Yesterday was Election Day……..well if you want to get technical, Tuesday was Election Day for us. Instead of finding out who won on Tuesday night like the rest of America, I didn’t find out until Wednesday afternoon. My Wednesday afternoon is late Tuesday night in the States. This presidential election has definitely been different for us. It’s very weird to passively sit by and wait for results to be posted somewhere online so that we can check them out instead of watching live coverage of the election. Instead of watching state after state declare which candidate would get their electoral votes, I checked facebook in between classes. Instead of watching the ticker at the top/bottom of the screen that gives local election results, I tracked it on WPSD’s (local news channel) website. To tell the truth “stalking” their website is probably a better description for what went on. 
It wasn’t until about 3:30 yesterday afternoon when I finally found out that Barrack Obama will be the next president of the USA.
*begin rant*
Which leads me to this…….I’m not a political person. I’m not. I hate discussing politics. However, since I was on facebook so much yesterday, I was seeing some VERY nasty comments about our CURRENT and FUTURE president. This just makes me question people more and more. It’s okay to disagree with someone. Shoot, it’s okay to disagree with the president of the United States, but for HEAVEN’S SAKE quit talking smack about him!! Gah! I have a couple of the things that I was really surprised that I saw time and time again from friends’ posts on facebook. If you will, please humor me and continue reading.
1) I can’t stand friends utterly BITCHING about how the next four years is going to suck. Honestly?! Four years is a LOOOOOOOONG time, and they’re telling me that EVERY moment of those four years is going to suck?! Are they telling me that every moment of the past four years of Obama’s term have sucked? Yes, it is taking a while to get the USA back on track. However, we HAVE to remember that the recession was the WORST economic disaster to hit our country since the Great Depression. How long did it take to get the country back on track after the stock market crash of 1929? I’ll give you a hint…..the greater part of the 30s.
2) This leads me to my next point…..I can’t stand friends who blame the current situation on JUST Obama. Let’s remember that our government is made up of more than just the president. That’s the whole point of elected officials…..so that everyone in the country can have some form of representation in the government. Think back to high school American government class. Our government is made up of three branches with a system of checks and balances to ensure that one branch of the government is not more powerful than another. In a perfect world they would all work together so that new and helpful legislation would pass. As we have recently seen, it doesn’t always work out this way. So how are these people able to point a finger at ONE person and say that it’s his/her fault? The president doesn’t have power to just create and establish legislation. If those ranting want this type of government, they could move to a dictatorship. Blaming everything on Obama would be as if your boss blamed YOU singlehandedly for screwing up on a work project that was actually a team effort between you and ten of your co-workers. You wouldn’t call that fair, right?
3) I can’t stand friends saying that they might as well move to Canada. If someone really feels that way, I said: good. Go. Make good on your promise. I guarantee that those friends won’t find happiness there. The grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side, remember? Chances are those people will just find something else to complain about in Canada. Also, are those people really THAT upset with the USA that they are willing to quit their jobs, uproot their families, and move to a completely different country?? Are they not proud to be an American??? I might see the downfalls of America and make fun of them sometimes, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ve traveled the world pretty extensively and have seen the way other countries work. Yes, America has its faults, but I’ve never been prouder to be an American and would NEVER want it any other way. I might be living in Japan right now, but I know that once I decide to quit my nomadic ways and settle down, I want it to live in the USA.
