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Edited on Wed Jan-07-04 06:44 AM by Skidmore
to an opinion and has the right to voice it. The Democratic Party should do the same thing! Sometimes I feel if there was another truly viable alternative these days, I'd cast my vote that direction. I would never vote R. Until the independents come up with someone who 1) is banging away on some untuned drum, or 2) isn't Nader, I'm starting to feel like sitting this one out. I'm so frustrated at this bunch of yahoos we call candidates standing in a circle and shooting each other in the foot. I'm equally sick of those who stand by and wring their hands instead of refusing to stand up to the bullying.
From 1976 to 1986, I lived in Iran. The rhetoric spewing out of the right and the social policies outlined by the Bush administration are not a whole lot different than the propaganda or the rationale for them espoused by Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers. His faction virtually destroyed their country. That we stand by and meekly let one faction control the government so as defined morality, patriotism, and what is acceptable thought gives me the willies. In Iran, the government began to legislate everything from the way you dressed to the who could work and who could be educated. All of this came to the Iranian citizenry complete with fixed elections. As a wife of an Iranian, I was in a category called foreign national and was eligible to vote in the referendum for form of government there. Not participating in that referendum would have contributed to much discussion in the community. The ballots were color coded--green for an Islamic republic and red for a no vote. No other option for form of government was offered as an alternative. After I placed my red ballot in the box at the polling place and was walking away with my now ex-husband, a revolutionary guard in fatigues carryng a machine gun ran up to me with my ballot in hand. He asked my husband if I knew I had voted incorrectly. I speak fluent Farsi, To his surprise, I addressed him myself, telling him that I had voted the way I intended to vote, requested that he place my ballot back in the box, and stood there until he did so. I'm sure it was removed later. I knew others who placed "No" votes in that election, but the no's were not reported. When we got home, my ex told me that if he had known how I was going to vote, he would have forbidden me to go to the polls at all since my dissenting vote had embarrassed his family in the community. My response to him was that Iran then had not truly won freedom for its people but had paid dearly for another form of tyranny by sacrificing the lives of its youth. Today, America is headed down the same path. The politicians in the Democratic party refuse to face what is being lost by continually capitulating to the agenda that those exercising raw power has wrested for themselves. You don't really appreciate freedom until you are forced to live without it.
There are many paths to truth, but only one to freedom. True freedom cannot exist in a climate of intolerance for other viewpoints. While I respect all people's right to practice their opinions, it is my belief that we cannot afford to be silent nor can we afford to endorse leaders who are not willing to speak hard truthes to power.
Sorry, I just had to get that out.
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