Seeing as how 2004 is an election year and we are in the middle of election fever, I would like to submit to you and the world my view of what America should be, my voice and my beliefs. I feel that although not everyone agrees with these beliefs, they are important and are seriously being contested in today’s politics. I want every voter and non-voter to read these and then decide for themselves what they believe, and choose the leader that they feel is best for this country.

Signed on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence outlined the goal of the newly forming United States; the most important line in this article states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

At the end of this sentence there is no footnote, citation or other reference that affects what is meant by this, yet the current administration seems to have added one, one that now reads, “among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, except gays, blacks, poor, middle class, children, and women.”

Our nation is not one founded for protecting the majority of Americans, but for protecting the minority, a fact that has been tainted in my America. Recently, conservatives have pushed to ban gay marriage, impeding the unalienable right to pursue happiness. In my America all families, be it interracial, homosexual or a man and a woman, are equals.

Conservatives throughout history have fought some of the most progressive actions in our nation, ranging from a woman’s right to vote to segregation. President Bush in a recent speech on gay marriage stated, “We’re just doing what the majority of Americans want us to do.” Well I say this: The majority of Americans were OK with a separate but equal policy regarding race relations, but despite this John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson required desegregation.

In my America every American has the right to vote, in this America during the 2000 election a majority of African Americans were prevented from voting, being targeted as convicted felons, all because they were likely to vote for Gore. The Republican Party targeted the African American specifically; the right to Liberty was ignored.

In my America the poor and middle class are given the assistance they need to make our nation stronger, and handed the educational opportunities that our parents were not given. Today the No Child Left Behind Act has single-handedly crippled many school systems; the unfunded program adds an enormous strain to state budgets that are at their breaking points. College tuition has increased dramatically while the Federal Pell Grant has been reduced. Insurance companies have the right to revoke benefits at their whim against disabled Americans; the government allows them to do this.

In my America a woman is the only one who should be able to make a choice as to whether she will have an abortion or not. In this nation the Republican Party wishes to ban abortion and the woman’s right to choose. Take into account the amount of women who would perform abortions themselves, or try to have a miscarriage if abortion were outlawed; this would be unsafe and dangerous. You can outlaw it, but that doesn’t mean the practice will stop. In my America the choice belongs to the woman.

In my America our nation will never go to war because we want to, only because we have to. The war in Iraq is unjustified, our search for WMDs has turned up nothing, and the president guaranteed us they were there. He lied to the nation–need I remind the world that when President Clinton lied about some illicit activities in the oval office he was impeached, and that no one was killed by the “cigar incident.” To date, over 900 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq for the purpose of seizing weapons that never existed. People argue that if you were the president and you were given the same intelligence than you would have attacked too. The point I want to make is this: while we “suspected” that Saddam had weapons, North Korea was waving them in our face, and we did nothing.

There are many more issues that are relevant but these are some of my key concerns. I ask which America would you rather live in, mine or theirs?

I leave you with the next sentence of the Declaration of Independence, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

On November 2nd, alter the government. Be the change you want to see.