My daughter has been a frequent co-contributer to this blog, mostly behind the scenes in the form of ideas, inspiration and occasionally comments. But several times she has also appeared in the form of blogs I have reposted, with understandable fatherly pride. The responses have been amazing as she is a gifted writer.

This is no exception, and may be her finest post to date. She sent me this in response to the vitriolic comments over a blog I posted yesterday mocking the attempts to create an Obama Federal holiday. I am immensely proud of her, not because she shares some of my conservative values, because she is unafraid to make her beliefs known.

Enjoy ~ LSU

Once more, this now-eighteen year old has to just shake her head at what a group of grown adults can babble and scrabble about.

As I sat down to write, I originally aimed my focus at denouncing those who have posted some strange gibberish under my dad's post about Obama-day. But after a few days that have left me emotionally exhausted (Including losing one of my co-workers to a heart attack) and drained, I decided to write something else, and to, perhaps, give someone out there a view into the mind of at least one of America's youth.

It has been five or six months since I joined the world of the adults and left being a child behind with my high school memories. And one of the first thoughts that crosses my mind, as it did so many times when I watched my peers gape at the T.V. and be swayed by pretty words on the news reports, was that sometimes, I'm ashamed of what my generation is becoming.

Going through high school, my friends and I always joked that we were Generation X/Y. The kids born of 1990, at the tail-end of X, and at the front end of what we called Generation Y, or rather, 'Why?', because it was the question that we heard the younger kids and teenagers spouting most often. We always joked that we were a special generation, one that was only a year long, because everyone older then us that we knew smoked and drank, while those younger then us consumed their beings in drugs and sexual acts.

Politics to us were nothing more then the latest gossip, along the same lines of the hottest male stars, Lindsay Lohan's latest scandal, and Brittany Spear's insanity. We were the geniuses, able to see past the mistakes our priors stumbled into, solving mathematics easily, figuring out our horrorscopes without going to the nearest magazine stand. We excelled in science, math, history, English. We were the innovative, the creators.

And then my father created Leaning Straight Up.

At first, I didn't pay attention. After all, I was in high school. What's the point of reading about politics, especially when it was my dad writing it, when I could gossip it about the latest magazine headlines with my friends? But then slowly, my dad convinced me to start to read his blog.

I began read more, and I began to research. What had seemed like boring speeches made on podiums by old men with white hair began to turn into a giant chess game in my head. I could see the moves the politicians made. About the same time, I joined D.E.C.A., the Distributive Educational Clubs of America, or the Association of Marketing Students. My instruction in the arts of politics began to grow, coupled with the instinctive urges that had always brought my friends to me to confide and seek consolation in.

I will throw modesty to the wind, and state that I have always been a gifted child. I have been able to grasp concepts that took grown men years to struggle to. While most people can only grasp Algebra or Geometry, I excelled at both. I understood history with ease and could recite the points of the Treaty of Versailles glibly and could understand the cultural and historical significance just by pondering on it. Though I hated writing Jane Shaeffer format, I was known by all of my English teachers as a prodigy child, and could grasp the concepts in obscure texts almost immediately. Not only that, but I was able to help those around me understand what I had received so easily. In several of my classes, I was the unofficial 'tutor', able to answer questions, and was popular to partner up with. Not because I gave the answers… but because I helped them figure it out on their own.

That being said, (And most likely mocked when the comments begin to roll in) politics was a brand new area that I dived into immediately. However… it wasn't until my junior year in high school that politics took a more serious turn for me.

It was the Huckleberry Finn unit. Long-standing readers of LSU will remember the post that covered this. (For those who found this site through Yahoo!, you can locate it by searching 'Huckleberry Finn' on LSU.)

Note, a link to the post she refers to is below ~ LSU

My class watched a documentary that was biased to it's fingertips, disclaiming the book, declaring it to be basically trash and insulting to anyone of the mocha-colored persuasion. I remember quite clearly, raising my hand when my teacher paused the tape for class discussion. What I said was reasonable. Essentially, my statement pointed out the obvious. This bigotry displayed in the book was apart of our history, and that it would be pointless to turn the other way and ignore it, and that I really didn't understand why people couldn't see this.

I was tapped on the shoulder by the girl behind me, a girl of mixed heritage, and as I turned, she leaned forward to glare at me, and said,

"That's because you're not black."

For the first time in my life, I had been accused of racism. No one in the classroom argued with her, and for the rest of the week, I was actually afraid to go to school. I went home, and, though my dad didn't know this, I cried. The rest of the school year was hell for me in that class.

