Dearest Readers,

If you are a regular reader and "commenter" of my blog, let me just say that this post is not geared towards you. I consider you all as my friends and I truly value what you say. I appreciate your input and I look forward to hearing from you always. Thanks for letting me tell you my stories and my thoughts and thanks for your support. 

I'm really not sure where to start. Lately, I've heard a few stories of people who have been looking at my blog and...um...how shall we say it, not being so enamored at what I've been posting. Of course, these people do not leave comments but choose to spread their words around in other forms. 

Look. I know what I talk about sometimes might ruffle some feathers. I especially know what people's thoughts and actions usually are when it comes to me discussing my veganism. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, I'm sorry. I do not mean or try to attack anyone when I post these, and I keep all your feelings in consideration when I write. I really do.

I know veganism is, to some people, "far out there" or "so extreme." I know it might be a difficult concept to grasp, especially when you've known me for many years, and especially when I come from the background that I do. You might think that I am weird or different now, but I'm really not. What I hope you consider and realize when you think about veganism, is that to me, it is something I hold very dear to my heart.

Boiled down, veganism is very simple. It is taking the same care and consideration we all feel for animals (such as our beloved pets) and applying it to every animal, including those who are forced to produce food for us and those raised to be on our dinner plates. To you, it might seem like I'm being weird in trying to avoid foods that are very common in our diet. To me, this belief is an action on what I've really felt my whole life. My decision to be vegan was not easy, by any means. And frankly, it was these types of reactions that I feared the most. 

But what I hope you understand is that my decision to be vegan is hugely based on my interpretation of the Word of Wisdom and what many scriptures, prophets, and church leaders have said about the treatment of animals and the earth. To me, it is very spiritual and personal. I know that many people make ethical decisions that are largely based on religious beliefs, such as one's stance on abortion. (I hope you don't think I'm combining the two issues here, I'm just trying to make a point.) Me choosing not to eat meat, dairy or eggs is just that--an ethical decision largely based on my religious beliefs and morals. When these beliefs are criticized and mocked, especially behind my back, I can't tell you how much it hurts.

Now I'm really not trying to play the victim here, I take responsibility for the fact that I have a blog. I'm posting these thoughts and feelings for people to read and I would like for you to read them. I know that in a way, I'm making myself a target. That's something that I accept before I publish my piece. What I ask is that if you should disagree or want to talk about something, that you post a comment, send an email, or give me a call (most of you probably have my number). I realize that the internet isn't always the best place to work things out, but it is certainly better than what has been filtered through four different people. 

To most people, veganism would probably be considered a political topic. And it is, in a way. That's probably why people can feel uncomfortable about it. What I attempt is to try to remain as neutral as possible when discussing things, because no one wants to read something that will make them mad. 

That brings me to the topic of my "politics" label. I really am not claiming to know anything about politics, and frankly, I don't care half of the time. I really don't feel like I have to defend those posts because they are what they are. If you think that I am, in some way or another, obsessed with a man on my politics page, then you are mistaken. Even so, what would be wrong with having pride in our president?

I guess what I'm asking is that if you read my blog, please be respectful. I like to talk about and discuss issues on here and I don't expect everyone to agree with me. If you don't, talk to me instead of everyone else about it. After all, I am the one with these thoughts and ideas. If you think what I write about is too weird or upsets you too much, maybe it might be best if you didn't read my blog. It doesn't do you or I any good if you read these things and hold grudges. 

All the best, 

Candice

Reasons to Be Thankful--Day 3

1. I am thankful for the right to vote and for all the people who made it possible for me to do so.  I actually voted for once! 

(I hope you don't mind the late-night bleary-eyed picture.) 

2. I am thankful for a new president that record amounts of Americans helped to elect.

3. I'm thankful to be an American. 

And it's stories like this that make me proud.

My Lesson Actually Learned: History and Being a True American

Before you read this, I should mention that the theories in my professor's lecture have all been debated. Although there are plenty of ideas why racism came about, I'm going to talk about in this post is the theory that my professor believes had the most impact in determining how it evolved.

Today I came to understand the real value of my history classes.

I went to my History 1500 class today where the discussion was about slavery and racism. I was enthralled, because slavery is really interesting to me. My professor talked about how racism didn't really exist until the 17th century with the further advancement of slavery. He claimed that slavery actually brought about racism.

Allow me to recite some of what I learned today (if you don't mind, this helps me remember). Although slavery had already existed in various parts of the world for centuries, the basis for enslaving people was different. Up until the discovery of the New World, the justifications for slavery was mostly based on religion (mostly Muslims vs. Christians). The other would need slaves for work and would justify using the other religion's peoples as slaves because they were deemed inferior. Because of this, there were only small amounts of people in Europe they could justify using as slaves. 

