I realize my last rant was a little over the top and could be seen as offensive to some. Unfortunately I did this a little bit on purpose to illicit a response from people backing Bush since I did not get a response my first time. This meant that I stepped on some toes that I probably shouldn't have, and also exaggerated my opinions a little. For this I apologize, I should have been honest about my choice instead of inflammatory. Because of this, I feel I should port my true feelings about the election:
My primary concern with any election is the environment. Growing up outside Chicago, I saw the land around my dad's house go from being prairie with a 2 lane gravel road to a paved 2 lane road to having a shopping mall built less than 5 minutes away, to having the roads all become paved, then a grocery store built behind my dad's house, to now having shopping centers built a long a 4 lane road. This happened in a 25 year span 23 miles west of Chicago. This is one of the reasons I love being in Iowa now. While there is growth around Iowa City, I can still get away from the urban area within a matter of minutes. I can also breathe nice clean air. I drive back to Chicago now and when you get to DeKalb, you see a layer of brown air over Chicago. When I vote for a president, I am looking for someone who is going to work at making this environment better. When I see what happened around my dad's house occurred in 25 years, I wonder what type of air my children are going to grow up with here in Iowa, or how bad the air will be for then when I visit my family outside Chicago. President Bush is doing little to work towards moving off of the oil that we are dependant on. I will admit to being personally interested in the sciences, so I would like to see more funds put into the alternative fuel research so we can get new technologies to move off of the oil dependence we have. Unfortunately I think that the oil companies have such pull with the President and his backers, I do not think he can move the money where I would like it to be. This means that I have a choice between someone who will definitely not research these possibilities or someone who might. While these are not the best options for me, I have to go with the person who might do it.
The next issue I have is with jobs, especially in the IT profession. Too many of my friends with degrees are struggling to find IT jobs because major companies are sending jobs overseas because they can find workers there who will work for much less. The loopholes that these companies are using make it harder for people such as myself, Rebekah, Jake, etc to find a good job after graduation. While a number of jobs are on the rise across the nation, IT jobs are not. Kerry has said that he will close these loopholes to at least even the playing field, while Bush has not said anything on the issue. Again, these are not the best options, but I have to go with the man who will at least try to help someone like myself and my friends.
These are the reasons I am voting for Kerry. I am well aware of the other issues in this election, but I feel the need to vote for what is best for me and the people I care about. These two main issues are why I am choosing Kerry over Bush. The other stuff out there is still important, I am not discounting that, but these two issues are what are important to me.
