as citizens, and that reason alone should have garnered their support. If our vote represents “We The People”, then you would think that the basic right we have to vote should have been the primary consideration in making sure every vote was counted.

Yesterday, Charlie Crist – the current governor of Florida extended early voting hours from 8 to 12. While my opinion of Republicans has degenerated over the past few years, I have a lot of respect for his decision. Above the shouts by the Republicans who chose to limit early voting to after and before work hours, he yielded to what was in the best interest of the people of Florida. While I am skeptical that it was done to warm the hearts of Floridians toward his next election, none the less he did find a way and I am grateful. I’ll be voting this evening, before 7pm.

This brings up the fact that the truth is, regardless of what the news media tells us, Florida is – as it should be – a democratic state. You really can’t go by the past two elections for the reasons I explained above. The legitimacy of those elections are highly suspect – ask almost any resident in Florida.

Which brings me back to the coverage of this election in Main Stream Media.

My next post, which will – hopefully – be later this evening, will concentrate on what they’re not telling us about Sarah Palin that is truly disturbing.

Thanks for listening.

Judy

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