I have only recently started reading Daily Kos, stumbling across it while googling for info about the candidates for the Democratic presidential primary. It was the "Cattle Call" posts ranking the candidates that made me check back regularly at first, but now I visit every day because the reading material here is consistently thought-provoking and well-written, and I can feel that there are some very bright, very hard-working, very dedicated people behind all these mysterious user names.
I don’t think I can match the awesomeness of many of the bloggers here, but I’ve gone and gotten myself my own account, anyway. It will be quiet over here, I imagine, but in case anyone does stumble across this blog, allow me to introduce myself and some of the issues I'm interested in.
I am half-American, half-European, an Army brat with a father who has served in both Gulf Wars (among other places), a person with a strong interest in people all around the world generally getting along well with each other. I am white, middle class, and a college graduate, but currently living and working in a country where I am the minority. I encounter both good and bad treatment due to my status as an outsider, and so I have become deeply interested in issues related to migration, integration, and discrimination.
I am young, too young to vote in 2000 and not sure my absentee ballot ever made it in to the final count in 2004. I am worried about coming elections because I do not want the prime years of my life in the hands of another administration I cannot respect. (You can dislike a person’s policies, but still have respect for them, I think. But this time it’s gone beyond that.) I am not especially politically active (I've only participated in two protests), but I keep getting increasingly politically angry and want to change things. I keep up on current events, give a bit of money to candidates I support, and volunteer my time in the community when I think I can make a difference.
I am also female and bisexual. I believe that two people who love each other and are committed to each other should be able to legally join together and form families, regardless of gender. I deeply believe that life is valuable, even in its earliest stages, but I know that I also value my own life and the freedom of women everywhere, so I am definitely pro-choice. But I am pro-life in the sense that I believe it is important to provide the best possible quality of life for children and young people, from education to healthcare.
I do not consider myself particularly environmentally conscious, though I try to do the little things like unplugging appliances not in use or turning off lights or walking instead of taking a car (this is rather practical where I live, but walking anywhere in my old home in the U.S. would have been ridiculously difficult). I am also bewildered by the debate about global warming, and extremely worried that humanity is collectively packing itself into a handbasket to hell. I long for global change in the good sense, so I do not have to tell my (hypothetical) descendants that I am old enough to remember there being polar ice caps, just like there used to be a planet named Pluto. I would also like to see a glorious era of space exploration again, for science, for international cooperation, and for a place to escape to if everything here does go to hell.
I am also quite a cynic, but at heart I am a romantic. This causes much confusion for me, but I like to pretend it balances out to a healthy, balanced view of the world: expect the worst, hope for the best, and be pleased if things end up somewhere in the middle.
I imagine I'm a sort of average, liberal, young adult, and hope that my little voice here will find its place here.
Thank you.