This is my first diary.
I've been blogging on DailyKos since March or April of this year, but never had the nerve to write a diary before. This is my first, and I will ask you, like many first-timers before me have asked, to please be gentle.
This morning, I read yaddab's diary and something inside me exploded. I had had ENOUGH. I wasn't gonna sit on the sidelines any more. I wasn't going to be passive and hide my feelings any longer.
I suddenly felt compelled. Compelled to send the following email to my friends and family.
If for no other reason...
#Forget about the fact that we now have the largest national debt in the history of this country: $9.7 Trillion (doesn’t include losses from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failure) and that each of us now owns more than $30K of that debt which we will have to pay sooner or later
#Don’t be too anxious about the 11 bank failures we had so far this year, including the second largest bank (IndyMac) failure in history, and it is projected that 300 more banks will fail in the next 3 years
#Don’t worry too much about the fact that much of money is owed to the Chinese, the Japanese, the Saudis, the Mexicans, the Russians, the Koreans...Yes, we owe huge amounts of money to our enemies but don’t concern yourself too much
#Forget about the fact that this administration will leave us with an unprecedented $500 Billion deficit although they inherited a $230 billion surplus from the previous administration – the largest in history
#Forget about the fact that more than 47 million people in this country don’t have healthcare and more are added to the rolls each day because of increased costs or job loss
#Never mind the fact unemployment is at a five year high (6.1%) and that so far this year, more than 605,000 Americans have lost their jobs
#Don’t you fret none that the US inflation rate is at a 17 year high and consumer spending at an all time low
#Put aside the fact that home foreclosure rates are the worst since the Great Depression and that almost one in every 500 U.S. homes is directly affected by an actual or threatened foreclosure, that banks will foreclose 1 million properties by the end of this year alone; and that those of us who have managed to hold on to our homes have seen our home values plummet and we now owe more than what our homes are worth
#Don’t you burden yourself with the knowledge that gas and food prices have reached all time highs in this country and that every day families have to decide between putting a gallon of gas in their car or buying a gallon of milk for their kids
#Forget about New Orleans
#Forget about the fact that we never brought to justice the people directly responsible for the murders of more than 3K Americans on American soil on September 11, 2001
#Put aside our failing public schools, low graduation rates, out-of-reach secondary education
#Don’t worry about our failing infrastructure: bridges, roads, levees...
#Never you mind that our planet’s in peril and we don’t have a national mandate or plan to reduce our carbon emissions and stem the tide of climate change
#It shouldn’t be too much of a concern that the US has the largest prison population in the world – more than 2.3 million people and most of them are minorities...
Forget all that stuff.
This election, put all that aside – if you can – and, if for no other reason, you must vote in this upcoming election – you must exercise your constitutional right and get out and vote – to let this administration know that we will NOT forget, and they will not be rewarded for a "DUMB WAR." A war of choice. A war we were lied into, scared into, manipulated into. Let them know we will NOT forget the illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign country. We will NOT forget or reward its cheerleaders and orchestrators, but we will instead hold them accountable. We will NOT forget:
-the unnecessary loss of the lives of 4,149 of our children
-the more than 30,568 who have come home seriously wounded and just a fraction of their former selves – the loss of limbs and sight, the spine injuries, the severe head traumas, the PSTD, the suicides...
- the estimated 1 million dead Iraqis – many of them innocent women and children
- the approximately 4.7 million Iraqi refugees
-the lies and propaganda
- the hijacking of our country’s treasure and our children’s inheritance, the immoral wasting of $600B of our taxpayer dollars
- the plunder of a sovereign country, the war profiteering by the Haliburtons and the KBRs
-the human rights abuses – Guantanamo, rendition...
-the mocking and shredding of our constitution
If for no other reason than to let the perpetrators of this travesty know that WE WILL NOT FORGET. That we will not be the generation that allows these acts to go unpunished or to be rewarded with another 4 years!
If for no other reason than for those 4,149 lives, we must be angry. We must be outraged. We must be motivated. We must be focused. We must register voters. We must knock on doors. We must talk to our neighbors. We must convince our family and friends of the truth, of the facts, of the frightening alternative. We must get out the vote and we must get out and vote. We must take back this country.
WE MUST NOT FORGET. WE MUST GET OUT AND VOTE...oh, and take someone with you.
For someone who's never been interested in politics before, for someone who 6 years ago if you asked me who the VP of this country was, who Joe Biden was, who John McCain was, I wouldn't have had the first clue, this is a bold move for someone like me.
I hope that this diary resonates with even one person out there and that you too will feel compelled to do something to help take this country back.