Hmm.. Ever wonder why "liberals" have a bad name?!?

What in the world is happening.

As the 2008 Democratic National Convention is preparing to start, we have thousands and thousands of protesters marching in Denver. Yes, it seems people have come in droves to speak their minds and practice their right to demonstrate. That's nice... but where in the hell have all these pissed off passive aggressive "protesters" been for the past eight years?!?! What have they been doing?!?! Smoking cronic and playing Grand Theft Auto!?!?! Do these people have ANY inkling as to how ill-timed and thus irreversibly counterproductive their decision to unleash it all, now, in Denver at the Democratic Convention is???!

Do they realize the entire Republican party is jumping up and down in glee with all the ENDLESS ways they can twist this in their favor?!? Do these freaking idiots have any clue what further damage they are doing!?!? If you're against the war you should be against McCain... So go protests at HIS CONVENTION. Seriously. Wake up. Look at the bigger picture. We're all pissed... I'm not a big believer in the complete accuracy of the polls, but the same polls that put Obama only 1 or 2 points above McCain are also showing that 70-80 of the country disapproves of the direction our president has taken us and is taking us.

Why I believe we need to vote Obama into office is that he is completely determined to change the direction of this country. A man who _chose_ from very early on to dedicate his career to helping others less fortunate than him gain better opportunities that weren't previously available. I'm sure Obama knew as he was making a success of himself that his success was a rare exception of his time... he could have done many things with his life, instead he chose to dedicate his life to public service, leading project vote in 92, registering hundreds of thousands of voters to defeat Bush Sr (SO glad this was mentioned in tonight's convention. I remember Project Vote making WGN ch 9 news back then.) He was consistently elevated to high status in a number of public service and youth leadership organizations, and as anyone who has done any service work, you know you don't get leadership roles by slacking off, nor would you want a leadership role if you weren't sincerely into doing your work. I sometimes wonder why this aspect of Obama's dedication is so under-appreciated and relatively dismissed, and I wish those people would sometimes ask themselves what _they_ are doing for _their_ community or maybe the world around them.

I don't believe activism is a productive method of getting your point across.. I'm sorry.. but it doesn't work. It's TOTALLY counterproductive. If you're an "activist", you're putting everybody who shares your cause into a "radical" category and whether you realize it or not this does nothing but detract from the issues you are protesting. I really feel for people who are upset with government but haven't found a productive way to contribute to society to help turn things around. I really do. I think there's something we're all missing there. I think if I didn't have the outlets I have with music and art I'd be in a really unhappy place.

Anyhow, these protesters, they are not "far-left" they are not "liberal" by their actions, I don't know what label to give them, but political stances in this nation are FAR more dynamic than could be described as left to right... There are multiple dimensions to politics, and this "far left" / "far right" crap doesn't do enough to help us understand each others views and concerns.