It was then that I began to look around, and I realized how wrong my friends and I were. We always declared ourselves different, when, in essence, we were no different then those that came before us. We bowed to the media, we bowed to class distinctions, we bowed to the person hollering race. The media, the news, everything used scare tactics, comparisons to the past, and slyly insinuated alliances to sway us, to turn our minds off.

Just like those that came before us, we became sheep.

After my dad posted that entry defending me and my beliefs, and the comments that followed, I began to think differently. A child that had been bullied, it had always been, and still is, easy for me to fold under the overbearing beliefs of those around me. In a very heavy Liberal area, it was very easy and very compulsive to smile and nod and say 'Yes!' to anything they said to me. But after this event, where the Liberal views caused me to be afraid to speak out because I was white, I began to say 'No!'.

It is common in this day and age for children to pick up on their parents beliefs and firmly hold to them. Growing up, even in elementary school, it was common to hear a voice proudly say "I'm a democrat because my daddy is!" or "My parents voted for Bush, so there fore, so did I!" For a long time, I was one of those. But as I grew older, I began to think more, especially after this incident. My dad always encouraged me to speak my mind, and never once did he try to press his opinions on me. In fact, the past two years, we have argued many times over issues, over different points and opinions. We would listen to radio stations and debate over the different stances. Sometimes, I'd agree with my dad. Sometimes, I'd disagree. Sometimes, I'd agree with only part of his point. Because of this, I consider myself neither Liberal or Conservative, rather, in the middle, able to accept ideas from both sides without turning my vision off completely.

However, on this election, I found myself leaning more towards the Conservatives. Why? Because the Liberals gave me nothing to hope for. I pride myself in being able to decipher target markets, and key points, as well as the almost-subliminal motions that commercials take to subconsciously stick in your mind. Because of this, I diligently watched the political commercials, both for state-wide, and for national, politics.

Stating this, I know that I will no doubt be called out for not researching, for 'being swayed' by the television. However… let me continue before you begin to try to beat my head in with your words and nonsense.

I began to notice a trend in the commercials. Nearly every Liberal/Democratic commercial I saw had one key point:

"S/he is not Bush! S/he has done this… and s/he is not Bush! S/he plans to cut taxes… and s/he is not Bush! S/he hates the Iraq war!"

As a business student, I can appreciate this method of marketing, focusing on what annoyed people the most, and selling the exact opposite, selling the anti. Yet, it still made me uneasy. In my marketing class, I was taught that up to 85% of a business or of an attempted sale budget, is focused on advertisement on average. If that is true, then is that what the Liberal party was this election? 85% crying out "I'm not Bush!"? Eighty-five percent promises to fix what Bush has done? 85 out of 100 points being that, "I didn't follow Bush policies!"?

That's.. great. Really, that's great, but what about the important things? How are you going to provide jobs for those around me? How are you going to help my work center raise it's payroll so my co-worker has enough to feed her children without having to get a second job and never see her children? And what of those men and women who were and are involved in the Iraq war? Of those around me, I heard quite a bit of military denouncing, of military abuse, of Liberal extremists actually attacking veterans and families, even children, for holding up a different sign saying they support the military. (A true story.) These same people, these same crazy nuts, supported those politicians blaspheming their "I'm not Bush!" policies over the television.

As you can see, already, I was quite uneasy. If that was where the majority of their focus was going, then how were they really going to help the country?

But there was more to come.

I have talked with many of my friends, my peers, and even those older then me, on politics. Of those who were Liberal, I asked them, why do you support Obama?

"He'll be the first Black president!"

"He's not Bush."

"He's not a Republican."

"He promises change!"

"I'm just so sick of the war."

Great. So then I ask again…. Why?

"…Well… he's black…"

"Haven't you been here the past eight years?"

"Republicans are all gun-toting hicks. We need to change!"

"…Well that's what he said in his speech last night. He was going to promise change."

My favorite answer, was the 'Why?' in response to 'I'm just so sick of the war.' I got told many different answers to those who said that was their reason. Everything from worrying about family, (Which I can understand. My brother is training in the Navy.) to how it's getting out of hand, and then straight to the crazies, of how 9/11 was a conspiracy by Bush, of how it's our (The U.S.'s) fault that other countries want to blow us up, of how killing people was an act against god. I even had people further tell me that everything would be solved by dismantling the military completely.

Granted, I can understand some of those. I worry about those in the military that I know, one being my brother, and another being a very close friend of my family's. The war has gotten out of hand, anyone can admit that. But anyone can also see the attempts to calm the chaos, and how that sometimes, we weren't the instigators. (I'm sorry, but I don't call planting a bomb because you know a Humvee is coming reactionary to what the U.S. started. I call that killing innocent soldiers who are only trying to help people. No doubt I'll be called out on this as well.)

