Despite being ill, I dragged my sickly down to Tempe to view the debate. There was lots of booing and cheering which was pretty fun. When I got home, I wrote this letter to John Kerry.
Dear Mr. Kerry,
I attended the offsite presidential debate this evening at ASU in Tempe. I have watched all three of the debates and was very impressed with you. I was impressed with your political ideas, and the manner with which you carried yourself. I felt you handled yourself like a gentleman and I appreciate how you did not resort to the schoolyard tactics I saw your opponent stoop to on several occasions. I fully support your stance on foreign policy and I am very interested to see more of your healthcare and economic plans. As an agnostic Im overjoyed to hear your position on religion and faith as issues to be separated from politics and not enforced on other people through policy.
That said, two things you brought up this evening really disturbed me. The one first in my mind is your stance on gun control. I was very concerned with your statements concerning replacing bans on so called assault weapons and gun control in general. I was left with a sour taste by your answer because it was so two sided there was no way I could decipher how you really feel. On one hand you said you would not touch the second amendment and then you went right on to speak about placing bans on assault weapons. So I am a little confused, are you going to leave the second amendment alone or are you going to take my guns away?
The other thing I was very disturbed by, and left the debate feeling very sour and pessimistic about was the statement you made about iris scans at the borders. This statement conjured Orwellian images in my mind and struck a level of fear in my heart. If we start scanning retinas, how far off are barcodes and ID chips? They already have them in my pets. At what point does someone take technology too far? I believe you are a good man, and I believe you have good intentions, but you know what they say about good intentions and the road to ruin. I fear a time when someone with less good intentions takes this technology and uses it in the wrong way. I fear the day when what I do makes me a criminal. And it is not because I expect to start stealing, or killing, it is because I fear at some point something benign, like owning an MP3 player, drinking a glass of wine or being an American may make me a criminal. In the past enforcement of totalitarian mandates was difficult because it was impossible to track every person in every place. Thus the focus of law enforcement remained on truly important issues. If we implement technological tracking on a grand scale the possibility for totalitarianism will become a probability. Please apply the same broad scale thinking you have impressed me with so greatly in other areas to this area as well and think long and hard before proposing the addition of any further technological tracking devices for the American people.
I wish you the best and do plan to break from my party lines and my upbringing by voting for you this November. Please do not let me down.
Kindest Regards,
Midnyte
Dear Mr. Kerry,
I attended the offsite presidential debate this evening at ASU in Tempe. I have watched all three of the debates and was very impressed with you. I was impressed with your political ideas, and the manner with which you carried yourself. I felt you handled yourself like a gentleman and I appreciate how you did not resort to the schoolyard tactics I saw your opponent stoop to on several occasions. I fully support your stance on foreign policy and I am very interested to see more of your healthcare and economic plans. As an agnostic Im overjoyed to hear your position on religion and faith as issues to be separated from politics and not enforced on other people through policy.
That said, two things you brought up this evening really disturbed me. The one first in my mind is your stance on gun control. I was very concerned with your statements concerning replacing bans on so called assault weapons and gun control in general. I was left with a sour taste by your answer because it was so two sided there was no way I could decipher how you really feel. On one hand you said you would not touch the second amendment and then you went right on to speak about placing bans on assault weapons. So I am a little confused, are you going to leave the second amendment alone or are you going to take my guns away?
The other thing I was very disturbed by, and left the debate feeling very sour and pessimistic about was the statement you made about iris scans at the borders. This statement conjured Orwellian images in my mind and struck a level of fear in my heart. If we start scanning retinas, how far off are barcodes and ID chips? They already have them in my pets. At what point does someone take technology too far? I believe you are a good man, and I believe you have good intentions, but you know what they say about good intentions and the road to ruin. I fear a time when someone with less good intentions takes this technology and uses it in the wrong way. I fear the day when what I do makes me a criminal. And it is not because I expect to start stealing, or killing, it is because I fear at some point something benign, like owning an MP3 player, drinking a glass of wine or being an American may make me a criminal. In the past enforcement of totalitarian mandates was difficult because it was impossible to track every person in every place. Thus the focus of law enforcement remained on truly important issues. If we implement technological tracking on a grand scale the possibility for totalitarianism will become a probability. Please apply the same broad scale thinking you have impressed me with so greatly in other areas to this area as well and think long and hard before proposing the addition of any further technological tracking devices for the American people.
I wish you the best and do plan to break from my party lines and my upbringing by voting for you this November. Please do not let me down.
Kindest Regards,
Midnyte
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I'm afraid now, that he will remain in office.