Political Flexing

So, I get sent anti-Obama emails all the time. And usually I ignore then and delete them. I've expressed my views of why I'm voting for Obama on more than one occasion, so I felt no need to reply and tell them I disagree. But this one could not go unreplied:

YOU AIN'T GOING TO LIKE LOSING... PLEASE READ THIS WITH AN OPEN MIND I know everyone has a different opinion on the war and our current President. But, this article makes a lot of sense, take 2 minutes, read it and give it some thought. When electing the next President, 'the only decision you have to make is who you want sitting in that seat in the White House when - not if - WHEN we get hit again and millions of American lives are put at risk!'
This is from: 'You ain't gonna like losing.' Author unknown.

President Bush did make a bad mistake in the war on terrorism. But the mistake was not his decisio n to go to war in Iraq . Bush's mistake came in his belief that this country is the same one his father fought for in WWII. It is not.

Back then, they had just come out of a vicious depression. The country was steeled by the hardship of that depression, but they still believed fervently in this country. They knew that the people had elected their leaders, so it was the people's duty to back those leaders. Therefore, when the war broke out the people came together, rallied behind, and stuck with their leaders, whether they had voted for them or not or whether the war was going badly or not.

And war was just as distasteful and the anguish just as great then as it is today. Often there were more casualties in one day in WWII than we have had in the entire Iraq war. But that did not matter. The people stuck with the President because it was their patriotic duty. Americans put aside their differences in WWII and worked together to win that war.

Everyone from every strata of society, from young to old pitched in. Small children pulled little wagons around to gather scrap metal for the war effort. Grade school students saved their pennies to buy stamps for war bonds to help the effort. Men who were too old or medically 4F lied about their age or condition trying their best to join the military.

Women doubled their work to keep things going at home. Harsh rationing of everything from gasoline to soap, to butter was imposed, yet there was very little complaining. You never heard prominent people on the radio b elittling the President. Interestingly enough in those days there were no fat cat actors and entertainers who ran off to visit and fawn over dictators of hostile countries and complain to them about our President. Instead, they made upbeat films and entertained our troops to help the troops' morale. And a bunch even enlisted.

And imagine this: Teachers in schools actually started the day off with a Pledge of Allegiance, and with prayers for our country and our troops! Back then, no newspaper would have dared point out certain weak spots in our cities where bombs could be set off to cause the maximum dama ge. No newspaper would have dared complain about what we were doing to catch spies. A newspaper would have been laughed out of existence if it had complained that German or Japanese soldiers were being 'tortured' by being forced to wear women's underwear, or subjected to interrogation by a woman, or being scared by a dog or did not have air conditioning.
There were a lot of things different back then. We were not subjected to a constant bombardment of pornography, perversion and promiscuity in movies or on radio. We did not have legions of crack heads, dope pushers and armed gangs roaming our streets. No, President Bush did not make a mistake in hi s hand ling of terrorism. He made the mistake of believing that we still had the courage and fortitude of our fathers. He believed that this was still the country that our fathers fought so dearly to preserve.

It is not the same country. It is now a cross between Sodom and Gomorra and the land of Oz. We did unite for a short while after 9/11, but our attitude changed when we found out that defending our country would require some sacrifices. We are in great danger. The terrorists are fanatic Muslims. They believe that it is okay, even their duty, to kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. It has been estimated that about one third or over three hundred million Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorists cause... Hitler and Tojo combined did not have nearly that many potential recruits. So... We either win it - or lose it - and you ain't gonna like losing.

America is not at war. The military is at war. America is at the mall, o r watc hing the movie stars. ( Remember Obama said in his book 'Audacity of Hope', 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction'.....what better place for the Muslins to control our country, than in the office of the President of USA . If you ever forwarded an e-mail, now's the time to do it!)

I couldn't let this one go unanswered. If this kind of mindset was the reason I was getting these emails in the first place- a mindset with false information, I had to say something. So I flexed my understanding of situations, did some research and replied with this:

I would like to say, I read this and found a few misconceptions. I've been learning a lot in my World Politics class, and the theories we've been discussing directly affect what's going on today.

