Is it just me??

The Iowa caucuses are over. Thank goodness! I honestly think it's a lot of stuff and nonsense about very little. Very little good, anyway. Is it just me, or are there other people worried about how to pay taxes, pay down debt, including Giftmas debt!, and figure out how to save a few dollars for retirement? Let alone figure out how to sock away a few dollars to help Rebecca, and later Orin, get through college or grad school or pay for a trip to Australia? It's amazing to me to think that with all the money floating around out there - more millionaires in 2007 than any other year, more grant money, more lottery winners, etc., that there are so MANY people who have these worries?

And so we worry about which presidential candidate will run for president this year. Because this IS important. This is certainly ONE of the most powerful, if not THE most powerful, countries in the world, which is a small and increasingly sour world, but still the only world we've got. The person charged with making some pretty damned big decisions - like reducing war debt and changing the structure of political decision making and redistributing the annual budget so that the war machine does NOT get 50% of our national budget, well we are going to have to be pretty damned stupid to give this to someone, anyone, who hasn't PROVEN and I mean seriously PROVEN that they can handle making these decisions! A preacher? WTF??? I looked him up online. He's an NRA, Pro-Life, minimal help kinda guy, the way I see it. He's smart and hard working, and full of the righteousness of the chosen, the blievers.

So then I went back to see what Barack was saying to everyone. I guess I was really hoping to find someone who has the ability and strengths to find NEW solutions, to insure people WELL, to provide interesting and useful alternatives in the fields of education, energy consumption, transportation, and technology. Who will see that freedom is CHOICE, and that to reduce the choices is to attack American freedom. I don't want to be parented, I already survived that (and not by much!). I want someone who will run our Health Care system to the benefit of PEOPLE, not drug companies or hospitals or doctor's insurance agents. I want someone who will figure out a National Transportation Act, who will make car companies accountable for their cars, and fast food companies accountable for their food. Who want to protect our children by letting parents make decisions about them, whether to vaccinate or educate or what kind of health care works for them best. It doesn't seem appropriate to allow children to suffer, but if a child is not suffering and parents choose to 'treat' an illness in a way that doesn't work, even resulting in the death of a child, is that not alright? Is it not their decision to make? I can appreciate that it is a hard decision to make, and we would absolutely have to revamp the entire social services system to make that kind of decision making possible, but we CAN make that happen. I think it's entirely possible, and would make for a stronger, better America, one who believes in the choices of people, and the rights of parents to be informed and empowered.

Ok, it's time for me to get movtiated and start the day here. My little rant is over. But I do hope that somehow things change for the better for EVERYONE, raising up those who feel oppressed, and bringing heart and love and change to those who don't.

Peace all.