Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Surprised and Amazed
First I am surprised that this is the first post since Nov. 25th. I am also amazed that so many people make statements about having lost respect for America and its government. I do not understand how you could lose respect for these things. America is the most free country in the world, you have more rights here than anywhere else, in other countries you would be laughed at if you tried to talk about how something is your right. I am also amazed at how many of you were so ignorant about our countries history.
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are we really as free as we like to say we are? in a free country wouldn't we be able to keep our hard earned money and give to the country as you saw fit, instead of the government taxing us so they can build a new baseball stadium?
ReplyDeletein a free country, couldn't you ingest anything you wanted? if a doctor said a specific medication would work, you'd be able to take it without fear of being punished.
in a free country wouldn't you be able to educate your children as you saw fit? without intervention from the Government?
in a free country, couldn't people who wanted to use drugs do so as long as they weren't physically harming anyone?
couldn't we eat trans fat in a free country?
or marry someone of the same sex?
and these are just a few of the things i could list... and while i'll admit that i agree with some of the laws, if we were truely a free country, wouldn't we actually be free? one of my best friends is from Norway, and she actually told me that they laugh at America because we think we are "free" while it's painfully obvious that we aren't.
as far as disrespect for bush and his administation... His approval ratings are below that of Nixon's while he was in offive. since Bush has been in office, we have gone trillions in debt, he's started drilling for oil in previously protected wildland, cut down on AIDS education, started a war looking for weapons of mass destruction thatweren't there, therefore killiong millions of Iraqi's andAmericans for no reason, he made taxes easier to pay for the rich, and harder to pay for the poor... need i go on?
i don't know how i would go about respecting that without looking completly ignorant
Andrea made some really good points and I completely agree with her. I really dont think we are as "free" as most people like to think. Yes we do have more freedoms and rights than some countries and we may have a higher standard of living than others, but at the same time there are alot of things we arent allowed to do. I just dont understand why gays cant get married... it frustrates me, If you love someone, why cant you marry them? WHO cares if youre gay? honestly..
ReplyDeleteI believe but it depends on who makes that comment. There are people that come to America as refugees, people who come and make money for their families, and just to start a new life. People come to America because the conditions of our country allows them to be the people that they want to be. We have many religions, cultures, and races here, and isn't that the reason why our forefathers came here in the first place? To get away from the crown of England to be Protestants rather than Christians? We came to America to be free. We do treat people badly, that is why we have to focus on where the comment comes from. I do believe that people have their own right on who to be with, love, and marry, man or woman. Women should have the right to their own body (under responsible circumstances).
ReplyDeleteOf course we are not completely free, to expect us to ever be completely free is naive. If we were completely free it would be anarchy, people would just run around doing whatever they wanted to and the government would recieve very little funding. I also dislike how they tax people for new sports stadiums when not everyone even wants a new stadium. Does anyone actually believe we are totally free? I have never meet someone naive enough to believe that. We are however, much more free than others, so you should always have resect for the government no matter who is president, because they are the ones who enable the freedoms we have. The whole gay marriage thing is going to end up being very commonplace because so many people have turned a deaf ear to God, so don't worry about that anymore, you people will have your way. People as a mass are very ignorant, naive, spoiled, and uncaring, we should never be allowed to be without a form of authority over us. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteWhy should people losing respect for America and its government be surprising? People lose respect for others or don't treat them with respect all the time! That has been shown throughout many blogs. So I don't think that people losing respect for America is surprising at all. And there have been enough let downs and disappointments throughout the years that I could understand people starting to think like that. If we want the world to change we are going to have to do it a little at time, and perhaps even one person at a time. A good place to start would be for everyone to open up to others ideas and beliefs, let them have their own beliefs even if we do not always agree to them, and for people to quit calling other people ignorant. Specially when it refers to how people feel.
ReplyDeleteYou criticize here that some people have lost their faith in this Government and that the American Government is so much more free than any other government, well I have been to around 20 countries, and I always make it a point to talk to the people there, and all of them think the American government is a complete hypocrisy. Here is why, Americans talk about spreading democracy but America is not a democracy; America would never tolerate another country lying and cheating and exploiting it as America dose to any country it can get its claws into; America puts it into its own Bill of Rights that inhumane punishment for crimes, including torture, is unlawful but yet it continues to do so; Americans claim they have freedom of speech “if they have the cash to”; ok I am going to stop there because this list is starting to get endless. But here is the reason why I lost faith in this government and this administration, two years ago I had a summer job/internship, and one thing I had to do was go along when the Chaplin and the Coronel and two others went to see a soldier’s wife with her 3 children (with another one on the way) to tell them that their daddy was never coming home, and rather than caring for the new widow she was given a week to pack and move back to the states, she had no family anywhere close and did I mention her oldest was only 5. Her Husband had died in Afghanistan under “friendly fire” which incase you are not aware means that he was shot by another American soldier by accident. 4 of the people I should have graduated with moved away, their fathers too died in Afghanistan, and when we wanted to commemorate them at our graduation we were told it was against “protocol.” There were at least 14 people that received their diplomas that day without their fathers or mothers being there because they were in Afghanistan rising their lives for what? A government that sends men to war, ruins the economy, and encroaches more and more on the freedoms of it people? That’s why I have no faith in this past administration, and hope and pray that President Elect Obama really brings the change that he has promised.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear all that sad stuff. It happens no matter what, to say they are fighting for something that is wrong, is wrong to do to the troops, I know many in the military and they all say that they hate it when foolosh people critisize the war. They say that when you people critisize it that it is disheartening and angering. You will find things corrupt in any gorvernment, because government is run by humans. Alot of soldiers I have talked to voted for McCain, because they think Obama is a fool for saying he will do the things he says he will do, they say he will weaken the military and country. I think that maybe some people just happen to experience the hardships more than the good things, then their perception is biased. Ian
ReplyDeleteHold it right there, I never ever once said that what our soldiers are doing is wrong, and just suggesting that a person with my history is not in support of our troops is more offensive than anything that you have ever said in this blog!!!! So do not dare to call me foolish when it comes to this topic because I have had to deal with the Army my entire life. Further more I never ever called this war wrong, I was just pointing out that it is hard for me to support an administration when the only thing I have ever seen come out of it has been negative and horrifying for the people that surround me. I did however ask what our soldiers are forced to fight for. I have never gotten the exact same answer from more than two people on this topic and I have heard a lot of answers. The truth is always solid, it never changes, it can’t be modified, should that not be the same when it comes to the truth of a war? The fact is that in war we get lied to, history proves it, but when a persons life is on the line no one has the right to lie to them, and that is exactly what the Bush junior administration has done.
