Some Words...

On April 30, 1789, George Washington, stood on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, and took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles." Principles are what this country was supposed to be built on, is it? Most of you probably don't know that I'm actually quite a political buff. I'm opinionated but educated because one of the most dangerous things to be, is a person with an opinion with no reason or cause to back it up. I'm not about to tell you what my political beliefs are, they're mine and I choose to believe in them not preach them. In this country we each inherited the right to have opinions. What we don't have is the right to force our opinion on someone else. We can express it, we can voice it but we cannot or never will have the right to hate, to criticize, to harm, to discriminate against someone because their opinion differs from ours. It's called freedom and as much as I'd like to believe we all know that, I know that's not the case. Regardless of what you believe, in this country you have the right to own it, to voice it, to express it. Why don't we cherish that as much as we claim to? When you form a like or dislike of someone else based on what their political beliefs are, you are taking away the very thing the soldiers of this country defend, freedom. Every single day of your life you have a choice. A choice to live, a choice to die, a choice to love, a choice to hate, a choice to make a choice. Some may not believe that because they've allowed their circumstances to rob them of choice. In reality, even that is a choice. Regardless of where you come from, how much money you have, the color of your skin, how big your house is or how small, you have the same rights as me. When you reach a certain age you get to vote who you want to lead this country. Your vote may not always be with the majority but that's just life, we don't all agree on the same things do we? Then why when something doesn't match our own opinions do we stomp our feet, throw our hands in the air, curse the existence of another human being simply because they used their vote differently? Recently I sat at work and listened to a couple of coworkers talk about how stupid people are that have certain political beliefs. What surprised me was not their opinions of what qualifies as stupidity, it was their arrogance in thinking that they actually had the right to set those standards.

I want to say it again, the quote from George Washington as he took the very first oath of office, "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles." I guess the real question here is which principles you are going to uphold, the ones that protect our right to have an opinion, or the ones that take it away.

Happy President's Day.