for or against?

it's my day off from work and from teaching yoga.  this morning I slept in til almost 7.  when I got up to let the dogs out and give them some food and water I opened my computer and peeked at my email.  I was thinking of popping into Gaia for a moment before I retired back to the bedroom to meditate for an hour.  I didn't make it to Gaia.  I got sidetracked by this email from a friend and another person's response to that email.  I'd like to share them here.

First I saw the email titled, "Fury, dread, Palin" and decided to skip it because I wasn't really in the mood for fury, dread or talk of Gov. Palin.  I hadn't even had coffee, breakfast, meditation or yoga yet.  How could I dive right into fury and dread, oh my.  But then I saw that a person I didn't know, named George (the name has not been changed, innocent or not, he probably doesn't need protecting.) and my curiosity got the better of me.  Without having read what he was responding to exactly, I opened and read this.....

It is an overstatement to say that if elected Palin would be the second most powerful person on the planet. It is also an overstatement to say she would be the second most powerful person in the U.S. What about the congress, i think that they are a far better representation of the people. Just to point out a few things, pro choice is defended all too often by "my body my choice" yada yada yada, how come this cant be applied to other situation? For example, raising a kid in a bad environment, "my kid, my choice". It doesn't work. Why should there be exceptions. Murder is murder, why should a woman be able to get away with it, and the father and the doctor and anyone else supporting her. Murder is murder, stealing is stealing, no exceptions. This isn't a question of personal beliefs, and letting someone decide for themselves, its a matter of morals, right and wrong. Why let somebody be immoral and be able to get away with it?

If you feel like she has a lack of preparation, don't vote for her, and run yourself. Obviously enough people support her or she wouldn't have been selected, and she wouldn't have had the success that she has had.

Do you call a woman vice president a slap in the face to the women who have fought for their rights? I don't think those women could believe that a woman was holding office in the white house!

If you want to disagree publicly, then don't vote for her. Support someone who represents your own views. I am assuming that whoever wrote that announcement was  a Democrat, so why worry about  Palin in the first place, just don't vote for her.  Worry more about supporting your candidate, instead of making un-backed up statements about the opponent.

-George


I took that bit of stuff back with me to my meditation place and observed my brain playing around with it, trying, as one does in meditation, not to be attached to the thought processes or the idea that I had to reply.  Then I realized that something (my wedding ring) was missing from my ring finger and that distracted me enough that I forgot about George and fury and dread and murder and women's rights and all sorts of things I ought to reply to my new email friend about and I watched my happy little mind beging to panic about the possible locations of my wedding ring all the while periodically saying, let it go for now, to myself.  On to the next subject -- haven't lost any weight.  Exhausted that one quickly.  Tried to panic and then not panic about my teen.  Went several mind rounds about the yoga class I taught last night and the feedback I'd gotten from another teacher.  Watched my mind try to get at the question of uncorrected vision vs custom contact lense vs glasses with the wrong prescription from all different angles.  Fretted a bit about my husband who is out of town for the week and didn't return my calls this morning or last night and then talked myself into letting it go, letting it all go, letting it all, all of it, go.  Remembered that yesterday is the past and I can't change yesterday anymore than I can change last year.  Told myself that I would think of the best action for each of my mental/emotional/physical dillemnas at the appropriate moment for taking action.  Told myself I could cross all those figurative bridges as I got to them.  Finished my hour of meditation in a relaxed, almost sleepy state.  Called my sister and talked about our kids and our thought processses and whether we would meet and go swimming with our kids this afternoon.  Went to yoga.  Found my wedding ring on top of the water dispenser where I left it after class last night.  Let all the rest of it go out of my mind as I focused on balancing on one foot while kicking the other back and over my head.  Stretched my body instead of my mind in every direction while looking into a blurry reflection of myself in the mirror: no glasses or custom made contacts, just my own imperfect vision -- or is that my own perfect vision?  The places where I end and you begin look very different without vision correction.  :-)   Finished yoga, came home for a luxurious shower and did laundry, put things in their own special places, played with the dogs and then checked email again. 

and then, I felt compelled but peacefully so, to respond to what George had typed.  I really had some questions for him.  Questions that I was genuinely curious about the answer to.  So here's what I replied.....

