Just thought I'd post this, maybe it will inspire someone.<br /><br /> I was born in Oakland Ca, a very liberal city in a very liberal state. My family was very poor. My parents were "born again christians", went to church regularly, and tried their best to get me to follow. I rebelled at an early age, and stayed as far away as I could from the religous aspect. I hated going to church and prayer meetings and reading the bible etc, because it was too boring for me. I got into a lot of trouble when I was young, and put my parents through hell, something I truly regret now.<br /> I didn't get into politics much, too boring to read all that crap, and why waste my time thinking about it? I read the newspapers ocasionaly, and watched news on tv once in a while. My political views were very small and narrow minded, and I had the "rebel without a cause" mentality. It seemed to me at the time that the republican party stood for everything thats wrong in the country. Not caring about the poor, racism, big business etc. The democrats seemed to be for the underdog, and that apealed to me. That was about as deep as I was willing to go, no research, no comparisons, I took the word of the media as the absolute truth and absorbed all the "editorial like news" as well, not realizing how biased it all was.<br /> I moved to Virginia in the early 90's and about the same time I had my firstborn. I began to change from the stupid brainless iresponsible naive kid I was into a more responsible version of an adult. I was now solely concerned about raising my kid in an enviornment that was not like the envirnment I grew up in. (Oakland is a ghetto, kinda tough for a whiteboy in the 70's to grow up in.)I began to pay a little more attention to the things said in the news, and eventualy I began to realize on my own how biased the media was. I began to realize that the rightwing rednecks I associated with were much more friendly, fair, and downright human than the leftwing people I associated with both in Ca and Va. I began to pay more attention to things like abortion, gun laws, crime and punishment, rewards for hard work verus handouts, etc. and began to realize that although I professed to be on the left, my views and ideology were far to the right. Eventualy I came to the conclusion that the republicans stood for what was right in this country, things like responsibility for your own actions, morality, financial responsibility for the govt. upholding the constitution, etc. etc.<br /> I always had deep down convictions on the basics, (punishing criminals, anti abortion, anti drugs((although I tried drugs))but it's dificult to get past the barage of misinformation the youth are faced with. The "rebel without a cause" syndrome is especialy rough for a teenager. Life in America is good, and teens are rebelious by nature. It's easy to get caught up in the Anti-America crowd when it's being shoved down your throat every day. It's easy to say that the war in Iraq is all about oil, because it's a statement that is against the majority and favors the underdog, an instant hit with the youth. It's easy to jump on the "legalize marijuana" bandwagon, since every one is smoking it anyway. It's easy to feel sorry for the poor ******* that slaughtered a family of 5 when you hear about his "poor upbringing" and how "the odds were stacked against him". Maybe he needs therapy?<br /> I'm sorry for the abreviated post, there is a lot more that should be said here, and this didn't come out quite the way I planned but I don't have time to write the essay that this should be!
<br /><br />pointer, you said what should be noted most of all. kudos