Now I know some of you who are actually reading this is doing it solely upon looking at the title and wondering what in the world does Sarah have to say about elections let alone politics. Its so very true. I know nothing really about politics. In fact I could easily become famous off of the Jay Walks on the Jay Leno show as the dumbest girl on the street when it comes to politics. Sadly but truly just a few short months ago I didn't even know who the vice president of the United States was. Then after I was told who he was I forgot again until facebook was flooded with comments regarding the vice presidential debate. This kind of stuff, politics has never interested me. You could say I tend to walk around in my uneducated bubble. But I love to listen to those who educate themselves and have discussions about political things. By "those" I mean friends and family because they usually still speak in terms that my little brain gets. But there are times when listening to them that just fascinates me especially when they are talking to someone who might disagree with them because every once in awhile I feel something inside of me and my own opinion begins to slowly form. I applaud those of you who are politically driven with tact and no what you are saying when you say it. In fact I have a friend who grew up with a "freedom room" in her house. Politics were discussed frequently in her home and she was encouraged regularly to obtain an educated opinion.
My opinion is not educated by all means but none the less its still an opinion. I will readily admit I did not watch the presidential debates nor did I watch the vice presidential debates. I quite frankly had no time and again it had a little bit to do with my uneducated thoughts on politics and wondering how do I know they are not jut saying that but truly mean it. I had a booth over the summer at the county fair for work and our booth was right next to a campaign booth. For four days straight I would listen to this person's campaign team tell the SAME speech time after time. I practically have it memorized word for word! At that moment I thought, do these people REALLY believe what they are saying or did they all memorize the same paragraph highlighting the opponents negatives and prep to only bash the opponent. Then the last night of the fair the man they were campaigning for actually showed up and introduced himself to me. I spoke with him for a moment and attempted to be open minded to his thoughts. When I attempted to explain my educational anti-tobacco booth to him he quickly responded he was well aware of tobacco and before I could get a 1/3 of my thoughts out he cut me off and told me all the great things he had accomplished in reducing smoke and second hand smoke in Utah. I felt somewhat defeated that he wouldn't listen to me, my thoughts. He quickly ended his lil speech to me and started to converse with everyone around my booth. When I was cleaning up I had to take massive buckets of water (from melted ice) outside and dump them. They were not light by any means and the other girl helping me was struggling with them as well. We had to go around this man who did not ask if he could help struggling women with massive buckets of water nor did he offer to hold the door nor did he even attempt to step aside out of our way. Instead he stood in my path and talked politics to other people who were running with him and watched me work. When he finally got ready to leave he shook my hand and thanked me for doing the Lord's work! My thought was "it would serve you well to do the same mister. Part of the Lord's work is helping your fellow man." I wondered after that moment how can you believe anything they say? How do you know its not just fluff words?
As I then listened to Mitt Romney speak about the economy and the hardships and the financial struggles something resonated inside me like a little light bulb went on in my head like one of those ah-ha moments and I thought someone gets it! Someone understands how I am feeling! Someone realizes that I am putting in 50-60 hr weeks only getting paid for 40 working crazy hours and wondering if I will ever get a raise for all I am doing since I can't go get a second job with this schedule. I thought someone understands that even though I have a fairly decent job I can't seem to get ahead because even tho I am not getting raises to compensate it, the prices of food and gas continually increase and I am set back further and further financially and I am struggling to make ends meet.
I will be honest, I liked that he understood the financial burden, the financial crisis I am going thru. I will also be honest and admit this opinion may very well be biased because I did not listen to the democratic convention or any of the debates but my uneducated brain has seen with my educated eye the ever increasing prices on the things we need the most: Food and means for transportation! I resonated with him about getting more people to work, to be responsible for their actions. The past few years my eyes have been opened up more and more to people who expect handouts. Expect others to compensate them for the situation they are in. To expect freebies. Because I am single and have a relatively good job and because people don't know the financial struggle I deal with as well they automatically expect and or assume that I should freely give to those in need. You might go back to my previous comment about Christ and ask if I am not being Christ-like in my thoughts. But I believe Christ was willing to help those who helped themselves and demonstrated faith. I think the world today should apply the same principle. Don't go asking hard working individuals because they are Christians to pay or donate things to your pleasure without another thought and not doing something in return. Sometimes I feel the ones who work the hardest to make ends meet are the ones who are targeted the most. I feel if I am working my butt off to make ends meet then others if capable should as well.
I am eternally grateful and will forever be indebted to parents who have taught me the value of work. Not only work but hard work. Who instilled in me the desire to go out there and work for my dreams. To put myself in a situation where I could better myself. My move from Idaho was based on multiple reasons and multiple factors. But one of the reasons was to find better more secure employment for myself so I could take care of myself. I love the quote "Be the change you want to see" I am definitely not where I want to be and sure like most hard working people I wish I was better paid for all the hard actual work I do. But at the same time I am grateful I am working to better myself and my situation to be where I want to be some day. It may take longer then I want but with hard work and dedication I know I will get there.
I did think when Mitt Romney was offering solutions if they were real or if he was just saying it to sound good. But honestly I liked a lot of his suggestions and actually hoped he would be given the chance to really put them into practice. He worked hard, was smart in his business tactics and got himself to where he is today. I actually wanted to see if he was elected if Congress would go along with his thoughts and if he would teach us a thing or two about hard work, manning up to our responsibilities as individuals, and being dedicated to being more self reliant people.
As we know Mitt Romney did not win. For once in my life thanks to the little light that went on in my head I sat long and hard and wondered about my future. Am I going to continue to be in this financial despair? I am going to continue to struggle month after month to make ends meet while people all around me expect handouts and boldly exclaim I am poor you should give to my needs? I wondered a lot of things but just as quickly as those thoughts came so did the thoughts of Christ. We do not know how the future will be . We do not know how long the struggles will be present in our lives but I do know Christ has not forsaken me and understands the daily trials and struggles I am facing. I know Christ has engraved me in the palm of his hand and as long as I continue to do my part, as I continue to do my best to be self-reliant that God will compensate and I will be taken care of. I love the scripture that states I, the Lord am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. I feel very uncertain of my future in multiple ways and on multiple levels but I know as long as I stick to the principles that Christ has set forth and govern my personal life in accordance to those principles then I can rest assured that one day things for me personally will be all ok.
Now I know some of you may read this with very strong opinions, that's natural we are humans. But I wrote this on my blog where I can freely express my opinions. I am not looking for political debates. Some of you may think I am biased because I didn't even mention Obama! Its true this is a biased opinion. I did not listen to anything else besides to a guy running for office at the republican convention and we all should be impressed I did that. In the future I should educate myself better, form better educated opinions but for now these are the thoughts that I have going thru my head. Others of you who know my lack of political knowledge may wonder where this post may even came from. Maybe its because I woke up at 3:30am cold and hungry and yes still very much tired but not knowing at the moment how to solve my coldness, nor my hunger, nor my tiredness. Maybe this is all mumble jumble because I am sleep deprived, or maybe as my mom said earlier this week maybe I finally have woken up, realized I do have an opinion, and even more encouraged now to keep doing what I am doing to personally take care of myself so I can provide myself with a brighter future!
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