If You Can't Say Something Good...

When I was young, my Mom impressed upon me the importance of telling the truth and to be wary of others who were not honest. She told me that if a person would lie to me about one thing, they might lie about anything. I've always found that to be factual.

I guess John McCain and Sarah Palin's mothers never gave them the same advice as my Mom gave me. Pity. From all I've learned, this speaks volumes about the character of the two people the Republican Party has chosen as their candidates for POTUS and VP. What a shame.

Looking at the news each day, I look to see what the candidates of each party has to say about their plans for our nation. All I've been reading from the McCain/Palin side is attacks and remarks about how their opponent is "wrong" for America...I don't hear them telling me what makes them "right" for our nation. I've heard John McCain talk about his honor, but the way he is running his campaign shows me that if he ever had any, he's lost it somewhere along the way.

I've become cynical over the years, and I don't automatically believe everything someone tells me, so I spend a lot of time throughout this election process looking at fact check sites and information from various sources. I sincerely hope other voters are doing the same thing.

Originally, I had people telling me that Barack Obama was a Muslim. (Actually, I still have a couple people at work who try to tell me this one.) I looked it up. Turns out, Obama is a Christian, just like me. I thought that was cool...something he and I have in common. When Reverend Wright became an issue, or rather was made an issue by the Rovian operatives of the RNC and McCain/Palin campaign, I listened to how Obama would react to the matter. I have to say, I was impressed by his Christian behavior of condemning what his pastor had said, while still standing up for his friend. When Reverend Wright persisted in running his mouth, Obama made the break from the church and Reverend Wright, which must have been a painful decision for him. Reverend Wright has his own agenda, and Senator Obama has showed by his words and actions that he does not support that agenda.

Lately, the McCain/Palin campaign has been saying a lot of stuff about Obama not being "like us" and possibly being "dangerous" as a choice for the presidency. To illustrate this, they have tried to connect Senator Obama to William Ayers.

I'm just a year older than Barack Obama, and I didn't know who Bill Ayers was or what he had done when he was younger. I supposed that because Obama was moving in different circles than I, perhaps he at some point learned about the Ayers history. I understand that by the time Barack actually met Mr. Ayers, the later was working as a college professor and was respected in the community. In other words, Mr. Ayers wasn't involved in domestic terrorist activities and had become a law-abiding citizen. He wasn't in trouble with the law or anything like that. As far as I can tell, this makes Obama guilty of hanging around with a teacher. My mother-in-law is a teacher. Should I be worried?

Another lesson from my childhood is that I should treat people in a manner based on how they treat me. I was taught that it's not my job to sit in judgment on another person...that, my Mother told me, was God's job. Makes sense to me that Barack Obama, being a Christian, probably chose to relate to Mr. Ayers in this way. One more thing I can respect about him.

Over the past eight years, I've lived through the RNC's and the Bush Administration's effective use of fear as a weapon against the American people. I watched throughout the last presidential election as some terror threat or another seemed to materialize every time John Kerry pulled ahead in the polls. I fell for the "smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud" crap the Bush laid on us all, and I believed Colin Powell when he presented the "evidence" before the UN of Iraq's WMDs. (In defense of Mr. Powell, I believe he was used by the Rove/Bush/Cheney machine, and I know he regrets that now.)

I can't help wondering if someone has ever given John and Sarah the URLs for the fact checker websites. I heard that Senator McCain isn't up on computer use and the internet, but obviously Mrs. Palin is since I heard about her getting her Yahoo email hacked and all that. Maybe she could look the information up and print it out so John can read it over.

Honestly, I don't believe for a second that John McCain and Sarah Palin aren't aware of the facts about Barack Obama. I know they've been informed. That tells me that either they have chosen to ignore the facts, which speaks to me of their judgment, or they are deliberately pushing lies about Obama, which tells me a lot about their character. Either way, they seem to me to be the ones who are "wrong" for America as leaders.

I don't know how YOU were raised, but if McCain and Palin would lie to the American people about one thing, they would lie to us about anything else. After being lied to by Bush & Co. for eight years, I surely do not want more of the same.