9-4-08

So basically this is my first time ever writing a blog and I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. If we are just talking about what happened in class, let me be the first to say, I was incredibly lost. I just switched out of calculus 3 and yesterday was my first day in class. I will completely agree with the girl in the back of the room (sorry I don't know names yet) when she said it seemed like a lot of reading material to cover. When I first looked at the readings, I thought maybe some of them were stuff Dr. M had covered in class...needless to say, they weren't.
I guess I'm supposed to say a little something about myself. My name is Melissa Palmer, I'm a sophomore and a chemistry major here - I have organic chemistry in isat right before this class, so if you see me and I look like the walking dead, that's basically what I am. I'm 18 (turning 19 soon YAY) and I grew up in Northern Virginia.
My mother grew up in an all-Jewish neighborhood in suburban Chicago and my father grew up in a po-dunk town on the Pennsylvania line, riding tractors and working on farms his whole life. I like to compare them to the couple from Green Acres. Since my mom was raised Jewish and my father was raised some form of Christianity, we don't exactly have a religion in my household. I was brought up by standard moral values and taught to be a good person. It's been working pretty well for me so far. As far as my beliefs go, I like to consider myself a liberal and a democrat, but I will fully own up to having a few very right wing values (I’m all for the death sentence).
I am very apprehensive about this coming election. Either way the country will be making history. My dad and I discuss politics all the time and we both agree, the only way Obama can lose at this point is if the young people don't get out and vote. Everyone you talk to says "oh Obama's going to win anyways" but you know what? If everyone thinks that, and no one votes because they think that, we will get stuck with McCain and another 4 years of republican policies. The problem is that the young people come out in great numbers for all the primaries and support the candidates right up until Election Day when laziness gets the best of them.
I noticed there was a person in our class who was taking every opinion/point someone made and turning it into something negative, constantly contradicting and arguing with whatever was said (you probably know who you are). Debate to discuss and expand on ones own opinions is great; arguing just to argue is obnoxious. I would just like to take this opportunity to say this to our young pessimist: every point you made, would only be viable under IDEAL circumstances. I am not bashing your stance, quite on the contrary, all of your statements are true, but at some point you have to stop living in Neverland and become a realist and see that we aren't living in an ideal world. And while we might strive for it, the ideal doesn't happen over night, you can't flip a switch. So while the people in Georgia might not currently be fully educated on issues, that doesn't mean we say the will NEVER be educated. Change takes time. Striving for the ideal is admirable, but not remotely practical. Patience is the key.