ReplyDeleteWelllooking back at your other comment and then looking back at the one I made in response I see that I made too many assumptions. I took what you were saying about the families with no more dads and the criticism of America for you thinking that the war was wrong, and I still think that is what you said even if it is not what you meant to say. It's not even that big of a deal, outside of this blog I will never have anything I wish to say to any of you. I also don't care if you think the things you think, I just wish more people would make better informed decisions, so that they make realistic and mature opinions. We need to be able to see things from more than one perspective, that is what this class was about right? We also need to be able to understand that there is always something behind why I person says or does what they do. They are rarely just jerks, idiots, or evil. A little off topic but still something worth reading.
ReplyDeleteIan: i have explained this to you plenty of times- i don't believe in your "God" and i don't believe Christianity is the "one true religion" it's not that i've turned a deaf ear to God, it's that i don't believe he exists. The power i believe in won't damn people for who they love.
ReplyDeleteyou make it seem like if we aren't christian, we are bad people. jat because i dont let Jesus Christ lead me, doesn't automatically make me a bad human. it doesn't make me selfish, naive, ignorant, and uncaring. some of the smarterst caring people i know aren't Christian
I feel that the goverment kind of has to extend the truth. Especially when it comes to getting lied to about the war, I think thats the wrong idea. The truth that everyone is looking for is classified info. If everything was unclassified, we would be getting killed like ducks on a pond.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I am disgusted at how this blog has become a war of words and then escalated into insulting others. Seriously, this blog is more arguing not attacking! I really don't appreciate the fact that Ian is not being ojective in his info on the war because he is basing it on one viewpoint of his friends in the military. So I do not agree with his argument. I do not think that the war is wrong but I do think it could have been dealt with differently. The interesting thing is that we were afraid so we chose to go there and thus calm our fears of the middle east a little bit. Still people continue to act on fear as we have for thousands and thousands of years...
ReplyDeleteI think that you all should have known how this war would go, I little common sense and understanding that there are always reasons behind what you see, it goes a long way. I also strongly disagree with Obamas plan to cut military spending. If we do that then people in the military can actually be forced to switch there jobs into something else. Obamas inexperience and naivety will show.
ReplyDeletebut we have no reason to be in Iraq anymore. in my opinion i don't think we ever had a legit reason to be there. i completely understand why we went to Afghanistan- but why would we put more money, time and people into invading a country that never really did us wrong? yes- they had a horrible leader, and yes, they did need help to get out of it. why do we think it's our job to change their government and everything they've ever known into the "democracy" we think we have? we have so much to be fixed here in America, once America is finally at a satisfactory place, then MAYBE we can take on putting this much energy into helping others. but until then i won't be okay with what we're doing. and it's not as if Obama is gonna just up and leave Iraq in the pieces we've put it in.
ReplyDeleteit's not the presidents job to make the rest of the world like us... it's his job to protect and serve the AMERICAN people
Wow, so I have read all this and I don't even know what to say...
ReplyDelete-Yes, I believe that America is a free country but... everyone needs laws, we can't be an anarchy- even if we tried someone would always have power over others. I also think though that our Constitution states that government is separate from state so.. that means that whose standards do we use for laws... who says that death roll is wrong.. who says that homosexuality is wrong... who says... whose morals. If someone believes in something then, with enough effort, enough force and enough support they can do it (good or evil).
-Next I am also disappointed that this blog has become more of a WAR ZONE then a place where people can voice there options. Yes- some of us don't agree with others... but we shouldn't be calling each other naive, closed-minded and so on. Isn't that what we've been learning about this whole time- That Americans were so unwilling to see things from some else's point of view & so quick to call them wrong, ignorant and savages that they just killed them off or exploited them!!!!!!!!!!!
And finally, We shouldn't lose respect for the government... I never really had respect till this class... sad but yea... I know we (a country) did some pretty awful things but this class showed how lucky we are to be able to come to school and learn about. Knowing all of this shows us how help change the future... how to prevent things like this to happen again... this is our country (good or bad, war or peace, republican or democrat) We are here, We are America
If we do caught spending in Iraq the government would just move the troops somewhere else where they are needed. I do not agree with Ian when he said that people in the military would lose their jobs. People in the miitary have contracts so they will always get paid even if they are not at war. So we as a people must realize that our military could be helpful in other places. Such as Darfur. We swore we would never allow another genocide to take place after the holocaust but still we allow the violence to continue in Africa. It seems to me that America likes to stick it's nose in other peoples business, but only if they can benefit in some way. This is very interesting to think about...
ReplyDeleteI did not say they would lose their jobs. I stated a fact, that the military can force people into a career they do not want to go into. They do this to try and cut spending when the government does not give them enough money. You should read it 2 or 3 times before you comment the next time Brad. Then you might get it right.
ReplyDelete