4) I can’t stand friends saying that Obama is quashing their religious rights. WHAT?!?! Before I begin my rant on this, I want to say that I’m a Christian. I was born a Christian, try to live my life by being the best one I can be, love me some Jesus, believe in keeping holy the Sabbath, have high morals, and I’ll die as a Christian. I believe in praying before meals and waiting until marriage to have sex. Just to re-iterate: I’m a Christian. However, I honestly DO NOT understand the people who say that Obama is going to stifle their religious freedoms. Obama himself is a Christian. (Don’t even get me started on the people who STILL believe that he’s a Muslim. Unfortunately, I know that those people are STILL out there. Just because he has a name that isn’t “Tom,” “Bob,” or “Pete” doesn’t make him a Muslim. My name, “Melissa,” is actually Greek. Does that make me a member of the Greek Orthodox church?? Furthermore, is everyone named “Rachel” Jewish?? Moreover, even if he WAS Muslim, that doesn’t mean that he’s going to try to convert everyone. Far from it. JFK was Catholic. Did he try to convert everyone to the Catholic church? No! The religious denomination of elected officials shouldn’t matter.) I’ve heard that friends don’t agree with Obama’s beliefs on abortion, gay marriage, or birth control. I want to tell these friends “PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me that these issues didn’t decide how you cast your vote!” I hate abortion. I would NEVER get an abortion. I actually worked at a crisis pregnancy center counseling women to NOT get an abortion for a while. However, I would NEVER vote for a president solely on this issue. It’s a non-issue. Do I want to see abortion repealed? Yes. Do I believe it ever will be? No. How many Republican presidents have we had since Roe vs. Wade? Did they repeal it? Why would I believe that had Romney got elected he would have repealed it? Besides there are way more important things to fix in the country instead of birth control, gay marriage, and abortion issues. Let’s fix the economy, unemployment, government spending, problems abroad, and broken programs that cost Americans thousands of dollars in taxes each year before we work on non-issues.
5) I can’t stand friends who say that America is losing its Christian religious values. HUH? The last time I checked we had FREEDOM OF RELIGION in the good ole USA…..as in not one religion should control how the country should run. Yes, the majority of Americans are Christian, but that doesn’t mean that Christianity should control the nation. Far from it. If people want a government controlled by one religion, I would like to point them in the direction of some middle eastern countries. We have the separation of church and state or a reason. Not only does it protect us from a government sponsored religion, but it also protects religion from the government. Imagine living in a dictatorship (I’m making this imaginary dictatorship up. Please no one get offended.) where the ONLY religion is Judaism but you are not Jewish. You pay taxes to the temple, but you don’t reap the benefits. You can’t practice your own religion because you could be persecuted or imprisoned. This is what it’s like to live in a place where religion controls the government. In the USA we have a choice to practice whatever religion we want—ever the ones that we might not agree with. I digress…..
Time and time again I saw friends posting about how much this country was divided. Coincidentally it was the people who consider themselves to be the most honest, stand up, love-your-neighbor Christians who I saw the most dreadful posts from. How on God’s green earth can these people call themselves a Christian when they are filled with so much hatred?? A LOT of mud-slinging and name-calling went on during the election from BOTH parties. Now that the dust has settled and a man has been elected to govern our great nation, why don’t we use that Christian love-your-neighbor attitude and see where these next four years will get us. Ian stated it wisely yesterday. He said that it used to be that once a candidate won the election, everyone would concede and work from there. Now it’s like the losing party actively seeks to destroy the winning candidate. However, what happens when you try to destroy the man leading our country? We ALL LOSE. Yes, I voted for Obama, and yes, I’m happy that he won. However, had Romney won I would have supported him. Why? BECAUSE HE WOULD BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Instead of complaining about how divided we are as a nation, let’s see if we can’t work on some compromises together and stop the name calling!
This is not to mention that the the rest of the world is satisfied with the outcome. Many countries around the world are celebrating the Obama victory. Regardless of what may be said about him, Obama has fantastic foreign relations with other countries. The USA has gained stronger allies in the past four years due to the fact that Obama has done his part internationally. For example, he has even affected middle-of-nowhere Yunomae, Japan. I asked my JTE this morning if he heard about the election and Obama winning. He said that yes, he did and was glad that Obama won because it seemed like Romney didn’t like Japan. I don’t know that Romney did anything personally to offend Japan, but a good part of the international community is glad that he didn’t win the election.
Finally I conclude by saying that we should all be PROUD to be Americans. We should be thankful for our rights and freedoms. Instead of complaining about who won the election, how about we just be thankful for the right to vote?? Quit complaining about how the country isn’t this perfect little cookie-cutter nation! Like I said earlier, I’ve traveled quite a bit and have seen other ways of doing it. I have the unique opportunity right now to never go back to the States. I could literally live abroad for the rest of my life if I wanted to. However, I don’t want to. I LOVE my country and WANT to come back to it regardless of its imperfections or who is president. I’m sorry if this blog was too political for you guys. After the stuff I was seeing/hearing yesterday, I felt like I had to say these things. No worries….I promise my next blog will get back to crazy stories about Japan!
*end rant*
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