Hi, I am new to DKO's and I just wanted to tell you why I joined, and why I am a Democrat. Some of you may know me as the 15-year-old Muslim kid, who love politics, and aspires to be a future Politician. If you are interested in my Little Democratic life, please read on...
Now this diary may not be the best written, or anything, but hopefully I won’t get those "Delete Now, Nobody cares" comments.
Now I wanted to write a diary for a long time now, but could never think of anything to write about so I decided I would write one about our past presidential elections, and about this upcoming one. Now this may surprise many, but the first presidential election I ever was interested in was the election of 2000, and I supported G.W.B (one of my biggest regrets). I was only 7 years old at that time. I don’t know what it was, but I wasn’t really looking into their policies, but more into who I would rather have a "Pepsi" with. Then after he had won, I was literally jumping on my bed for joy, because I guess I picked the right guy. The next four years of my life vastly changed my perception of Presidential elections. After Sept. 11th (which I never really got the grasp of at such a young age), happened everything changed. I stated to realize that the world was not a safe place. People wanted to kill other people, and I became scared. Also, during that time, the economy stated changing too. I remember when going to Dominick’s, or Jewels I could get whatever I wanted, and on my birthday I got extravagant gifts, but not any more. My parents needed to start spending money on the water bill, electric bills ect...ect... Then one day my mom got sick, and had to go to the hospital. My parents wouldn’t disclose anything about it, but I was scared. I didn’t know if it was serious, or what and then the hospital bills came in. So my dad said, "you know what lets do something big, take a chance." So my dad bought another home and was going to sell it for a profit. When he bought the house, immediately after the housing bubble burst, and we fell 50 grand in debt. My parents struggled immensely, but never let me know about it. When 2003 came around, the Presidential election buzz stared filling the airwaves. I was really interested for some reason. My parents were democrats but not "huge" democrats, so I don’t know where I inherited this passion, but I loved it. I really wanted Howard Dean to win the primaries, and he was on the verge, but then something happened. I didn’t understand it. The next day all the polls had him down, significantly, from the day before, and I didn’t know why. I thought maybe some scandal came out about him, or he was about to dropout, but either way my heart was broken. I was stunned to finally realize what had happened. Apparently, he had said "Yeee-Haww!!!" at a rally. I didn’t want to believe it. Why would they not like a guy for showing a little passion? Later, when John Kerry was named our guy, I wasn’t too happy, but started strongly supporting him. I watched the news everyday, and thought he would overtake George any day now. The election year flew by for me and before I know it, it was Election Day. I sat by my mom’s bed and stared watching; please don’t hate me, Fox News. I watched, and I watched, and it was going back and forth, although Bush was winning a lot more states. My dad was trying to reassure me that Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah were going to go to Bush, and that the Kerry camp had already anticipated it. I was up till 3:00 am, but it seemed like this game had gone into its 6th overtime. Finally my dad told me to go to bed, and he’ll whisper in my ear when Kerry won. I stayed up for about another hour, anticipating for my father to come any second now, until I drifted away to sleep. Right when my eye opened I saw that Bush was one EV away from being president.... still.... I was shocked. I knew Bush was going to win any second now. Well, I went to school full of so many different kinds of emotions. After second period, I had to go to Computer class. Now guess what the first website I went on was. While everyone was doing his or her study guide, I started going on Internet explorer. It has said that Bush won Ohio, and wins the election. Now I wanted to cry, but I was in school. After all this time of following the election, looking at polls, HE HAD LOST! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN! When I got home I ran to my room (and I don’t care that this sound’s corny as hell) but I jumped on my Halloween candy and stared crying. I know, I know, extremely lame. My father came to me and gave me a big talk about how this was an election, and there were always going to be winners and loser’s. I wiped my tears and trudged on for the next four years. One day, I was in Best buy and I was playing football game, which was on display. All of a sudden an old guy came up to me, and told me that "don’t bomb anything." I was confused, and didn’t understand what the hell he was talking about. I put the puzzle pieces together, and realized he was a racist old bigot, but before I could answer him back he was gone. Now I can go on and on about all the stories that shaped my life, but I think they’re may be a rule of not too many boring stories in one diary, so I will just give you 1 more. In November of 2007 my mom got really sick. I can’t tell you what was wrong with her, for her privacy, but it was very sad. I kept asking her what was wrong with her, and why she wouldn’t go to the hospital. After further pleading, she finally told me the truth. She only had HMO, and she couldn’t afford going to the hospital. I stated felling dizzy. This can’t be America, No, where a mother of three and a wife couldn’t go to the hospital, because she couldn’t afford it. Who was I to blame? One night she was in deep pain, and as I was massaging her legs, I pleaded with her to go somewhere. She refused. I later went to bed. The fist thing I heared. the next morning, was her breathing really fast-talking in a phone. I rush to my mom; she called 911 for an ambulance. I was really scared, to say the least. We went in the ambulance, and to the hospital. It was Thanksgiving Day. She had to go to surgery immediately. I began to cry, in the waiting room, silently. MY mom later healed and is better now, but the bills came in and we were back in more debt. For three years, I was scared about our economic future, but we healed, and now are living very comfortably. I love my mother, and I love this country (to the disbelief of many right-wingers). I believe that I love this country more than the people who say, "Love it, or Leave it". I want to see the best of this country, and make it better. Now this election cycle had lots of drama, lots of disappointing times, and lots of good times. Whether it was the brawl between Hillary, and Barack. Or whether it was Sen. Kennedy give us that strong-hearted speech at the convention. Whether it was the racism and sexism we saw, or the time when Hillary and Barack campaigned together as one party, us democrats have seen a lot. Now, we are on the verge of winning this election, lets all do everything we can for the change this country needs.
Anyways, I have to go to job now at Dunkin Donuts, (don’t ask why/how I started working there at 14 and 15 y/o). I may hate my job, but some Obama canvassers did come their one day, and gave me a free Obama/Biden 08’ lawn sign. It was awesome. Now just one more reminder, I registered my whole family this election, made my mom and dad donated to the Obama campaign (maybe like 0.000005% of the 150 million dollars he made in September YAY!!!), I made lots of phone calls, even though I was really nervous, but I did get lots of great encouragement and advise from here, and I do have debates with any republican I have contact with, So hopefully all of you guy don’t get to too comfortable, abut rather do more, to make sure We get our country back on track.