In life in general, we need to be able to stand up for what we believe in. Without that quality, we become objects pushed around by contrasting viewpoints. I had the opportunity to read an article posted on Crooks and Liars about Ellen DeGeneres and her "battle" with the Anti-LGBT group. The article explains that the Anti-LGBT group had been pushing JC Penny to drop Ellen DeGeneres as their spokeswoman because she was lesbian. Luckily, JC Penny exhibited great strength in refusing to fire Ellen simply because of her sexuality. In response to the anti-gay group, Ellen openly thanked her "haters" on her show, stating that they were in fact her motivation for her openness. The article, although not directly correlated with government or politics, prompted me to think about how I wish politicians acted. In the past few years of my adult life, I've noticed and studied how politicians and their governments acted in order to develop my own political opinion. It appears that some, even many politicians tend to promote ideas that the country supports. Although in a bigger picture, this seems appropriate, I fear that they are promoting these ideas for the wrong reasons. In some cases, politicians have been known to support things such as lower taxes and anti-abortion rights, but I wonder if they are supporting those ideas because they truly believe in them, or if its because that's what will allow them to win the election. Ellen's ability to stand up and acknowledge and even thank her competition, despite their objection, gives me confidence in mankind's ability to stand firm in what we believe in. I simply hope that our modern day politicians have the balls to follow suit.
I strongly suggest that you give this article a gander. It's a quick read, and it shows a great quality in Ellen that I wish more of society possessed - confidence. After reading the article, I want you to think about how government might be different if our politicians didn't base their views on the possibility of success, but rather based their views on what they honestly and truly believed in.
About Me
- Lee Bailey Bradshaw
- I've lived in this country for 21 years and I probably can't tell you much about the fundamentals of my own national government. It seems that despite my years of experience, I managed to look past the importance of government and the impact that it has on my life every day. Thus, here I am, registered for this Government class, desperately hoping for both an A and a better understanding for how my country is governed. You know, maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I scored a 69% on my Civics Quiz. The preface to the quiz stated that most students scored an average of 50%, so at least I did better than the average. I found it disturbing that the preface also stated that college professors scored an average of 55% on the test. These are the people teaching us! No wonder we score so low! In leu of this information, I hope that this class will allow us to reach higher than the pitiful average of the 50% mark. Currently I would consider myself a Republican, however, I'm taking on this political standpoint by inheritance. Although I want to think that I understand what its is to be Republican and why I choose to be one, my idea of this political view is probably very askew.
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