Fearing for the future of the United States
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Submitted, letter to the editor
Published: October 30, 2008
While we were waiting for the final presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, I was writing this. I pray I’m wrong. I fear this country, once the greatest nation on Earth, has been deceived into thinking we cannot be brought to our knees? We were once the most admired nation on earth, but now we are greatly despised. The dollar is worthless, we owe China our “financial souls” and now it looks as if we could soon step into 2009 with a Democratic president, a Democratic Congress, and a Judicial Branch that’s run amok.
We kicked God “out of school” in 1965, we started killing babies by a because of a Supreme Court decision in 1973, and we’re about to come to the end of our “hours of glory” and, as the Rev. James Robinson wrote, “humiliation [rather] than humility.
Look at his record and you’ll see how, as a state senator, Obama voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act aimed at ensuring emergency medical aid for babies who survive an abortion. As a disabled adult I’m concerned and hope you’ll look at this and think before you cast that ballot.
Tony Wright
Waynesboro
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Posted by ( Sharon-in-VA ) on October 31, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Tony, I think that many of us share your concerns. Yesterday my mom, a registered Republican, received 5 different pieces of literature that brought up many of the points you mentioned. Based on what I’ve learned, however, I’d like to try to clarify a few things.
Over the years, Obama has rejected legislation that has included language that would make ALL abortions (regardless of the reason) a crime, or language that would make doctors who perform abortions (regardless of the reason) felons or language that might protect a mother’s life, but not her health. http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Abortion.htm
Obama’s vote against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act is just one of many issues that are being misrepresented. At the time the Born Alive Infant Protection Act was presented, there was already a law in Illinois that protected “born alive” babies, even if they’d been born alive during an abortion. As he says, “For people to suggest that I and the Illinois medical society…were somehow in favor of withholding life saving support from an infant born alive is ridiculous. It defies commonsense and it defies imagination and for people to keep on pushing this is offensive and it’s an example of the kind of politics that we have to get beyond. It’s one thing for people to disagree with me about the issue of choice, it’s another thing for people to out and out misrepresent my positions repeatedly, even after they know that they’re wrong. And that’s what’s been happening.“
So yes, he’s voted against legislation that has been presented due to other things that have been included in the bills, but he fully SUPPORTS life saving support for infants born alive!
And while he supports “choice,“ he says he believes that states can restrict certain types of abortions as long as they also protect the health of the mother.
On the other side, Gov. Palin believes that ALL abortions—regardless of the reason (including pregnancies resulting from rape, incest, etc)—should be banned. This is a very extreme view and not one that many Americans could comfortably support.
You also wrote, “We were once the most admired nation on earth, but now we are greatly despised.“ On that I agree with you, too.
The people of the world are paying a LOT of attention to this presidential election and overwhelmingly they are supporting Obama. http://www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/results
Why is this?
What we do in this country has an INCREDIBLE impact on every other country in the world. If our economy is in crisis, it effects everyone else. If we engage in war somewhere, our allies have to make decisions about their level of involvement.
Sen. Obama has put together a campaign that has united people instead of separating them. His campaign has restored their confidence in our country and the people of the world are watching and hoping that they can start to feel confident about us again.
In a speech he gave in Berlin last summer, Obama said the following (excerpted):
“Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.
I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived - at great cost and great sacrifice - to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. What has always united us - what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores - is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.“ (Full transcript of this speech may be found here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/24/obama-in-berlin-video-of_n_114771.html
As hate-filled and divisive as the Republican campaign has been—along with my serious concerns about Palin—I simply can’t support McCain in 2008. (I rather liked him in 2000, but many of his views have changed—radically—since then.) At this point in our country’s history, I feel that Obama is our best choice. So does my mom—the registered Republican who will be voting Democratic for the first time in her life.
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