SlushTurtle

1. I joined Facebook today. I've been getting nice little prompting emails from people for a long time, but L finally gave in and joined and I felt required to sign up and make sure he didn't have a Facebook girlfriend. OK, not really on that last part. I'm just a joiner. I think it's because I've always wanted to be cool, but have fallen so short. Undoubtedly, Facebook will be no different. Anyway, it's opened up a whole new way for me to waste hours of time that I don't in fact have to waste. Awesome. Plus, it makes me feel popular without even having to leave the comfort of my house (or jammies, for that matter), which is high up on my scale of things I love.

2. Hatchling had an epiphany today on the way to the gym. "Mommy! I know what I'm going to be when I grow up! A clown!!! Because I like to make people happy (I didn't tell him that my crowd thinks clowns are creepy). But I need a clown nose. And some pants, and a shirt, and some big shoes. I think we need to go to a clown store. Do you know where a clown store is? Can we drive around all day tomorrow and find a clown store? I know! I bet they have clown stores at carnivals. And I know where a carnival is! My park! (the Grape Festival). Do you think it will rain next year at my park carnival (we were rained out of rides this year)? Cause I really need some clown stuff. It doesn't usually rain? Great. My plan is set!" This is at least a step up from garbage man. And just so you know, the talking.never.ends. Never, ever. And if you just nod and go along, there is no telling what you will have agreed to.

3. I managed to talk L into letting me homeschool Hatchling, at least for a couple of years. I pulled out all kinds of statistics and whatnot, because we all know what a research geek I am. The government should hire me for something. I'm very efficient. I wish I had some great reason about benefits and whatnot to tell you, but I don't. I just feel like it's what I should do. Because I find that making important decisions based on emotions is where it's at. OK, maybe not. I'm super-duper excited about it. And a little overwhelmed. And scared that the responsibility for his education now rests in my slackardly hands. How will he learn anything now that I've found Facebook? So, I'm psyching myself up for kindergarten. And Hatchling is delighted, because he wanted me to go to school with him anyway. He will be in a thing probably one whole day a week with other kids, so it's not as if he'll be by his lonesome. Plus, he'll have the companionship of his winsome, though currently whiny, little brother. So please, no whining about socialization. What's this? You have to manually click for spell check now? I thought I was being a remarkably proficient speller tonight. But no, no I wasn't.

This is a blatant re-post of Becky Bleu's work, and without permission no less. That's the good thing about family- she has to love my anyway! It is thoughtful and thought provoking, and so much more well-written than anything I could have ever come up with. When I try to say this stuff, it comes out like "you should just listen to me, I'm an expert." Which isn't really much of an argument, now is it? Enjoy, and don't forget to be a good citizen this Tuesday, no matter which way you lean.

Disclaimer:
Warning: This is what some folks would deem a “political” post. If you are one of those nervous types who feels that we should hide our political light under a bushel, then go away for now. I don’t often do political blogs, so you will probably be safe next time, and I respect your right not to read things that bother or frighten or anger you. If you are the type who thinks political=argue, then please—go away for now. I don’t want to argue, and I will NOT refute anything I said in this post. This is not a debate forum. Please understand that the purpose of this post is unburdening, if you will—I need to think through some things in the best way I know how—through the written word. I’m not trying to sell anyone on my own particular point of view, but neither am I going to sugarcoat it to make sure everyone is comfortable. It is what it is.

When I walk into that voting booth in one week, I will be thinking of that great mandate set down by our forefathers before I mark my ballot. You know the one I mean—it begins with: “When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. . . .”

The Declaration of Independence. I do love that document.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. [Get that? The CONSENT of the GOVERNED. That’s you and me.] That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Looking over those three unalienable rights, endowed by our Creator, is all I need to figure out who I am casting my vote for. And it ain’t Obama.

Life—does that include the rights of the unborn? I looked up Obama’s views on abortion and noted his rejection of the Born Alive Infants Protection Law and the Induced Infant Liability Law, which would fight the requirement that doctors and nurses should be allowed to let a child born alive to linger, unattended, until death takes it. I was chilled to the bone. I don’t buy the argument that Obama only opposed it because it was already a law—he COULD have opposed it and showed support for a child’s basic right—unalienable right, if you will—to live. And his coldness in response to the testimony of the nurse who brought the issue to the floor makes me shiver. Look at the rest of his record regarding abortion—he is, without a doubt, pro-choice. Which I cannot get behind—ever.