One of the more prominent things we've discussed is the idea of the "Security dilemma" and the "Prisoner's dilemma". The idea basically states that if a country acting as a unit is afraid for its survival, it can make irrational decisions to protect itself. This can be avoided by a shift of mindset. If instead of using Militaristic hard power as we have been using for the last 8 years, we used mutually benefiting diplomacy in foreign policy, we would find much more cooperation in the world. If we worked through the Power of the UN, as we did in the end of WW2, we would find foreign countries more willing to cooperate and discuss America's interests.
The forwarded email made it seem like a country was the cause of 9/11, when in reality the Taliban caused the attack. Iraq has never been attached to Al Qaeda, according to this CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/13/alqaeda.saddam/
Barack Obama has expressed many times that if the United States receives good information that Osama Bin Laden can be found, we will follow. I believe that this is a cause Americans will unite under.
People, my generation, still fervently believe in this country. If people didn't care, they wouldn't say anything. Instead, people are complaining because they want change. It's not that they're never happy or need to suck it up, it's people expressing their rights and their views in order to make change happen. In hopes that their government will listen to them and make a difference. Barack Obama is trying- he has done much more with a grassroots campaign, visiting places all over the country, reminiscent of William Jennings Bryan's Whistle-stop campaigning.

Even FDR had critics- on broadcast, in the newspaper, etc. He dealt with critics throughout the Great Depression and World War II, from the New Deal to Court Packing to American Internment Camps. But he is looked back on as a compromiser and one of the United States' Best presidents. The fact is, George W. Bush has not been a very good leader. It is nationally acknowledged that President George W. Bush has made poor decisions in the last 8 years. His current average approval rating is around 34 percent. This article goes into detail about Bush's misleading statements involving the war in Iraq: http://projects.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/
And although we want to stand behind our president and our country, this country is made up of its ideals. This is a country of civic nationalism, devoted to the idea of free speech and pursuit of happiness. And if we are going to fight for what our fathers fought for, its the ability to stand against injustice. And if people feel that George W. Bush has been unjust during his term, they have the right to do so. We're a place of religious freedom and acceptance of different ethnicities. People come to this country for the opportunities provided by our rights. That's what we're built on. Not a race or a religion, but freedom. I believe that this is the most important part of fighting for this country. What else are we built on but the ideals of our founding fathers?

Starting in 2003, my school started every morning off with the Pledge of Allegiance. Schools are promoting patriotism.

In reply to the comment about Hitler and Tojo, it must be admitted that the world has grown vastly in size since that time. 300 million has a different value 1939 than it does in 2008, the same as $10 has a difference. In reply to 300 million being sympathetic to terrorism, I am not sure how much I trust that source. "sympathetic" can be mean a lot of different things. Even if it were the case that all 300 million decided to go against the United States, that's not as large as our current population estimated at 305,403,967 people. In addition, we have many allies through NATO, which is in a pact to support us if ever attacked (called into affect for the 1st time on 9/11). In terms of sheer damage, there is no comparison. The United States can hurt others so much more than it can be hurt. We are the world's only superpower.
I believe that it isn't the American lifestyle, opportunity or freedoms that upset people around the world. It isn't our McDonald's restaurants or shopping malls. It's the Foreign policy that people don't like. When interviewed in the 2004 Documentary "I Know I'm Not Alone" by Michael Franti, Iraqi's were unhappy with Bush's preemptive foreign policy, not American lifestyle. I believe that we as humans, no matter where we live, experience a lot of the same things: life, death, family, love. That alone is enough reason not to attack another country: because the loss of a son or a daughter hurts equally in the north as it does in the south, east and west.

Finally, I need to address the alarming misquotation of Barack Obama in his book "Audacity of Hope". The actual quote, found on page 261 is as follows: "Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific reassurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."

The quote was in reference to a repeat of Internment camps, not about siding with Muslim leaders of foreign countries. Even if he was a Muslim, wouldn't it seem more likely that foreign leaders would want to cooperate, rather than with someone of a different belief system?
But Obama is not a Muslim. He has family ties back to Kenya, yes, but he is 100% American, just like anyone else born on American soil. He, his wife and his two girls are Christian. They attended the United Church of Christ, a non-denominational protestant church. Since the campaign trail, they have started looking for a new Christian congregation (preferably in the D.C. area!) Muslim belief in Allah does not mean a hatred of Christianity. On the contrary, following the teachings of their prophet Mohammed, it is believed that the Muslim God is the same God that Jesus Christ believed in. If we can share a God, we can share a world.

In love & peace,

Lauren


And as strange as it seems, I was really proud of what I had done, almost the way I felt after writing my Prufrock Paper for AP Lit. This election has given me a real sense of purpose- I talk to real people, hear about their concerns and try to make a difference by reporting back to the Obama campaign. I do get hung up on quite a bit, but the other night phonebanking I talked to almost every other person I called. Some of them were really great conversations.
I had a talk with a man leaning McCain/Palin but was relatively undecided who talked with me about his concerns & worries about the future of this country and I greatly appreciated the way he respected me. When we hung up he said, "keep fighting the good fight", even though I was not supporting the candidate he was potentially supporting - he told me to keep going.
And I will, down to the very last minute.