The discovery of the New World gave countries and kings more opportunities to make money. Sugar, in fact, was one of they key products grown and one of the main causes of slavery in the New World. It was a huge commodity and it made people wealthy. The problem with sugar is that it was so hard to harvest and to produce, hence the need for more slaves who would be forced to do the work. The location mattered too, because sugar could only be grown in the tropics, mostly on the islands in the Caribbean. But where would they get the people to do this?
I think we all know the answer. And Africans were initially enslaved because they were thought by Europeans to be pagans. But what I learned today was that there actually was a considerable amount of indentured servants who were forced to do the labor in the New World, too. Indentured slaves were contracted slaves (usually not Africans) who were set to work for a certain amount of time. They actually got treated worse than the Africans because the slave owners wanted to keep the Africans around for as long as possible and were more profitable, whereas the indentured slaves only had a short time doing the work.
Then came the rebellions of the indentured slaves, mostly in the form of Fort George in New York City. Here the indentured slaves, including Africans, Irish, and other "inferior" people, burned the city.
This scared the slave owners, so they sought out a means to make the population of these slaves smaller and to isolate only one type of people. Because slavery encompassed a larger variety of people before this time, they needed to somehow reduce the amount of slaves to reduce the chance of an uprising happening again. White people were considered slaves at this time too, so the idea of making someone seem inferior because of the color of their skin came about to section off a smaller part of the workers. So racism, especially toward Africans and people of color, is a relatively new belief. Racism evolved because of slavery, not vice versa.
So why am I talking about this and rambling on forever? I think the real value of knowing history is to learn how it applies to our day.

Lately, I've become really disheartened with how the election is going. (Yes, I'm going to get political once again.) It really breaks my heart that religion, race, and gender are being dragged into the mix. One of my biggest problems this year is people who have talked about not voting for someone based on these factors. Haven't we learned to look past this all? 

I was really disappointed with how people treated Mitt Romney. He got so much criticism for being a member of the church. This is so hard for me to believe! I would not criticize a candidate just because they were Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, etc. I thought that he would have been an amazing president. His experience as a businessman would have helped out our country in this economic crisis. Of course, I had hopes that McCain would have picked him for the VP nomination, but I had an inkling that would not happen based on people's reaction in the primaries. 

I hate to say it, but Obama has had so much garbage thrown at him. Not only has his race been questioned, but his religion has too. I watched a video clip where one of McCain's supporters, talking right to McCain, said, "I can't trust Obama. I have heard about him and he's not...he's uh...he's an Arab."  I am amazed at the anger, hate, and myths flying around this election. 

Obama is not an Arab, a Muslim or a terrorist. What happened to learning the facts? What happened to researching a candidate without the help of email forwards and the media? Racism is something that has not been around long, so why is it so hard to give up? 

Although this lady does not represent all McCain supporters in any way, I just can not understand how there are people out there who still have problems with other people's skin color. It must be said that there are extremes on both sides of the fence, but I think people have stooped pretty low by saying that Obama is a terrorist based on the fact that his father was a raised a Muslim in Africa but later became Atheist before he moved to the states (but some people think he is because of his supposed associations with Bill Ayers. That is a recent development). I think the fear of Muslims is largely based on 9/11, but doesn't each religion have a bad example? 

Aren't we reverting back to our old ways? Since our country is largely Christian, isn't this Christians vs. Muslims yet again? I understand that not all McCain can't be Christian, and some Christians support Obama, but why all the hate? 

I hope we can all elect someone whom we think will do a good job and not let emotions, feelings, or hate get in the way. We need to focus more on who will best represent us, not focusing our anger on someone who we think will destroy America. 

The reason why we study history is so we learn from it and don't repeat it. Our nation has progressed in so many ways and done so much good. Why not learn from this and keep going forward, accepting people from all religions, skin colors, and backgrounds. Isn't this the true American way?

And after all, aren't these Christian beliefs?

2008: The "Revolutionary" Election Year

Well, I've caved in. I really try to make my blog pretty neutral and avoid causing a disturbance, but I'm breaking my silence.  

To tell you the truth, I don't claim a political party. I've always considered myself sitting somewhere in the middle, sometimes leaning a little left. When the primaries started, I didn't really have any interest in them. Of course I followed them and read about them almost daily because it was required for my classes, but I wasn't really dead set on having a certain person win. When Obama and McCain won the primaries, I thought, "Oh good. I probably won't vote this year." (I didn't really like either one of them.) 

Of course, that all changed on August 29th. I remember I was in the Hub eating lunch with Mark when I saw that McCain had announced his running mate, Sarah Palin. I thought, "Who is that?" A few weeks later I wandered onto Wikipedia and read up about her. That's when I found out about her experience (hardly any--plus you have to remember that "Alaska is right next to Russia"), education (a BS in communications-journalism from University of Idaho), ties with oil companies (she wants to drill for oil in Alaska. That's funny, her husband works for the oil company BP), etc. Basically, the more I found out about this lady, the more I think McCain picked her just to get himself into office.

And she scares me. 

As if I wasn't petrified enough, I watched her interview on ABC with Charlie Gibson. Am I the only one that thought she dodged every question? 

The more and more I think about politics, the more I realize that people have certain agendas and they do just about anything to get them accomplished. 

Because he picked Palin, I can't vote for McCain. I think he chose her only because she appeals to certain people on the surface and that just doesn't cut it in my book. How desperate is he to be in the White House?

Plus, it's pretty scary to think of someone with only a Bachelor's degree and less than two years of experience as a governor possibly being the most powerful person in the world if McCain doesn't make the four years. 

Her environmental views don't help, either.