Now, I can hear the critics saying, “Well, that is just ONE issue. It’s not the only issue. As Al Gore said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’” If that is true, then I am very, very sad about the direction our country has taken. I am especially saddened when these arguments come from fellow brothers and sisters in Christ—I have to wonder if they will be using that same argument when they are one day sitting at the Master’s feet, perhaps surrounded by a sea of those precious ones who were never allowed to live the lives their Creator had planned for them—“Look, Lord, it was just one issue.” Really?

How broken do you suppose his heart is when he looks at us, sometimes?

Liberty—to live free, unfettered by the unfair rules of government. How does Obama’s plan to “spread the wealth” fit into that? We fled the tyranny of England so that we would could enjoy religious freedoms and not be taxed without being represented. We set up government to serve people, not enslave them. A government that takes our money and shows us how to spend it—welfare, social security, education—is what I call a very cruel master. And Obama and friends want to include yet another government chain to our necks—health care. Show me one good government program that works (the DMV and IRS spring to mind) and I’ll show you horses that fly and rainbows that never fade.

We are really not as stupid as they think we are . . . Are we? Do we really believe that they have our good in mind—these same people who spent money they didn’t have and plunged us into darkest financial hole we have seen since the Great Depression? (And I’m including ALL politicians in Washington in this—Republicans and Democrats alike. While I have been one of President Bush’s staunchest supporters throughout his presidency, because I really do believe he makes decisions based on what he thinks is right, not based on what is popular, I think the bailout was a bad, bad move.) What does Machiavelli say in The Prince about gaining absolute power? Maybe we should all read that before casting our ballots on Tuesday next. There is nothing more absolute in terms of power than a government that serves its own agenda. A one-party Senate, Congress, and President seems a little TOO absolute to me. And we only have to look at history to remember the truth of the statement that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Corruption in Washington—we haven’t seen enough of that, right?

The pursuit of happiness. Not happiness—just the pursuit thereof. Leave me alone and let me pursue my own happiness. Don’t tell me what happy is and then try to provide it. Don’t perpetuate class warfare by telling the lower classes that they will be happy if they have what the upper classes have. If we are all equal in income, then we are all without jobs, because successful businesses usually have a trickle-down effect that benefits everyone—Mr. Big is successful and has a good year, so he creates jobs, and hires more people. Those people are then in a position to pursue their own happiness. Ask those in China about “spreading the wealth” and the pursuit of happiness. Ask those who survived Stalin: socialism is never pretty. Why do you think people flee their countries in droves, their eyes set on the freedom of America? We DO have the greatest country in the world, and I am not going to pretend that I am ashamed I feel that way. I'll shout it from the rooftops until my dying day.

What about the last part of that wonderful Declaration of Independence, the part about ridding ourselves of despotism (“a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power”) and providing new guards for future security—would you say that it behooves us to choose our leaders wisely?

Wisdom begins by petitioning the wisest of the wise. I’ll start on my knees, begging God to forgive us our sins, sins that I myself am all-to-often guilty of. Oh God, forgive us for our attitudes of complacency. Forgive us for forgetting the poor and the old, and asking the government to take care of those WE should take care of. Does it occur to anyone else that we would not need welfare or social security if we would do what God has commanded us to do and cared for the poor and the old ourselves? Aren’t we capable of kindness to each other without a government forcing it upon us?

Forgive us for forgetting those who have no voice—the unborn, the homeless, the broken. Give us a chance to amend this, to live the lives we were meant to live, to be the light in a dark world, champions of the down-trodden and oppressed, the place where anyone who is willing to work hard can succeed, without the fear that government will take all that he or she has worked for. Enable us to become again the country our forefathers dreamed of, where we, the people, will pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to defend this glory of a gift you have given us. Power to the people, then the states, and THEN the federal government—not the other way around. Please, God, never the other way around.

“We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

I am not trying to change anyone’s mind with this post. Again, I am just working through my own thoughts in the best way I know how—through writing. I praise God that I live in a country where I can do this freely, without fear that I will be censored or cast out because of my opinions. Isn’t she great, this land that we love?

Oh mighty God, bless her.