A Blogger Challenge: Actively Choosing Hope
I found the comments really interesting on the last post. Some people were as touched and inspired as I was. Other people were offended, as if the video itself was accusing them of hatred because they support McCain (a concept I had not considered). And a little of everything in between.
So just to clarify - to me, that video represents how our attitudes should be right now. It represents a dichotomy of choice regarding how each of us chooses to act and be right now. The point isn’t whether those first jerks were supporting Mccain or whether the second people were supporting Obama. The point was the dichotomy in attitude between people who are inspired by hate and fear and those that are inspired by hope and change. Both hate and fear as well as hope and change can and do exist for people on both sides of the political fence. And it can be damned hard to resist joining in that hate when the chips are down and it’s the only kind of adrenalin pumping. It can be equally as hard to resist retaliating against racism and bigotry with more hate (as Michelle pointed out so kindly to me over the weekend). Each of us has a choice every day to make - carry ourselves with hope and love and fight for change? Or indulge ourselves in hate, fear and bigotry.
Maybe I should have said “Hate or Hope: your Choice. Then vote for whoever you want”.
Today I received two emails from two close friends who are both much better bloggers than I am and who are also both at opposite ends of the political spectrum. They had both received vile, hate-filled, angry, insulting comments on their blogs from people too cowardly to even leave their real names or email addresses. It is clear to me that there is enough hate on all sides to go around.
Today I left a challenge on a friend’s blog and I want to reach out and share that challenge with each of you here. Post on your blogs your best sales pitch for the candidate of your choice. Use words of hope and inspiration! Tell us why those of us sitting on the fence should fall off on your side! But here are the rules: you can not use the name of the ticket you aren’t supporting at all or otherwise reference the other ticket’s position on the issues. This isn’t about fear! This is about hope!
Examples of appropriate supportive statements:
“I support Obama because he will cut taxes by doing abc” or “I support McCain because he will cut taxes by doing ABC”
Inappropriate statements:
I support McCain because he doesn’t pal around with terrorists” or “I support Obama because he isn’t old”
So can you do it? Of course I’ll do it, myself, later this week.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Ok I totally get it. And am so lol at supporting Obama b/c he isn’t old. Bwahaha.
This is exactly how I feel:
Maybe I should have said “Hate or Hope: your Choice. Then vote for whoever you want”. But your challenge is pretty challenging, I have to say!
October 14th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I don’t think people who vote for McCain are supporting hate, I think the people at the rallies screaming awful things are supporting hate, they are the ones that scare me.
BTW, Tess told me some girls at her lunch table were debating Obama vs. McCain and her best friend (who wants Obama) was all up in arms about McCain’s age and said “Yeah, and McCain is soooo old, he’s like in his 40s!” LOL
Nicki reply on October 14th, 2008 9:08 am:
Bwahahahah! That’s hysterical!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the laugh, Jane!
October 14th, 2008 at 9:31 am
If I have time before we leave for vacation I will totally take you up on this. This is interesting, and may be a bit hard considering the very strong feelings on both sides. I’m particularly interested to read what McCain supporters say.
October 14th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
hmmm… Well, you know I already made my outline on my blog a few weeks ago, so I’m not going to do that one again. But, honesty, part of it is fear for me. I’m not afraid of Mr. Obama himself, but I am afraid of things that could happen if the party I do not want to win gets into office. I think this is just as true for your side of politics as well. For me it things like: the next Supreme Court nominee and what decisions could be made by the Supreme Court, all three branches of our government being run by the same party, my taxes paying for things I do not support, government increasing, etc. It’s not 100% about hope, although I have hopes too. Like, I hope the other guy doesn’t win
October 21st, 2008 at 3:21 pm
[...] I voted and, as promised, I’d like to share the reasons I voted for Obama. Per the rules in my challenge last week, I [...]
October 28th, 2008 at 11:42 am
[...] so here were the rules to Nicki’s politics challenge: Post on your blogs your best sales pitch for the candidate of your choice. Use words of hope and [...]
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
[...] yet, but I will definitely be doing so tomorrow. Weeks ago Nicki from Stepping on Legos posted an Actively Choosing Hope Challenge. The challenge: Post on your blogs your best sales pitch for the candidate of your choice. Use [...]
November 4th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
My website and the blogs on my website are reserved for nonpartisan postings. There are a lot of people who read these adoption blogs and they are looking for information and support in adoption matters. They are not looking to be turned off or insulted because of their personal political views. And I don’t know about you, but I can always use more friends, so there is no point in angering anyone that checks out my site. I also have a bipartisan family and we would all think it pretty absurd if one of us got vigilantly outspoken about our views. So I can’t take your challenge and post to my own blog, but I can take your challenge and share my thoughts with you, since they represent a different perspective from most of your web family:
I have been giving this a lot of thought the last 24 hours, and here is why I am for John McCain:
We cannot keep mortgaging the future of our nation. We keep creating programs and then deferring payment for those programs. Eventually that deferment will come to an end, and who will be paying for it? We have an aging population and the ratio of workers to retirees is not going in a direction that bodes well for the future (this is why I have a problem with some of the anti-immigration arguments-they are young workers who have multiple children who also work, much more often than they are people looking for social services).
John McCain is the only one who has talked about the government living within its means.
Sarah Palin is the only one who has used the words, “working class”. We are working class. We are not middle class. The middle class is shrinking, and they vote, so I understand why ads are directed at them, but I believe that she is the only one of the four who actually understands the difference between middle and working class.
I know everyone thinks the economy was great under Bill Clinton and maybe it was on paper, but it wasn’t for us. I got pink slips yearly at the district I taught in because of budget constraints. We had taxes added to our phone bill so that the Internet could be provided to the rural and poor, yet we were rural and poor. We qualified for Medicaid, but our income taxes went up dramatically because my husband is self-employed and fell under the “business” category-the ones that are often stuck paying more even though both parties make noise about the importance of small business.
If my candidate doesn’t get elected, I’m sure that we will suffer. Subcontractors may be required to be employees, and then of course my husband will be expected to provide health insurance for them plus pay taxes on them. If he can’t afford the health insurance for them, he will then be fined a penalty. So he, and other like him in the construction industry, will work alone because they cannot afford the alternative. This will then reduce the number of people employed in that industry, which is a driving force behind our GDP.
So that is why I am voting the way that I am voting.