America the beautiful, the land that I love.
Where all are created equal, except homosexuals and minorities. Where we as citizens are granted the most basic unalienable freedoms (unless it involves an unborn child).
America, where people of all nations flock to receive their "God-given" rights, only to realize that their "God" does not matter unless he is the Christian God.
Where our government represents the people of the United States (If you are a Caucasian Republican male over the age 40). Where you can fulfill your dreams, unless you are a woman and dream to be president.
In grade school, America was the greatest country in the world.
Every war we fought, we were the good triumphing over evil.
We were the nation that thrived upon its freedoms. America is where your dreams could be fulfilled and your rights could be attained.
Now, as a freethinking adult, I realize that is not the world that we are in. There are injustices. We are not free, and America is certainly not where all of our dreams will be fulfilled.
While we as Americans, in comparison to other countries, are fortunate for the rights we have, we are still behind where we should be.
The cause: fear.
Fear of what we are not, from what is different from us, from what we don't understand.
Men telling women what to do with their bodies, heterosexuals telling homosexuals how to live, and people thinking they should have a say in how others go about their everyday lives.
These are not topics for our government; these are rights that as far as I am concerned, are just as unalienable as the right to free speech.
Results of exit polls on Tuesday showed that 20 percent, the highest percentage, voted based upon morality.
Of those 20 percent, 80 percent voted for President George W. Bush. The only problem is that Bush's morality is based upon Christian fundamental values, when our government states that there is a supposed separation of church and state.
As a president, Bush should not attempt to shape this country after his beliefs and morality, he is representing our people, who certainly do not all share the same opinions on morality.
He, as president, will have the opportunity to elect at least two Supreme Court justices, which will undoubtedly be conservative.
But I am not conservative, my cousin is not conservative, my neighbor is not conservative and neither are a lot of people I know.
How is this representative of all the people?
How is it that out of all of the innovative and intelligent people, we elect the same man to run our country for eight consecutive years? Was the first term that great?
When will we elect a president that truly wants the people to be represented, that would appoint people of opposing beliefs to his cabinet?
Bush may have done some great things for our country and the Iraqi nation. He may be a man of high standards and Christian morals -- which I do not think is a bad trait.
But partisan morality is a problem if you are a president attempting to lead a country that is prides itself on diversity like the United States.
We need a president who is not fearful of what he is not, but embraces the things that he has yet to understand.
We need a president who is passionate about the freedoms we are given and keeping those freedoms -- not altering the ones that do not apply to him.
We need a president who in the time of war, would rather he go to war, then start a draft sending our youth off to fight a war that they do not believe in.
Or perhaps we need a president that does not go to war unless it is necessary, a president that values every American life, who does not use lives as a means.
We cannot have a leader who wishes to shape our country after his beliefs; we need a president that leads our country into the future with dignity, openness and humility.
Then and only then will we be the leaders of the free world.
When we stand in front of what is unfamiliar to us and we do not hesitate, but we embrace it with open-arms, knowing we as individuals can only learn and grow into better people as a truly unified country.
