Monday, October 18, 2004

ELECTION FEVER

If you stumble over someone while going into the voting booth this year, it may be a lawyer. Both parties are sending teams of lawyers to voting areas to ward off trouble. And they have been joined by lawyers hired for the occasion by various social organizations. Which proves that, when you need a lawyer, they ain't all bad, after all.

Both candidates, Kerry and Bush, are concentrating on the Battleground States. Polls are showing at the moment that Bush is ahead by a few points among registered voters. However, it has been noted that there are more new voter registrations than ever before, most of them from Democratic areas.

Another group to watch is the youth of America. I suppose a few of them look forward to fighting the wars George Bush dreams up, but not all. It's 120 degrees in the shade in Iraq in midsummer, and there is no shade.

I can remember WWII, when young boys were so eager to join up, they often went into the service at age 17, with their parents' permission. But that war followed an outright attack on our country. This one, other than a brief sojourn in Afghanistan, is concentrated upon a country that didn't attack us...and had no means of doing so, despite the constant refrain we heard from Bush and Cheney.

It seems to me that the rightwing agenda appeals to the most selfish among us. I don't how they can sleep at night with that deficit going up by the minute, while their President pushes for tax cuts. I understand that our country has such a trade deficit and such high debts that we are borrowing money from China.

I looked through my possessions and the only thing I could find that I have purchased recently that was not "Made in China" was, of all things, packages of Ramen Noodle Soup, Made in the U.S.A. There is something ironic about Chinese soup being made in this country, while so many other goods are made in China.

The Chinese are rigid, but honorable folks. They do not like to "lose face". Under the auspices of George Bush, our country has lost so much face, we are now working on our necks. Demonstrations all over the world against us and against Bush. And the world must be watching this election closely, wondering whether Americans will opt for sanity or another four years of disaster.