[Spridgets] Warning! Political Remarks.

[Andrew Payne]

I have largely avoided this thread, using the "live and let live" feature I
installed, with great effort I might add, in my mid-twenties.  I got it
wholesale, and somehow it seems to short-circuit every time I see a sports
car with an automatic transmission, but that is a different story.  Perhaps
the greatest interest I have had in this thread is to see what driving a
Spridget says about me.  My contribution has been diversions such as the
25,000 liter diesel engine swap as an attempt to change the subject.

I dipped my toe in an earlier political thread, only to have it swarmed by
piranhas.  As to the poll, I voted Obama, and the majority of the candidates
on my ballot were women. So what?  In my opinion they were all the better
candidates. 

Make no mistake, this election was a great success.  We had great turn out,
no dangling chads, contests between the races and sexes that largely stuck
to the issues.  We had two qualified intelligent candidates running mostly
intelligent campaigns.  We had people challenging their beliefs.  I asked a
man a week back about the early voting and he said, "I already voted for
that Obama ni--er."  For every person I've met that did not vote for Obama
based on racism, I've met one that did in spite of it.  And this does not
even begin to address all of those that simply did not care about his race.
This nation has progressed, we're not there yet, but we are on our way.  

But let us please remember what is great about the US, we have the right to
speak our mind.  And while I have read things recently that made me
uncomfortable, I am so thankful to live in a nation where this is protected.
We must realized that positive changes in our history have almost always
started as unpopular grassroots movements. And yes, this sword cuts both
ways.  The same right that lets me effect change allows others to resist it.

I do take issue with the love it or leave it mentality in one respect; I
believe that we not only have the right to speak up, but the responsibility.
We should not mistake one who wants to improve our nation for one who wishes
to bring it harm.  The founders created our government to be a living,
evolving entity.  It is patriotic to speak up. It is patriotic to protest.
It is patriotic to do these things if you are an active citizen.  Just think
how backward this nation would be if everyone who saw her flaws had simply
packed up and left.

Drew