9/11 conspiracies… Briefly, I toyed with that notion before my sanity returned and I rejected that notion. It's like saying that you were beamed down from the Star Trek Enterprise to study the earth in the past.

The others, I won't get into.

My main point being… is that only one out of maybe twenty, thirty people, really gave me any belief that they were voting for the right reasons. No, from those I spoke to around me, it only seemed like people were voting because, 1) He's black, and 2) He's not Bush.

Those two reasons don't justify a vote for me. Call me crazy, but I'm the type of person who wants facts. I want to know that I know what I'm getting into, and what my vote will go towards. I don't want empty promises of change, nor do I want someone telling me he's not Bush. Yes, I can see that for myself.

Nor do I want the first black president to be voted solely because he is black. (Call me racist, but that just seem to make much sense.)

My idea of the first black president would be someone who actually inspired change, and worked towards it. Someone who was like Martin Luther King Jr., who left a legacy behind, and who, no doubt, stands tall in the afterlife, shaking his head after seeing what his beloved country has come down to. I wanted someone like that, but I also wanted someone who held experience in his hand, who knew the country, who had a whole family that was patriotic. (Yes, Michelle's comment on 'proud to be an American for the first time' really lowered my opinion on the Obama family.)

After all.. the country is like a ship.

"Love. You can know all the math in the 'Verse, but take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she's hurtin' 'fore she keens. Makes her home." [Captain Malcom Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion in Serenity, the movie.]

In this election… I saw no patriotism. I saw bitter arguments, I saw strangleholds on points that were dusty and now annoying to hear. I listened to people denounce others as racist for not supporting Obama, I observed those around me ostracizing those who dared to think differently.

Because of this… this is why that I supported McCain in this election, and regret his loss, as much as I regret the next four years. I see no love, no patriotism. I only see regret, mistakes, and false hopes.

I'm an open-minded person, and I'm quite aware that I may be surprised.

"I'd rather expect the worst. That way, if things turn out all right, I'm pleasantly surprised." - Ulath, from the Elenium Series by David Eddings.

I have paid close attention to the reactions of Liberal Obama supporters when bloggers and such responded to the election with their own opinions. What I saw was a disgusting combination of oppression and childish insults hurled daringly at the poor person who didn't support Obama. What I have seen is finger pointing, accusations of being nutty right-wings.

"You nutty right wingers can go gibber in the corner about stupid rumors like this; just get out of our way." - Jftp (LSU Commentor)

What kind of American attitude is that? What happened to our country's firm beliefs in escaping persecution, in allowing ourselves to believe in something different? What will these next four years do to us? Will we be further banned from expression our religion, our politics, our views, everything, for fear of 'insulting' someone or 'offending' someone? Will we be so forced to be open-minded that we are forced to quell any form of personality we had left?

I am a young woman, with a higher then normal intellect. I participate in musical activities, and am proficient in the viola and violin, as well as the piano when I put my mind to it. I play video games, and I openly admit to my World of Warcraft love. I am of a minority religion that I fear to speak of on a daily basis because of the way people have reacted in the past. I do not judge others by their skin or the way they speak. I love theatre and worked on the stage as an actress and as a technical worker. I sketch and draw, and I am currently working on a book series that I hope to someday have published. I have been working at my job for over a year, and already, I am being nominated for one of the national workers who have done beyond-outstanding in their and other work centers. I have two piercings in my ears, and love dressing up punkish and gothic for a good concert. I go to the mall and laugh and shop with my friends. I kiss my boyfriend and hold hands with him. I'm not shy of swearing. I accept other people's religions, and at least one-third of my friends are gay, lesbian, or at least bisexual. I hold myself to a moral code that would make my grandparents proud. I'm patient with those I have to teach, and willingly offer to help those around me, whether at work, at home, or at play. I wear glasses, and I read paperbacks and hardbacks that are thicker then my forearm, especially David Eddings and Robert Jordan.

I am no different then any other person out there. In fact, I'm probably quite better then many people out there.

So then, readers of LSU…

Why do I feel so oppressed by whats to come?

Once more… I am an eighteen year old young woman who looks upon those around her, her peers and those who are older, and shakes her head in disgust… and sorrow at what consumes these people's minds.

Previous blogs in this series:

Out of the Mouths of Babes: The MLK rally at a local High School

Out of the mouths of babes: Huck Finn, racism and my daughter

Out of the mouths of babes, final chapter

Out of the mouths of babes, part II

Out of the mouths of babes

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