Congratulations to Americans

A place to discuss casual topics amongst spiritual friends.
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Cittasanto
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Re: Congratulations to Americans

Post by Cittasanto »

marc108 wrote:
Cittasanto wrote:I was just scanning through my facebook feed and discovered there was a petition by two states to leave the Union! but upon looking further there are quite a few states on the petition pages of the whitehouse.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I counted 17 states?
these arent official state petitions. they are online petitions started by fringe groups of people... the same groups that would burn gays and Buddhists at the stake lol. left overs from the old days. no continental American state will ever want to (or be allowed) to succeed.
so the white house website has petitions which are not official petitions.
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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LonesomeYogurt
Posts: 900
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:24 pm
Location: America

Re: Congratulations to Americans

Post by LonesomeYogurt »

Cittasanto wrote:so the white house website has petitions which are not official petitions.
Yeah, you can make a petition on the site, not every petition on the website is officially sanctioned.
Gain and loss, status and disgrace,
censure and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions among human beings are inconstant,
impermanent, subject to change.

Knowing this, the wise person, mindful,
ponders these changing conditions.
Desirable things don’t charm the mind,
undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His welcoming and rebelling are scattered,
gone to their end,
do not exist.
- Lokavipatti Sutta

Stuff I write about things.
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fig tree
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Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 6:25 am

Re: Congratulations to Americans

Post by fig tree »

Cittasanto wrote:I was just scanning through my facebook feed and discovered there was a petition by two states to leave the Union! but upon looking further there are quite a few states on the petition pages of the whitehouse.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petitions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I counted 17 states?
The idea, unsupported in constitutional law, that states have the right to secede (as a guard against a "tyrannical federal government") has had a long history of popularity especially in the South. I suppose it makes them feel better about their ancestors having decided to secede. The idea that the federal government under Obama has become tyrannical is one of those crackpot ideas that Republicans have played around with in the past few years, like the idea that he isn't actually American.

In 2009 a poll indicated 18% of Texans supported secession of Texas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Secession_Movement

A lot of us are pretty happy with this last election. If the people who voted against Obama because they suspect his birth certificate was forged (and also the birth announcement in the local Hawaiian newspaper...), and the people who voted against Romney because they don't think Mormons are Christian enough had all stayed home, however, I think it'd have been better still. Imagine, a rational election! :jumping:

Fig Tree
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seeker242
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Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 3:01 am

Re: Congratulations to Americans

Post by seeker242 »

Image

:shrug:
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Kim OHara
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Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:47 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Congratulations to Americans

Post by Kim OHara »

seeker242 wrote:Image

:shrug:
Yep, there's still plenty of political work for Americans to do.
I think Obama knows it, too, with the financial guillotine hanging over his head while he tries to speed up the post-Sandy recovery.

Metta to all,
Kim
corrine
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Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:33 pm

Re: Congratulations to Americans

Post by corrine »

No politician is perfect. Obama is doing the best he can under the circumstances, I believe. I am personally very pleased, and absolutely shocked, that he won re-election.
I was worried sick about the rights of so many had Romney won the election and appointed ultra conservative justices to the Supreme Court. We may not have moved ahead much, but at least we did not fall back into the dark ages. As a woman who thought the feminist battles were over and done with - who lived through the sixties and marched for basic rights, I was appalled at what conservative politicians were saying. Why can we not, as human beings, simply wish that all other human beings share in the freedom that we experience. Why do we always begrudge the next group their rights?

At one time I was a member of a minority party. But I realized a long time ago that in order not to elect the worst of the bunch, compromise is sometimes necessary. Even when unpalatable. Yes, I am greener and more liberal than the democrats, but I fear the republicans enough to throw in my lot with someone who can actually win an election. I know that sounds cynical, and perhaps it is, but I am, in my old age, a realist. I see what is. Not what I want to be. Maybe in some beautiful, perfect future, good will always win. But I am not living in that perfect place. I am living in the real world and I will make the compromises necessary to help keep the worst of the worst, out of power.

Until the majority of people really want to live in a society of equality, where no one is homeless or hungry or afraid, we will have to do what we can to keep the beast at bay. In my case that means volunteering all the time possible and giving what little I can to actually feed the hungry and it also means compromising to get the an Obama elected. Does anyone realistically think that a green party candidate will ever be elected to high office? I thought so when I was young and idealistic. No more. Now I do what I can personally and choose electable candidates who are at least humane in some respects. I do not care what they are 'really' like. I care what their agendas are and what their platforms say and I can tell you for sure that the republican platform was terrifying.

So, all in all, I am happy with the election results. And, of course I am happy about the election of so many women. This is another battle that has had to be fought for far too long. And I am happy that California, my home state, has chosen to tax itself for the betterment of all. This is a good thing. Yes, we lost a lot of the battles, but we did not lose the war. Yet.

corrine :namaste:
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Kim OHara
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Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Congratulations to Americans

Post by Kim OHara »

:goodpost:
Hang in there and keep fighting, Corrine!

:namaste:
Kim
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