Saturday, September 20, 2008

For the undecided

In case you thought, I wonder where Terroni stands on the issues?

The War


Obama: There should be a timetable for the removal of U.S. troops.

More specifically, Senator Obama calls for: (1) a reduction in the number of U.S. troops; (2) a time frame for a phased withdrawal; (3) the Iraqi government to make progress on forming a political solution; (4) improved reconstruction efforts to restore basic services in Iraq; and (5) engaging the international community, particularly key neighboring states and Arab nations, to become more involved in Iraq.

Do you know what I like about this plan? It sounds like a plan. When this kind of thing is going on, I think it's good to have a plan.

McCain: U.S. forces need to stay in Iraq for as long as it takes for Iraqi forces to take over.

When might that be? Any ideas? Without a timetable for our withdrawal, what motivates them to take over?

McCain enjoys a lot of credibility on this issue because he is a war hero, but it's important to remember, not everyone who has seen war feels the same way as he does. My uncle was on the ground in the jungle of Vietnam while McCain was in prison. He feels very differently... We need to get our kids out of this damn war, he says. Loudly.


Health care

Obama: "The time has come for universal, affordable health care in America." He also voted to expand the S-CHIP program, a program is designed to subsidize health coverage for families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance.

This is a social justice issue. And, for me, this is a moral obligation, a spiritual issue... Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Health care is part of that.

McCain: Opposes universal health care. Voted against expanding the S-CHIP program.


Education

Obama:
Increase Head Start funding, reward successful teachers, pay teachers more, modify certification and teacher preparation process to avoid unnecessary and expensive coursework to become a teacher. Fund and reform No Child Left Behind. Increase federal aid for college.

Okay. This is a start. We're talking about educating kids from preschool through college.

McCain: Believes state and local agencies, not the federal government, should be responsible for developing and enforcing academic standards. Supports charter schools and federally-financed school vouchers for students in failing schools; believes "choice and competition" are the future of education.

This will be the end of public education. Choice and competition--capitalism--will now be responsible for educating children? What about those areas where it's not profitable to educate kids--neighborhoods where the kids are poor? What happens to those kids in failing schools when there's not a great little charter school with a spot open for them?


Abortion

This is a heated issue. It takes more than a few lines on policy to explain my position here. First, let me say, I'm pro-life. If that's not clear by now, re-read what I just wrote here. That's called voting pro-life. Second, I agree with Bill Clinton, who said that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.

Do I believe that fetuses are people? Yes.
Do I believe that abortion is killing a person? Yes.
Don't I think it's wrong to kill people? Yes.

Well then, what the hell?

I also believe that, in rare circumstances, there are fates worse than death, both for those who are aborted and for those who have abortions. I have seen a 12 year old girl give birth. I have seen couples terminate a pregnancy when the baby has a terribly painful condition that isn't compatible with life. I worked in labor and delivery for four years and saw that this is an incredibly complex issue.

I think that we need to quit voting on this issue and start talking about this issue. And by we, I don't mean all of us. People who think that taking the morning-after pill is the same as killing a toddler, and people who think that late-term abortion up until the moment of delivery is all hunky-dory...these people are all fucking nuts. You can't talk to these people.

But the rest of us, those of us who can admit that this is a complex and difficult issue, we should talk. We should talk about how to make abortion rare, about how to create the kind of world where having a baby is almost always a pregnant woman's best choice. We should talk about sex education, and birth control, and peace, and health care, and day care, and Head Start, and WIC.

Obama may support abortion more than I do. McCain supports it less than I do. But, Obama supports those things that make this a better place to have a baby. He supports those who are, as my dad would say, pro-life with some skin in the game.

16 comments:

Terroni said...

There are a lot of issues I didn't talk about here, mostly because this post was getting way to damn long.

But, in case you were wondering, I'm opposed to shooting wolves from planes. I think global warming is our fault.

Marriage is a state, not a federal, issue. And I think that any two adults who want to give it a whirl should be allowed. It's called the separation of church and state, baby.

Shan said...

Good job Terrones! I like the WAY you wrote that anyway. I agree with some of it too! teehee
I enjoyed your walk around the big A earlier. sigh But dang it if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to live there!

Susanlee said...

Yes. Exactly.

Moses Gunner said...

