#44

Dear Barack Hussein Obama President-Elect,

Please treat my country that I love so much with great care and concern. Please don't change her so much that I no longer recognize her. May God bless you and my fellow countrymen as we all strive to make our nation better.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Reil

I was glued to CNN all morning, except when I'd do quick channel-surfing during the commercials. Then I would check Bloomberg, BBC, Channel News Asia, Australia Network, TV5 Monde (France), and Deutsche Welle (Germany) to see what they were all showing of the election results. My Canadian husband in his Taiwanese office was also watching the results with some of his colleagues. Even though America gets a lot of criticism these days, the world is still watching us, because we are still a wonderful nation and the American Dream still lives!

I grew up during the golden days of the Reagan era. Clinton came in to office when I was a senior in high school. I remember I was actually terrified when he won. My step-dad told me to stop freaking out, that life as I knew it would continue and everything would be ok. I feel mixed emotions today. I cried during McCain's concession speech, and I cried during Obama's victory speech (remember I am pregnant). Obama's mantra during his campaign has been CHANGE, and I agree that many things need to change for the better in the States. However, some people are wanting to change other things that I think are basic and necessary and should never be changed.

I am a Republican most specifically for one reason, and that is because I believe the family to be the fundamental unit of society and I believe it is under attack. I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman, I'm pro-life, and I'm against stem-cell research. I believe in the sanctity of life and the Republican party's views most closely match my own. I have known many gay people in my life and they have all been lovely people. I am not a gay basher, although I do not believe in same-sex marriage. I believe marriage is a religious sacrament and when the government steps in I believe that is a violation of the separation of church and state. I have heard in Massachusetts (where same-sex marriage is legal) that they are teaching in the 1st grade public school system about homosexuality. I don't believe homosexuality needs to be taught to 6 year olds. I don't believe sexuality period needs to be taught in school at all. Parents are the ones who should teach their children the values they believe in. I have also known people who have had abortions. In each case, the abortion did not make the "problem" go away, it just created more problems and heartache. Sometimes I do wish grown-ups would listen to the song sung on the playground at recess:

(Boy) and (Girl) sitting in a tree

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love

Second comes marriage

Third comes baby in the baby carriage

I think if people followed that nursery rhyme there would be a lot less problems in society.

I am a Republican for another main reason, and that is because how I answer the following question: "Am I my brother's keeper?" My answer to that is Yes, I am! Not my government. I believe I am responsible to reach out to those in my community and to uplift them with whatever time, talents, and means I can to make their lives better. For those outside of my community I can give charitable donations too, and do all I can to make the world a better place by sharing. I don't believe government welfare systems do the best job for helping others less fortunate. They seem to create dependency in those using the systems, and to create resentment to those having to support those systems. I received an interesting e-mail this week with quotes supposedly from Alexander Fraser Tytler. He was a Scottish lawyer who lived from 1747-1813. Tell me what you think:

*About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tytler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'
'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'
'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'
'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'
'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage'

Here are some interesting facts/statistics concerning the
2000 Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 6.5 Republicans: 4.1

'In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare... One could deduce from these statistics alone,that the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' Phase of Tytler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

What can we do to break this cycle? We need to educate people on the importance of ethics, of contributing rather than just taking, on insisting that people work for and exchange for what they receive. Only in that way can we reverse this slide. And I believe we can.*

I believe there are bad people in the world, but I also believe there are many good people in the world. I believe we can no longer be fence sitters though, we must choose which side we are on. I hope we can all choose to be on the side of the good and work hard to bless the lives of others, and in so doing our own lives will be blessed too. I believe in God, and I believe as we serve Him and others we will have peace in this turbulent world. But again, I can't believe we are past hope. Let's change this turbulent world into a peaceful one!