One of the beautiful things about being an American is our Freedom of speech and our rights to vote. I can't even imagine living somewhere someone told me how to think, what to believe, and getting dictated how to live life. Living in America and having a voice is a gift we often taken for granted.
This election year really bothered me. I totally respect ones right to voice their opinions but I often felt it teetered on bullying. Political bullying isn't right nor fair. I shouldn't have to defend my choice and my right, against people calling me a baby killer, or that I am going to hell for supporting gay people. I mean really folks, keep it to yourself. The mud slinging, the rants, the name calling on BOTH sides is just exhausting, disgusting, and humiliating on what this country is made of and from.
Personally I woke up this morning not ringing with joyous responses because the person I voted for won, but with hope. Hope that America sees better days in all ways, regardless of who won the election. After interning in politics years ago I learned a valuable lesson-- their is no politician that will support everything you wish. It is a business of people pleasing and quite frankly nobody can please everybody. I expect to be let down, and I also expect to be surprised, humbled, and proud. I can only hope moving forward that religion and state move on as separate entities, as it makes things even more hurtful and divided.
Regardless of who you voted for--and believe me I would feel this way even if it was the person I didn't vote for--we should all be thankful that we live in this country. We should all support our president regardless since he is the leader of this free world. We should respect others opinions and values without name calling. And we should be thankful, especially after such a devastating hurricane, that we are alive.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
O'Sandy: I am thankful
I am grateful to report that we survived unscathed by Sandy's wrath. She was brutal up here on the east coast. She knocked out, and destroyed large portions of places I used to frequent. She left thousands homeless, babies hungry, humans without a pair a socks to call their own. It is odd to encounter this when you are mere miles away complaining about loss of power.
Don't get me wrong, loss of power for days sucked. I nearly lost my mind with the kids out of school, and not sleeping at home. However, I kept thinking about those forced to live on floors of high school auditoriums with their kids because they had no other options. I rejoiced when my house lit up like a Christmas tree. I wanted to run the dishwasher, vacuum, washing machine, dryer, take a hot shower, bake something in the oven, put every light on, and watch reruns on tv all at the same time. It was clear I would fail at living Amish, or in the 1800's. When I climbed into my own bed, and shut off my light, and chatted to God about how thankful I was for all of this-- I felt guilt.
This is all we had to deal with:
And yet just a car ride away there is this:
It is devastating. I wish I could do more. This past weekend I have made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people hungry and homeless thanks to Sandy, and pulled out old coats, diapers, formula and toiletries to donate to area businesses making the drive to donate. I am organizing a online Red Cross donation linked with my new Threads business (which I will post when I get things ironed out), and I donated to the Red Cross when they hosted a telethon. Yet I feel I still haven't done enough. I wish I could do more. So I am just in full out prayer mode for now, while teaching my kids the lesson of being thankful for the important things.
My kid lessons included a Thankful Tree for this season to count our blessings on:
And having them decorate the brown bag for the lunches we packed! I think they got the picture of what we should be thankful for. We talked about who we should pray for, and about what is important.
I am so thankful to have just weathered a few days without power. Some folks up here will weather this storm the rest of their lives.
Don't get me wrong, loss of power for days sucked. I nearly lost my mind with the kids out of school, and not sleeping at home. However, I kept thinking about those forced to live on floors of high school auditoriums with their kids because they had no other options. I rejoiced when my house lit up like a Christmas tree. I wanted to run the dishwasher, vacuum, washing machine, dryer, take a hot shower, bake something in the oven, put every light on, and watch reruns on tv all at the same time. It was clear I would fail at living Amish, or in the 1800's. When I climbed into my own bed, and shut off my light, and chatted to God about how thankful I was for all of this-- I felt guilt.
This is all we had to deal with:
And yet just a car ride away there is this:
It is devastating. I wish I could do more. This past weekend I have made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for people hungry and homeless thanks to Sandy, and pulled out old coats, diapers, formula and toiletries to donate to area businesses making the drive to donate. I am organizing a online Red Cross donation linked with my new Threads business (which I will post when I get things ironed out), and I donated to the Red Cross when they hosted a telethon. Yet I feel I still haven't done enough. I wish I could do more. So I am just in full out prayer mode for now, while teaching my kids the lesson of being thankful for the important things.
My kid lessons included a Thankful Tree for this season to count our blessings on:
And having them decorate the brown bag for the lunches we packed! I think they got the picture of what we should be thankful for. We talked about who we should pray for, and about what is important.
I am so thankful to have just weathered a few days without power. Some folks up here will weather this storm the rest of their lives.
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