Wednesday, June 4, 2008

I'm still here

But the computer's still broken and using the office one isn't convenient when it's your baby's bedroom and your primary blogging time is when she's sleeping! (ha! most of you thought I just ignore my baby all day, huh! :)
A friend sent me an email earlier this week and it's still bothering me.
I don't know who to vote for.  I'm not convinced I like any of them.  I feel like I'm going to be choosing the lesser of two evils with whoever I go with.  I know who my husband's going to vote for.  We often cancel each other's votes out.  I vote anyway.  I like to think I'm not of a specific party but that I vote for who makes the most sense to me.  When it was the senatorial race in MN, my Republican husband voted for Mark Kennedy.  I voted for Amy Klobuchar.  Why? Because she ran a clean race and Kennedy ran mean ads.  I liked that she didn't stoop to his level.  Is that really a good reason to vote for someone? Maybe not, but I felt good about her being a good person. I'm rambling...
Back to the email. It had this picture in it. 
****I have learned after posting this today that he was not disrespecting the pledge like I was led to believe. He was singing to the national anthem with the rest of the politicians on stage, but not holding his hand over his heart. I'm not sure that makes me feel much better. According to an article debunking the picture, apparently all of them were not respecting the flag as they should have (hand over heart, facing the flag) but let's face it, the lay American doesn't see that as out right disrespect. I think they see not holding your hand over your heart as disrespect. I didn't post this to bash Obama. Like I said above, I have NO clue who to vote for yet, I just wanted to share that this type of thing does impact how I feel and it bothered me. Happy Wednesday!****

 It's really bothering me. I know the debates about the pledge of allegiance and I believe that people need to stand up for what they believe and that the purpose of our country is that you have that freedom.  However, I also believe that the pledge is ultimately about patriotism and pledging allegiance to our country, that's what it says anyway. I don't believe it's ultimately about who believes in God.  This may have ruined how I feel about Obama.  And I may have just ticked a bunch of my readers off, but maybe someone can help me understand it too.  Is it his right? Yes.  Is it appropriate? I don't think so.  I want a patriotic president.  Regardless of his religious beliefs, I want to believe that he loves our flag and our country. 

6 comments:

Brittany said...

Amen sistah! Thus the reason I will NEVER vote for Obama.

Emily said...

I agree with you, I would have a hard time voting for a presidential candidate who didn't say the pledge - while he may be patriotic, the pledge of allegiance is a big symbol of patriotism for me (not for all), and that's important to me. It is his right to choose not to say it, but it's each individual voter's right to decide how they feel about that, and vote accordingly.

Liz said...

Em, you make a great point. He may be a very patriotic person, it's just that this struck a strong sour note with me because the pledge is a huge symbol of patriotism to ME!

Anonymous said...

I am not a fan of Barack Obama and it really made me upset when I saw this, but I decided to research it because I don't remember hearing anything about it in the news and I like keeping up on the politics. Plus, whenever I get those emails like that I always like to verify them. Check out this site. http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/barack-obama-refused-to-say-the-pledge-of-allegiance-youve-been-played-for-a-daggone-fool/
I still don't agree with him not putting his hand over his heart, but in my opinion this isn't quite as bad.

Laura said...

It is his right, yes. But, our president is about patriotism and our country. If he can't respect that i don't expect him to respect anything else. That's what i think. I am against Obama. :D

Liz said...

thanks for the added info, Paul. The email did have a citation but you're right in that obviously it didn't show the whole picture. However, should I feel better that it was the national anthem and not the pledge? I don't feel much better.