No Brainer

I have friends I consider very smart. They are very knowledgeable. If I ask them questions about their job or about other things of the world, they usually come back with very intelligent remarks on the subjects. But when the topic of George Bush comes up, they usually start getting flustered and angry. Most of what comes from their mouths is what the mainstream media has fed them.

The other day, I was talking to one lady and she mentioned President George Bush. She asked me if I liked him. I told her that I did. She immediately and very strongly said that she hated him.

Now, here's a woman I consider a very calm person. But when confronted with this issue, I saw a new side of her. She became angered, immediately! I could see how her feelings for President Bush had festered in her heart. This was probably the first time she had confronted someone with a different point of view.

She started talking about things that she had heard from the mainstream news. Her first point of attack was how George Bush started the war in Iraq and went against the United Nations. I then went on to tell her that I agreed with his decision to send troops to Iraq. She asked me why and I told her that Saddam had been given many resolutions, but had not met any of the timelines the UN had set, the UN kept giving in to their resolutions and never penalized Saddam for not complying.

I then asked her a question about raising children. I asked her if she gave her children ultimatums when they were growing up. She said she had. I then asked her what they would have done if she had not backed up those ultimatums with some sort of penalty. She said her kids would have continued on and probably would have never listened to her from that point on because she didn't stand her ground.

I then told her that that was what the UN was doing to Saddam Hussein. They had given him many times to comply, but backed down from enforcing the penalties they had said they would follow through with. So Saddam continued doing what he was doing and left the world in a quandary. But Bush said enough was enough and went into Iraq to take the first and only other option no one else was willing to take. Surprisingly, she didn't go into any further discussion about it all. She said she understood and would look more into what she hears from the mainstream news.

Let’s see…what rights do people have?

• We have the right to free water. We can go out in nature and drink free flowing water from rivers it we choose to. But most people choose to pay for it and get it from the city they live in.
• We have the right to breathe air freely. However, some of the air we breathe is so polluted, we probably wish we didn’t have to breathe it.
• We have the right to walk, run, sleep and do bodily functions whenever we need to.
• We have the right to do or not do something, if we choose.
• We have the right to eat when we want to, or not.
• And we have the right to eat whatever we want to or not.
• We have the right to eat with whomever we want, as long as they want to eat with us. That is their right.

I’ll get back to this list later.

If you have time, jot down what you think people have the right to do or not to do.