George,

I didn't read the thing about Palin that you are responding to, but I did read your response with interest and curiosity.  I find it interesting to think about the idea that abortion is murder.  So does this mean that you believe life begins at conception?  Do you support the idea that every child who is born should be a wanted child who will be well cared for, loved and nurtured and not neglected or starved for love and affection?  Do you believe that birth control and family planning are good things?  Or do you think that abstinence is the only morally acceptable way to prevent babies.  Personally, I would like to see more family planning, better sex education, free birth control and condoms for young people along with that education.  I don't think that we should encourage our kids to have sex for the sake of having sex, but I do think that often times they are going to have sex no matter what we say and in that case I think they should be well educated about how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.  I think that Governor Palin's behavior toward her own children and her own family are admirable, but I have to wonder if her daughter was subject to abstinence only sex eduction at home and at school or if she was exposed to the knowledge of how to properly use a condom or if she had access to birth control pills? 

I meditated this morning after reading your email and I wondered about your opinions on war and hunting.  Is hunting considered murder to you?  I am not a hunter, but many in my family are and some of my best friends are hunters.  I think hunting is probably more humane is some cases than raising food animals in horrible conditions just for slaughter and market.  Do you think arial hunting of wolves and polar bears is ok?  or do you believe that we should treat all God's creatures with respect and dignity?  Do you think that there is any difference between, say, bow hunting, hunting with a high powered rifle on foot or horseback or hunting from a low flying airplane, running the terrified animals to exhaustion and then slaughtering them?  

I was wondering what you think about war?  And I was wondering, really, from a very respectful, again curious, place in myself.  Is it murder, plain and simple for a soldier to kill another soldier, no matter what the cause?  Is the death penalty murder, sanctioned by the state.  I know that some people quote the Bible as saying an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is the right way for us to deal with ne'r do wells, but to me an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth soon leaves the whole world blind and toothless.  Do you agree? 

I am most definitely going to be voting for Obama / Biden in this election.  Wholeheartedly.  I will be voting for clean, renewable energy.  Protection for our lakes, rivers, steams and oceans.  Protections for clean air.  More and better funding for education from kindergarten through college and for libraries too.  I will be voting for bringing our troops home and more diplomacy and discourse in foreign policy.  I will be voting for better care and more benefits for our veterans of war.  I will be voting for more funding for family planning, including the family planning agencies that believe that it is a woman's right to choose whether she will become a mother or not.  I don' t know a single woman who wouldn't take that choice seriously and many who don't believe in having an abortion, but do believe that it is a very personal and individual decision made between a woman and God in whatever form she chooses to believe or not believe.  I will not be voting against McCain / Palin, but I certainly will not be voting for that ticket.  I would not like either of them to represent my whole country to the world and I would not like either of them to be Commander in Chief of the US armed forces nor to hold a veto stamp in their hand.

Here in Colorado I will cast my vote for Mark Udall for the Senate.  Again because I believe in a clean, renewable, sustainable future for this state, for this country, for the whole planet which I love dearly and deeply.  I will vote for Udall to represent me because I care about clean air, clean water, education and individual rights.  I do not care for my tax money to subsidize oil companies for one minute longer and I do not care for my tax dollars to support an unjustifiable, immoral war that benefits those very corporations -- big oil, halliburton, the military industrial complex.  I want my tax dollars spent on the things that I know in my heart will bring more peace and prosperity to each and every person who those dollars touch.  I don't want my taxes buying bullets or bombs, not at all.  I wish I could just designate what they would be spent on when I pay my taxes.  Wouldn't that be cool???

On that note, I'd like to share this short video, and ask everyone who reads this email to search their minds and go deep within their hearts to decide what they want to vote FOR in this election. 

And I completely agree with your last paragraph George.  We should all be putting as much energy into supporting our candidates of choice in as positive way as possible and leaving the attacks out.   And I'm glad, though I've never met you, that we have this opportunity to have this conversation.

