(US) 4/06 - I just had to share this ...

Author Message   Michelle Smith Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Galfromcal Post Number: 66 Registered: 11-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 11:13 pm:        Dear "Fighters for Democracy", The following is an article that a parent of a child that is in my daughter's class sent me. It is long and I will include my reply in a reply to this thread. (too much for one post). The reason for sharing it here is because the people at BlackBoxVoting and with this forum really try to get the whole picture. (No partisanship in this arena). However this article is truly one sided and come to find out not what it said to be. The person who was to have written it is not valid (General Chong) I found that out here; http://www.patriotwatch.com/GeneralChong.htm Page down and you can read the article that the parent sent me. I will post my reply to this thread, and I did forward the link above to the parent too. Sincerely, Michelle P.S. I hope you all don't mind that I posted this, and it not something I would do if I didn't think it wasn't worth sharing. Mainly, I think it is important when we look at who we are trying to communicate the issues we have found in the voting system.   Michelle Smith Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Galfromcal Post Number: 67 Registered: 11-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 11:18 pm:        This is my reply to the parent (the article I mentioned in my reply can be found here, http://www.energybulletin.net/12125.html or here; http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/petrov/2006/0120.html); I totally and whole heartily disagree with this person! First he is military. He would of course look at this in only one way. Second, you noticed he said "Muslim" religion. This is not correct. It is the "Islam" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_world_religions#All_religions_or_belief_syste ms_by_number_of_adherents). and here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam) People who believe in the Islam religion are Muslim. Muslim is not the religion. This misunderstand by many in our military is part of the reason they are failing. There is such a thing as diplomacy and the military does not have a stitch of it. To say they are a threat to us is just another example of ignorance. We are a threat to them just as well. If we understood more of their culture we may have avoided this whole problem. Most of the wars we have been in were because people in control believed that their financial stability was at risk. We did not join in WWII until Britain was threatened and business was threatened. If you want to support this military industry and believe that it cares for anything besides it's stability and existences than my words are worth nothing. However if you question some of the reasons for going to war in Iraq, like I do, than you will look into the military history of the U.S. and what wars we have fought, what rebel groups we support or governmental coups. How we look the other way, such as Rwanda and Darfur just to name a few, and do nothing to help people being slaughter because of their cultural back ground. Why didn't we not fight the Arabs since most of the hijackers on 911 were Arabic. Finally, look far back into history at all religious wars. All that came from those wars is one religion won. In fact the human societies and any intellectual advancement reversed or became stagnant for 100s of years. It is what we have done in other countries that has caused such anger for America. It is that many refuse to acknowledge different cultures, let alone, if they are different than they are not advanced. I am sorry that so many believe that America has the best culture in the world, and that if you do not believe in capitalism than you are backwards or a communist. Not all people believe in the same religion, type of government, or way of life, and believe it or not that is why many people came to America. America was to be free of those constraints. I will leave you with this article that I read. It gave me a clearer understanding of what is the true motivation for our country to get involved in any war. I would like to end this email by letting you know that it is not that I did not enjoy reading a different perspective than mine. I truly appreciate that you included me in your "forward". I do know that if we do not read all that we can even that which we think is right can deceive us. Plus, if I am "set-in-my-ways" than I will cease to learn. Thank you Andrew Sincerely, Michelle   Pat Vesely Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Pat_vesely Post Number: 243 Registered: 02-2006 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Thursday, April 27, 2006 - 11:44 pm:        I have no idea why you chose to post this here Michelle. While I can fully understand your frustration with what's happening in our country at this point in time, this is not the appropriate venue to post such articles. Black Box Voting.org is dedicated to one thing, fair, open, and honest elections. Dragging other subjects here only serves to water down our message. Please try to understand that our mission is quite limited by our charter and we try hard to stay focused on elections. Articles like this do need attention but I don't believe that this is the best place to give them exposure. This site is strictly devoted to election related issues. Thanks for your understanding. Pat A. Vesely ;-)   Michelle Smith Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Galfromcal Post Number: 68 Registered: 11-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 12:17 am:        Pat, I understand that it had little to do with voting as a topic, but I do believe that it has to do with the struggle we are up against when trying to convince people that we must keep our voting as fare as possible. Still to this day there are people in the U.S. that think nothing is wrong with the election system. I think that it is helpful to look at the whole picture and part of that is to look at the psychological processes of those we are trying to reach. My post was to give example to the thinking of those we need to reach. Also,I did post it in the "General Discussion" section. However, I don't usually post things so off subject and I did state my reason for this but you still felt the need to chastise me for such a post. I think that short-sighted and repelling to those who do try to participate. With that said, I am sorry you did not see the relevance of my post. Most Sincerely, Michelle   Michelle Smith Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Galfromcal Post Number: 69 Registered: 11-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 12:24 am:        On a different subject, which does apply to voting, this is a link to CVF (California Voter Foundation) new online voter's guide. I don't really trust this group, but I thought some would be interested in it. Here is the link; http://calvoter.org/voter/elections/2006/primary/index.html FYI, I did try to post this in the Califonia thread but I was not allowed to. I received an error. I just wanted to make this clear. Michelle   Michelle Smith Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Galfromcal Post Number: 70 Registered: 11-2005 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 12:25 am:        "California" thread.   Pat Vesely Frequent Voting Rights Forum Participant Username: Pat_vesely Post Number: 245 Registered: 02-2006 Best of Black Box? N/A Votes: 0 (A keeper?) Posted on Friday, April 28, 2006 - 12:31 am:        Michelle, I may agree with you 100% but just like the 9/11 thread that was recently posted here, it really has little to do with the primary reason that this web site and organization was founded. If we allow subjects like this then where do we draw the line? Pat A. Vesely ;-)

All original content on this website is Copyright (c) 2008-2009 by Black Box Voting. All rights reserved.
Forums powered by Discus Professional - www.discusware.com.
Original site and logo design is by Andy Markley - art101.com.