best New Yorker cartoon ever?

words of hope

I read a lot of comments yesterday regarding the election. Many of them touched me, a few of them disturbed me, and couple of them just confused me. But this one, which was posted on the Margaret and Helen blog, brought tears to my eyes.

By: Red (White) and Blue on November 5, 2008 at 2:37 pm

I’m a Republican.
I’m white.
I’m straight.
I’m what I consider to be fairly conservative.
Yesterday, I went to my polling place and voted for Barack Hussein Obama.
And I’ll tell you why.
It wasn’t because of the economy.
It wasn’t because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It wasn’t because Sarah Palin is a dingbat.
It wasn’t because John McCain is just like George Bush.
I did it because I’m tired of being afraid.
And, what’s more, I’m tired of being TOLD I should be afraid.
I should fear terrorists.
I should fear Muslims.
I should fear gays.
I should fear liberals.
I should fear taxes.
I should fear welfare recipients.
In fact, I should fear anyone who doesn’t look, act and think exactly as I’m told I should.

Enough.

Yesterday that’s what I said and so did a sizeable number of other Republicans, apparently.
Yesterday, most of us chose hope over hate.
Compasion over cruelty.
Discourse over violence.
Tolerance over intolerance.
Courage over fear.

THAT’S the America I learned about as a child.
The country where hope and courage overcame every challenge.
The country that holds Great Britain as its closest foreign ally.
Yes, Great Britain.
The same country from where our earliest settlers fled persecution.
The country that subjugated our forefathers’ colonies.
The country with which we fought a bloody war of independence.
The country that later invaded our sovereign nation and burned our capitol to the ground.
And we are allies.
Yet many of us see no hope of reconciling our current differences with other nations and peoples?

Come now. That’s just what we’re being told.
Yesterday, I stopped listening.

Thank you, Red (White) and Blue. This is simply beautiful.

cautious optimism, with a hint of free-floating anxiety...

... and a whole lot of hope.

CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA!!!!!!

Please don't screw this up.

make you a deal,

Sarah Palin: I'll stay out of your family's reproductive bizness if you'll stay out of MINE.

No? That's what I thought.

Ironic how conservatives are praising the daughter for her "choice" to keep the baby. So wait a minute - does that mean they're admitting that women ARE capable of making a choice regarding their offspring??? Oh right, just not THAT choice...

(I wonder how much of a choice this poor girl had about her impending marriage.)

Palin is for "abstinence until marriage" sex education - her own kid is a walking poster child for WHAT DOESN'T WORK. Yet, she is praised for it. Can someone explain this to me?

I have always thought that pro-life advocates, logically, should be the biggest proponents of birth control in the world, yet they are just the opposite. And I wonder how many of them are out there fostering and adopting all the unwanted children in this country? And why is it wrong to use embryonic cells - that are being thrown away ANYWAY - for research that could SAVE the lives of innocent children who have already been born and are facing terrible diseases and hardships? Why are those children not worth saving, but a bundle of cells that's otherwise going in the garbage is? Because of Jesus? Huh??? I fail to see the connection. And why should Jesus have anything to do with it anyway? Remember that little thing called the separation of church and state? Oh I know, I know, nation founded by Christians blah blah blah. So what?? What is important is that this nation was founded as a place where people have the freedom to practice any religion they choose, or no religion at all. So I still don't see what Jesus has to do with policy.

And don't even get me started on her wanting Creationism taught in school. Yes, of course evolution is just a "theory". It's a scientifically legitimate theory. Who knows what new scientific theories we will come up with in the centuries to come? Science is always evolving. (And for the record, I don't think the concept of God and the theory of evolution are necessarily mutually exclusive.) But to teach Creationism in SCIENCE class is comparable to teaching Greek mythology there as well. And hey, she's from Alaska, is she cool with throwing some Inuit creation stories in too? No? You can believe whatever you want, but that doesn't make it science. OK, I got myself started. Just one more point here. Palin is quoted in an interview with the Anchorage Daily News a couple years ago regarding her stance on teaching Creationism in schools.

“Teach both. You know, don't be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important and it's so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.” [bolding is mine]

Irony of all ironies considering her ideas about sex ed? Am I right?

I watched most of her speech last night. I could almost hear all the Republican mommies in the country heaving a post-orgasmic sigh afterwards. I think she will be a popular pick for McCain within his own party, esp. with the far right religious members, but I'm not sure how many moderates and undecideds she'll bring in. I can't imagine many Hillary supporters jumping ship to vote for her, considering her stance on many issues is completely opposite to Hillary's. Not sure what McCain was hoping to accomplish here. We shall see, though. Maybe it will turn out to be a brilliant move on his part, and we'll get 4 more years of neo-con fundamentalist pandering. *blood runs cold*