Scattered Political Thoughts of my 19 year old self

(Originally written in August 31, 2003 in Scraps)

Quick Aphorisms

On Racism - Racism exists. It should not be swept under the rug. Nor should it be the only topic of discussion.

On Involvement in Politics - Those who do not involve themselves actively in government cannot demand anything from what they do not have a role in.

On the Two-Party system - Neither Republicans nor Democrats have gotten it absolutely right. Judge individuals, not parties. Encourage independent thinking.

On Religious Tolerance - Religious tolerance means tolerance of all faiths, but not acceptance of all the morals of those other faiths.

On Homosexual Marriage - Marriage is a sacred word to Christians. But, Americans should be allowed to marry by the government. The Church however is different. No individual church should ever sanction it.

On Freedom of Speech - Freedom of speech does not negate the freedom of an audience to get up and walk out on the speaker, nor does it give the speaker the inalienable right to an audience.

On Drugs - All drugs are bad.

On Terrorism - Terrorism ought to be fought on a global level. It is a government's responsibility to protect its people. If terrorism is fought on other soil then the battle is halfway over, even if it is unending.

(Added on April 26, 2005)

Not really deep, but somewhat pragmatic. It's interesting to see where some of my thinking was beginning to form as an adult. I didn't give context though to what prompted this little blurb. It was about this age where I became increasingly interested in politics and watched a whole bunch of Fox News and CNN, 2-3 hours a day. I was a bit more fiery at 19 too, but was already starting to see how screaming about issues and being one-sided wasn't exactly fair or balanced. I think I might have leaned further right politically at the time, but my love affair with Cable News was to come to a quick end as I just got tired of hearing people complain about others on a nightly basis and be told at the end of the show that this complaining was the end of the story on any particular subject and all other viewpoints on it were somehow less journalistically objective and slanted. Only this one particular side was free of all subjectivity. Blah, blah, blah.

Screeching. Yelling. Opining. Hook. Sensationalistic Imagery. Shocked look on the face of the host/hostess. Confirming emails from like-minded individuals. Credits. Next show. Different face, same story, same viewpoint (unless you switched the channel and then it was simply a denunciation of the aforementioned channel with the opposite viewpoint.

I digress though. While some of these little aphorisms are somewhat formative and others are less, it is interesting (and somewhat satisfying) to see how my more mature thoughts began to take root. Hopefully, in another decade I can look back on this period and see where I began to build on some and change on others to form a better, stronger thought pattern.