Before the 2012 election there were a couple of articles about the candidates in the Parade section of the Star Ledger, a local news paper. After reading the first article about Mitt Romney in the Parade, I was a little confused and a bit unnerved. I guess it was
meant to introduce Mitt Romney and his wife to the rest of us in the uneducated
population, I found it a bit one sided and the things that were meant to give
me a warm fuzzy feeling concerning Mitt and his wife, Ann, only made me more
apprehensive! The questions supposedly asked by readers sounded a bit contrived
and the answers short and didn't really address the situations mentioned. One of
the questions that bothered me the most was where he talked about his financial
wealth being dictated by a "blind trust" and his banking may not be done solely
in the United States, he said if he's elected president it would probably
remain the same.
Another
question dealt with an allegation that President Obama may be un American in
regards to his politics, implying that Obama was following European standards
of government, heavy handed and almost like a dictatorship. We, the ignorant
and uneducated, got a big surprise when we found out that Obama was heading
toward socialistic reform, not social reforms, a president with a Communistic
outlook and back ground!
Later
someone brings up Romney's faith and his tithing to the Mormon Church, which
again sparks concern. His wife goes into this whole thing about being happy to
tithe and crying when they do, but this brings to mind a story from the bible entitled
"The Widow's Offering" in Mark 12:41-44 which reads "Jesus sat down opposite
the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their
money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a
poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction
of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth,
this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all
gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in
everything- all she had to live on." In my mind the Romneys
represent the
wealthy as depicted in this bible story. So if this was meant to draw us
unsuspecting God fearing church goers into the Romney fold, it missed
the mark! Then the questioner goes on to ask if the whole tithing thing
isn't a form of
socialism, to which Romney replies that helping each other is a basic in
society, which may be somewhat biblical. The rest of the article is
slightly
less upsetting, something about opening up the White House to the public
and
holding concerts there and grandkids running up and down the halls.
Then on the heels of the Romney article is another issue of Parade featuring his
opponent, the man already in the White House, President Obama. The article
basically follows the same formula as the previous one, with questions from
readers around the country being answered by the President and the First Lady.
As in the earlier article about the Romneys, the questions are very vague and
the answers really don't give any definite resolutions. Then somehow the
article ends on the subject of the First Kids going to camp and being missed,
along with First Lady not getting angry with the President.
My
guess is the newspaper wants or feels it has to give equal time to both of the
major candidates and this is their attempt at doing that. So
after reading the articles I'm left with this feeling of confusion, almost
dread. The debates were no better; the candidates mainly wasted the time interrupting
each other and never really gave any clear answers or solutions to anything. The
one with Vice President Biden was the worst, he was out and out rude and Ryan
was almost saintly with his patience. Biden came off like an idiot, so with
behavior like that how can they expect to gain support for a second term?
On
the one hand we have a black communist socialist and on the other a white
socialist, so down just what road is America traveling? Would Romney have been the one
to put God back in the place He once held in America or are we being duped once
again and our downfall as a nation getting closer? So I guess what it boils
down to; is the age old practice of picking the lesser of the two evils, which
is pretty much standard for elections. I can't help thinking our time as a great nation
claiming to be the "home of the brave and land of the free" is drawing to an
end, almost reminiscent of all the times the Israelites turned away from God and
ended up in captivity under brutal rule. Without God we could easily lose our status as
a World Power and end up like so many of the other nations in the world under a
dominating ruler!