May you be well and happy,

-Dawn Dexter
Snowmass, Colorado


then, I decided to read what George was responding to in the first place.  After meditation, a chat with my sis, yoga, a chat with some fellow yogis and teachers, a yummy shower, putting some things in order, playing with the dogs, having a little lunch and some tea, I felt much better prepared for the email with the subject, "Fury, dread, Palin" and here's what I found.......


Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,
> >
> >
> > We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have
> > felt since the
> > announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential
> > candidate for the
> > Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision
> > has surpassed mere
> > partisanship, and that it is a dangerous farceon the part
> > of a pandering and
> > rudderless Presidential candidatethat has a real
> > possibility of becoming
> > fact.
> >
> > Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of
> > what Ms. Palin and
> > her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for
> > ourselves and for
> > our present or future daughters. To date, she is against
> > sex education,
> > birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental
> > protection,
> > alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor
> > she wanted to
> > ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood
> > against her), gun
> > control, the separation of church and state, and polar
> > bears. To say nothing
> > of her complete lack of real preparation to become the
> > second-most-powerful
> > person on the planet.
> >
> > We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a
> > woman, a mother,
> > or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but
> > solely as a rash,
> > incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice
> > President. Ms.
> > Palin's political views are in every way a slap in the
> > face to the
> > accomplishments that our mothers and grandmothers and
> > great-grandmothers so
> > fiercely fought for, and that we've so demonstrably
> > benefited from.
> >
> > First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She
> > does not
> > demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It
> > is presumed that
> > the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win
> > over women
> > voters. We want to disagree, publicly.
> >
> > Therefore, we invite you to reply here
> > <mailto:womensaynopalin@gmail.com<womensaynopalin@gmail.com>>
> > with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman
> > living in this
> > country, do not support this candidate as second-in-command
> > for our nation.
> >
> > Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and
> > place of
> > residence.
> >
> > We will post your responses on a blog called "Women
> > Against Sarah Palin,"
> > which we intend to publicize as widely as possible. Please
> > send us your
> > reply at your earliest conveniencethe greater the volume of
> > responses we
> > receive, the stronger our message will be.
> >
> > Thank you for your time and action.
> >
> > VIVA!
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Quinn Latimer and Lyra Kilston
> > New York, NY
> > womensaynopalin@gmail.com
> > <mailto:womensaynopalin@gmail.com<womensaynopalin@gmail.com>
> > >
> >
> > **PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY! If you send this to 20 women in
> > the next hour, you
> > could be blessed with a country that takes your concerns
> > seriously. Stranger
> > things have happened.
> >
>
> >
>
> > --
> > Change will not come if we wait for some other person or
> > some other time. We
> > are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change
> > that we seek. ~Barack
> > Obama
>


Hmmm.  Did Sarah Palin indeed try to ban books and try to fire a librarian for not going along with the plan?  This should be quite a drama for my mind to play with for awhile.  Ban books!?!  Them's fightin' words!! 

Is there really an us and a them?  Is there really a black and a white?  Is it really all in my mind?  Am I a woman AGAINST Palin?  Hmmm. 

I do know I am FOR libraries, FOR books, FOR education. 

Am I against fat?  or for a healthy, strong, supple, bod?  Am I against guns?  or for responsibility?  am I against life?  (as in pro choice) or for life -- all of it.

I am most definitely FOR love of life.  I am most definitely for living large with a small environmental footprint.  I'm for beauty and truth and YUM and wahoo!! 

that brought me in mind of this wonderful blog and discussion at otter's blogging place.  I highly suggest reading this if you have time. 

what are you for?  what are you against? 

me -- I'm against auto spell on my phone texting thing--- I just hate when I type okey dokey and the silly phone turns it into okey foley--- wft??!! 

xoxo
-d

p.s.  I do know that I don't FEAR Gov. Palin or John McCain.  I see desperation in the Republican Party.  I see empty promises and a hollow shell of the fierce, crazy machine that elected President Bush.  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.  Let's don't fear the bad policies that have gotten us into this big mess.  Let's just fix them.  Let's all LOVE our communities, our state, our countries, our planet and each other enough to find a clean, beautiful, sustainable future together.  And let's be sweet to Sarah and John and maybe they'll come along, even if we don't vote for them.  After all -- shooting them with a disintegrator ray gun probably would be immoral.  :-)