All the fervor about the Boston Marathon bombs, the screaming out for vengence by some, reminded me of something: At 18 or 19 years old I was working in a convenience store when the propaganda for Desert Storm began. In the beggining the public was against the war. Then began all the patriotic fervor, the patriotic songs on the radio, anything glorifying America and war. The tide of public opinion was turned in favor of the war. I sat there amazed that people could be so easily manipulated. Because of emotional manipulations, my male classmates were going to be sent off to be killed and we are going to be expected to feel sorry for their families because they were so darn gullible. I never registered to vote. Could anyone guarentee me that the man I voted for wouldn't do such a thing? Could I ever get to know a candidate that intimately? I think not.
Sam Walton, founder of Walmart had a store policy. It was included in his will that every Walmart would allow overnight camping and sleeping in cars. His son had been murdered because he was homeless and did not have a safe place ot sleep in his car. In recent history the baby boomers became reborn hippies, but in comfort and style: they'd rubber tramp it in RV's. The sheer size of their generation opened the door to increased opportunity in RV park bussiness. But how were they to get the baby boomer's money if they were just camping out at Walmart? So, in one community after another laws making it illegal to camp out within city limits were voted in. Oh, it was for "the good of the children", I'm sure. Homeless people were the only ones staying at Walmart, they left messes and robbed people, right? Well, now there are homeless children sleeping in cars in dark, unsafe areas.
Some woman, loving wife to a husband, probably rushed to vote in a law that would make her husband safer at work. Little did she know she was instead voting him out of work and her children out of a home. You see, my uncle had a large business. He started a safety program with it. He then had the Maine lawmakers sign in a law requiring all material handling bussiness be required to send their employees through the safety program. Most of his competition was made up of smaller bussiness who could not afford it. Thus, they would be forced out of bussiness. I remember the family drinking and celebrating it. There was no illusion of any other intent. My mother helped in establishing the program. I guess they didn't expect any of us there to have a problem with it.
It's things like these that made me not even consider registering to vote. How could anyone trust any law would accomplish what they advertised as it's intentions? How could anyone truly know what was behind one? I have only seen evil accomplished. Then there are those that would say it is people like me who would look behind the propaganda, inform themselves and thus be best equipped to vote. As a matter of fact, they would probably insist we need voters like me.
Then I remember when I took a stand in my community. Many were complaining about the animal control officer in Plymouth. They accused her of things like stealing a purebred dog, breeding it to her purebreed, charging fees for recovering the dog and then selling off the puppies. When aproached to take action, I filled out the appropriate paperwork for such complaints. I then went back to the individuals who asked such action to be taken, letting them know we now needed first hand accounts written by them, their stories. Every single one of them backed down. The most significant one was a riding instructor who backed out because "I'll lose clients". Oh, so I stood up, stuck my neck out and ya'll leave me hanging looking like a fool making empty accusation against a woman I do not know. Thanks. In the end it was that very same riding instructor whose false accusations against me as a mother were quoted in an illegally applied restraining order removing my children from me. And I should be concerned about this community why? They may need voters like me, but they sure as heck won't have their backs, in my experience.
But now I am hit with another perception. Not everyone would abandon me. And I don't have to be an activist to vote, or I could limit my activism to voting. In the least, I could just simply be one "no" to cancel out one gullible mother or wife out there voting "yes" to "protect the children". And when it comes to president: "none of the above" would be accurate. I could do it for my own children, their rights to be free of more and more limitations and legalities. And as for the Boston Marathon, the bombs were probably someone's act of vengence against you, oh holy vengence seeker "for the sake of the children". Whether it be the "terrorist" whose country is being blown up by America's bombs, killing their children or whether it be someone who was bullied exacting vengence on society in general. No one who has not experienced pain wakes up one morning and suddenly decides to entertain themselves by killing people. No matter who it was, without a doubt, their motive, conscious or unconscious, was vengence "for the sake of the children"......just like you.
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