Tomorrow is it. We will officially have a new president. And I can honestly say I am scared. But change does that to people. I am scared of the change, new policies, new laws, new everything. And I am so tired of the coverage already I could spit.
I do not agree with Obama on almost everything he has said. I think he will try to do his best. Nobody goes into the office of President just to fail miserably (see George W. Bush). Sometimes it just happens. But when you screw up in that job, there are millions of people that suffer. He will become the CEO of a very large, global company.
One of Obama's policies I don't agree with is gun control. Now hold on and hear me out. I come from a state that lets you carry a loaded shotgun in the gun rack in the back window of your truck. I come from a state that says if someone breaks into your home and threatens your family and your property, you may shoot them. And if you kill them, that's their own fault for trying to steal your stuff. I come from a state that has a fast track to the electric chair. In the immortal words of Ron White, "If you kill someone in the state of Texas, we'll kill you back."
Now, do I think that automatic weapons like an M16 or any other weapon of that type should be allowed? Not really. I think that law enforcement needs to have weapons similar to that just to stay in the game if you know what I mean. Law enforcement has been outgunned for a very long time. And we need to change that. Do you remember the bank robbery several years ago in California where the police had handguns and shotguns, but the robbers were all Kevlared up? I do. And that was wrong. The police needed a way to fight back.
Obama wants a policy change. If you kill someone while they are robbing your home, you go to prison for murder. What?!? If someone comes into my home and terrorizes my famiy, he better hope he makes it out alive. While I do not think taking a life is a laughing matter, I also do not think that someone should go to prison for protecting their family, home, and property. And he wants to limit our rights to own and carry a weapon. The NRA is probably gearing up for a big fight.
Another issue I have is taking from the haves and giving to the have nots. Trust me when I say that I am a have not. My issue is that this promotes the theory that we do not have to work hard to have things, to earn a living for ourselves or our family. To me that promotes the sense of entitlement that many have. We have tried very hard to instill in our children the value of hard work and saving for a big ticket item. Or any item. Hard work is good for the soul and the pocket book. To me, it seems Obama just wants to hand over hard earned money to people that cheat the system and don't want to work for what they have.
All of our systems are flawed and have not been revamped for many years. Several decades for some. But the environment of business rules and sets policy is old now, and has left our sytems broken. I don't think Obama has any idea how to make those systems work. And I don't think that his advisors have spent any time on or in the system. Do I have a better idea? Probably not, but at least I've been in it. And I have some ideas about revamping, but nobody has called me yet to ask.
Tomorrow we start all over. I am just praying that our new leader will make some right decisions. Hopefully, more right ones than wrong. But I have a feeling the next four years will not be boring.
2 comments:
Thank you for yet another thought-provoking blog posting. I was glad to be able to sit with my co-workers and actually watch his inaugural address. Actually, I'm encouraged that his speech had a more somber tone, and it's true that part of the reason we're all suffering is not only because of greed and corruption on Wall Street, but because so many of us are living beyond their means. And I'm one of those people. In almost nine years, Jeff and I racked up a tremendous amount of credit card debt, and most of it is in my name. Since I left the relationship, that has become my burden to bear. I'll get to make some hard choices myself.
As for gun control, I agree that if someone breaks into my home and threatens me and I don't have an alternative, I should be able to use deadly force. If I had a family to protect, I know I'd feel the same way....exponentially so. To me, I don't see why private citizens need M16s. Can't you just shoot the deer without blowing it to smithereens?
As you do, I hope that our new President does make good decisions, and hopefully he will choose qualified people as his advisors. If memory serves, Clinton was very good about having good people around him, and it was one of Bush's key failures. We'll have to see what happens. But I also think we all have some responsibility to let our representatives know what needs to be done. I had been so cynical and blase about it in the past, but I don't know if we can afford that same cynicism now.
So...thank you again for giving us all something to think about. You're so good at that! :)
Love you,
Scott
I'm scared, too. Of course I feel a huge knot in my stomach every time we get a new president. You never truly know what you're getting and we can't see into the future. I, too, will take a more active role in letting my representatives know how I feel. I hope enough people will do the same.
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