i sort of accidentally happened upon politics. during college i would consider myself largely apathetic. and i'm still not exactly a political activist or anything. when i was old enough to vote, i registered as a republican because i thought i was supposed to. i mean, i was southern, i was christian, and i was pretty sure my parents were republican. i didn't exactly come from a politically interested family either so i just went with it. i voted once because a classmate's dad was running for school board. thus ended my political stint.
in college however, all the cool kids were democrat. it felt so rebellious to be democrat. i wasn't quite ready to cross over to the dark side yet, but i did drop the republican affiliation. i didn't vote. i didn't complain. i just watched.
i decided that political parties in general were ridiculous and i still don't understand what purpose they serve other than to divide people for no good reason. its like race. what the hell does it matter? no democrat believes the same as another democrat, no republican believes the same as another republican, no white person is the same as another person, no black person is the same as another black person. why do we have to lump everything we are and everything we believe into a single label? people are people. period. why can't we evaluate a candidate based on their campaign and not just label them?
as many of you know, one of my dear friends is running for mayor of shreveport. his brother is my boss and that puts me in the middle of campaign headquarters. me. the non voter. the politically apathetic. but in my 3 years here, i've come to know Bryan as a person, as a city councilman, and as a friend. i got to see the city from "the other side." it was fascinating! and i can't even vote for him because i don't live in shreveport anymore, but he's a good, honest man who really cares about this town and about the people in it. i believe he can revitalize this city and im pulling for him as hard as i can!
and then i met craig. craig cares A LOT. he gets really bent out of shape about the government and economics and the country in general. and while i'm not nearly as passionate about it as he is, i care about things that he cares about. so two years, i took an objective look at the two presidential candidates and chose as i call it, the lesser of two evils. i know more about the country and the city than i ever dreamed i would. i care more than i ever dreamed i would. i dont like the way the country is now. i don't approve of a lot of the change that has happened and i absolutely don't trust our current president (but i dont think he is a lot of the things people say about him either). so today, i voted.
im neither liberal or conservative. i'm neither republican nor democrat. i dont think i fit in anywhere and that's ok. i'm a little from column A, B, C & D. party voting disgusts me. following someone blindly disgusts me. close mindedness disgusts me. but i believe we live in a great country. i think it's time to reevaluate a lot of things going on right now, and the political parties are one of them. i just wish people would listen to what candidates are really saying and not what they (or someone else) wants them to hear.
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