2004-09-20 Republican

Stranger and worse things have happened for sure but this, this is just weird.

I am registered as an independent voter. Honeslty though, I have always voted democrat. Sad to say, sometimes I voted for the candidate just because he or she was a democrat, without giving any real thought to what they stood for or what changes they planned to make.

Maybe because I am older and wiser, maybe because I have a close friend currently stationed in Iraq, or maybe just because I have children whose future will be shaped by the upcoming elections and those that follow, this election has taken on more meaning and significance than any other.

Everyone has a few issues that feel are most important. For me they are education and Iraq.

To me, any cuts in educational spending are not only wrong, but should be considered a criminal act. Quite simply, the children are the future...their education and their future is what will shape ours. Cutting any educational programming, no matter how little or insignificant it may seem is wrong. It is wrong for so many reasons to list them here would take days.

As I mentioned above, a close friend of ours is stationed in Iraq. He is a husband and a father to two young children. Do I wish he was home? Does he wish he was home? Of course.

Although I agree with some that the need for war in Iraq may have been a little too exxagerated, I disagree with those who think we shouldn't have gone over at all. Iraq is(or maybe was) a known terrorist country who for all intents and purposes hated us. Just becuase no WMD's were found does not mean that they aren't there, nor does it make Saddam and his "cronies" any less dangerous to this country. John Kerry 's "if we get attacked we will retaliate" vision is just pathetic.

I for one never want to relive the horror that was 9/11. I really don't think that something of that calibur could happen again, really I don't. You know what though? I didn't think it could happen before 9/11 either...and as we all well know, it did. I say, and pardon the bluntness, let's kick their ass before they kick ours.