Reaching across the aisle... [View All]

[Mythsaje]

I know we've been demonized with nearly the same effectiveness as the Jews in Germany during the rise of the Reich. I know that good, average folks have been told, again and again, that we want to take away their guns, their bible, and their self-determination. I understand this.

But the simple truth is that I, personally, want none of these things. Believe me, it does me no harm to have you clutch your guns, call upon Jesus's name, and live the life you choose to live. I begrudge you none of that.

But I do ask you to spend a moment looking upstairs, to the halls of power here in America. Do you TRULY believe that those in power have your best interests at heart? I'm not talking about guns, or Jesus, but I AM talking about your right of self-determination.

Would you like to see your kids or grandkids have a better life than you have had? That's no different from what I want. I'd like them to have the chance to go to college, to pursue a career in a field with actual growth potential, not one likely to be outsourced in the next couple of minutes. I don't want to see them buried in debt for the privilege of competing with the silver spoon set for those few well-paying jobs left to us.

I know you've been told that we don't believe in America, but that's simply not true. It's a bald-faced lie. Our belief in America is so feverish that we cannot bear to watch the country we love do things that betray its ideals.

We believe America can be everything it was promised to be. A place of where people have the freedom to pursue their dreams, buy their own homes, and criticize the government without attack if it suits them. We believe in an America where people are free to go to the church of their choice, or no church at all. If that's what they want. We believe in an America where anyone with a good idea and the perseverance to see it through can become a millionaire.

But we also believe in an America that helps its own. In an America where the millionaires and billionaires reinvest their money in their communities--giving people who'd ordinarily not have the same chances have an equal chance to make their own dreams come true.

We believe in an America that roots for the underdog--who not only wants to see him succeed, but gives him every opportunity to do so.

We believe in an America with clean water and clean air, one that isn't slowly poisoning its children with the toxic waste of a thousand irresponsible industries. We believe in an America with more than just a memory of towering forests and sweeping plains, where our grandchildren can roam and see nature in its majestic wonder because we've had the good sense to preserve as much as we could.

We believe in an America that believes in us. An America where the journalists tell us what's really going on, where the government doesn't try to tailor the news for its own purposes...where we still have the right to peaceably assemble, speak our minds to those who claim to represent us, and an America where people are willing to tolerate different views than their own without threats and bluster.

When was the last time you heard a liberal threaten to kill someone who didn't agree with him or her? Or to silence that person by force? When people like Ann Coulter are held up as some sort of conservative ideal, doesn't it make your stomach churn just a little? Where is the civil discourse? Where is the respect for opposing viewpoints that used to be part of the common exchange?

We believe in an America that says what it means and means what it says.

Don't you?