With all the anger and hatred posted all over the book of faces and the twitterverse, I figured it was time to shed my feelings on the subject in a banter entry. Here goes.
First off, let me say that I am ecstatic that President Obama was elected to a second term. I feel that he has done a good job in his first term with all the pushback and anti-Obama sentiment he has been getting from the Republicans and even his own party. Could he have done better? Probably so, but after the mess this country had gotten into the previous eight years before he took office, I believe we are now headed in the right direction. With that said, I do not agree 100% with all that he has done, nor would I with any president I’m sure.
It is unfortunate that the coal industry has suffered during his term as that is the major industry in this area and times are tough for mining families and will probably get tougher for the short term. The EPA has blocked permits, this is true, but how many deep mines have laid off employees with miners knowing there is still plenty of coal to be mined before they need to move on to another mine? The reason for this folks is demand. We have had back to back mild winters and China is not using coal at the rate they used to so the market is saturated right now. Just drive down route 23 towards Ashland and see the mountains of coal there waiting to be shipped out. Anyone that has been in this line of work knows coal has its ups and downs and this is to be expected. Growing up in a mining home, I realized this and decided to make plans to be in a different occupation as I did not want to live the headache of the constant unknown, not to mention the danger factor.
Second, religion has no place in politics. I have seen people’s posts complaining about Christian values and morals concerning same-sex marriage and how it is a sin, and this President is the first we have had that totally disregards those values and is immoral. Really? Does anyone remember being lied to about weapons of mass destruction to go into a war that crippled this country, not to mention all the soldiers that were killed? How about President Clinton? I’ve seen many people saying they wish he could be President again. Do you remember the most famous oral sex in history? President Kennedy was many people’s favorite. Anyone remember all his extramarital affairs he had with numerous women? How about Thomas Jefferson and the illegitimate children he fathered with one of his slaves? Are these all the good Christian values and morals our Presidents have had up until now you speak of? I am not a Christian, nor do I claim to be, but don’t Christians also believe a sin is a sin is a sin. There are no sins that are bigger or lesser than the other. Is lying or gossiping about someone at church or work not a sin? How about sitting down and gorging oneself full of pizza or chocolate? Is gluttony not a sin? I sure hope people don’t start complaining about fat people marrying one another. If that’s the case, most of us will start having to defend our marriages as being official, including me. People should be allowed to marry whomever they wish to marry. Why should only straight people have the market cornered on such misery anyway?
Now don’t get me wrong, you have the right to bitch and moan about the President and his policies, just as I have the right to defend them, but to simply make statements and facts that are untrue is ridiculous. We have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to choose how we want to live our lives. These are liberties guaranteed to us by our constitution. There are so many religions out there and to show any one of them favoritism over the other is an injustice. Just because Christianity is the one most people “claim” to be part of does not mean the government should cater to those and their beliefs.
In closing, I applaud our President for some of the decisions he has made. It is obvious that some of his decisions were not for any political advantage such as his healthcare reform and stance on same-sex marriage. Had he wanted an easy road to re-election, he could have simply waited on healthcare reform and not made his statement supporting same sex marriage until his second term. Why did he do these things? Because he said he would the first time he was elected.