Did you see the Bunk study stating 2/3 of doctors in America want National Health Care. The doctors who did this study also conducted one in 2002 and found that the majority of doctors did not want national health care, the problem with this is that the 2 question surveys drastically differ in there 2nd question. I found this article, 60% of Physicians Surveyed Oppose Switching to a National Health Care Plan, It's worth a read.

j-dub said...

"I think that we need to quit voting on this issue and start talking about this issue."

YES. It's a crime that this issue has become so politicized that even acknowledging anything that doesn't defend your position is considered "weakness." Ugh.

Candis said...

I don't know you, but I caught your link from Crunchy Mom Christine's. Your handling of the abortion issue was superb. You captured the complexities and incongruities of the most vexing problem of the last two centuries. Beautifully done.
And not that you need my approbation, but I completely agree with your observations and solutions.

Candis

Terroni said...

Jaxon, most physicians I know don't look forward to universal health care. It will take a chunk out of our already thinning wallets.

Terroni said...

Shan, glad to hear you'll be voting Obama! That is what you just said, right? ;)

jw, I'm glad you're picking up what I'm putting down.

Candis, approbation is always nice...thanks.

Shan said...

Ah man, did the media spin it that way AGAIN? Dangit!! There must have been some giant edits mid-sentence in the middle of my last comment that gave you that impression. ;)

C said...

Roni, check out this study!!!

http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/files/CACG_Final.pdf

Fascinating.

Neponset River Bridge Dig said...

Good programs proposed by Obama but too bad it all has to come from tax payers again and again.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the people who need to see this will not. Obama has much saner positions on all the issues, it seems to me. I can't believe anyone is still arguing for an endless stay in the war, for instance. Or can't see the desperate need for universal health care. And as for abortion, I'm pro-choice because I believe women have to have the right to govern their own bodies. But it is indeed a complicated and difficult issue. I have deep sympathy for the discomfort with abortion, but a deeper fear of someone telling me that I must carry a pregnancy to term. I'm tuly thankful I never had to make that choice but feel it must be MONE to make.

Terroni said...

I agree with you, cw, that this must ultimately be a woman's choice--a safe, legal choice.

Maria said...

I know lots of doctors who support universal health care. I think when you step outside the wallet issue things change. Most doctors have seen the struggle many of their patients go through just to get routine care and any ER doctor can tell you how awful it is that too many people wait until they have to go to the ER before they seek treatment. Once you work in an ER, it hits you square in the face and you would have to be one selfish idiot to oppose universal health care.

Unknown said...

Hi,Jumped over to your blog from Matthew Paul Turner's blog. First, great photos of the Union Square Farmer's Market. I grew up on the upper West Side and my eighty year old dad still teaches at FIT.
Anyway, I agree with your so well articulated post about abortion. I could scream about the masses I speak to who are voting on the abortion issue and feel that that is the only choice they have. I serve as the Outreach and Missions Director at the church I worship at (Community Mennonite Fellowship in Milton, PA) I live in a hotbed of far right boxed in thinking...I finally had it with the anti Obama mail that was hitting my inbox and had to speak up. There was something terribly wrong if others were sending me that garbage thinking I was sympathetic to it. Believe me, living where I live, you don't enter into decisions like this likely, but I am a New Yorker after all, and more so a Christian, and as a follower of Christ, I had to speak up. Truth a and integrity mattered more.
I was at an outreach focused lunch yesterday where a couple of us tiptoed around the issue of politics and I said I was a pro life Obama supporter, and I can't tell you how many people looked at me like I had three heads.
Unfortunatley in 1978 I had an abortion. But God also used that expereince for healing. I have an adopted daughter whose birthday is the same day as my abortion and then I found out the father of the unborn child also has a daughter born the same day. It is a story I wrote that has been published several times, most recently in Chicken Soup for the Adopted Soul. I have been hanging out with Jesus only since 2001 when I threw away my theology of self sufficiency, realizing it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
This post got long too...sorry and thanks at the same time. Come over and visit me at www.kathypride.com
Peace.

Unknown said...

PS My husband is a doctor who favors access to health care for everyone. I am a nurse and community health advocate. We have served on medical teams in Honduras and in our back yard. He runs a camp for kids with skin disease every year completely staffed by volunteers (he is a dermatologist). He has never been motivated by the dollar, the fact that he earns a healthy living (salaried at an HMO Medical Center) means we have more to give away.