Why I tend being an independent

I grew up in Chicago, was there in the park for the convention of 1968. My old man didn't want me there, but understood why I had to be.

I was also in Chicago when a few years before that Martin Luther King was doing some housing marches and one of them was down Fullerton Avenue in our very Catholic, very Polish, and very white neighborhood.

In the days leading up to the march, our neighbors and their children, the guys I hung with and played pickup ball games with, could be heard mumbling the typical racist remarks. "What's that n--ger think he's doing?" "Let's go throw rocks at that n--ger and all his n--ger friends."

My Dad took me aside. I think he did the same with my two brothers. He told me in no uncertain terms that if I went anywhere near Fullerton Avenue, the barber strop he had hanging in the closet would be used not to hone any razor, but would definitely hone my bottom. He never took that strop out of the closet, but we all knew it was there.

He told me, "The man has a right to walk where he wants, to say what he feels."

It was the first time in my life, in that time, in that neighborhood, that I had ever heard a black man referred to as a man and not the pejorative term. I guess I never really listened to my old man before. I thought he was just like all the other yahoos in the neighborhood. Man, was I ever wrong.

My old man taught me tolerance before it was chic. He taught me the value of free expression before I read the opinions of Oliver Wendell Holmes and others. He taught me to think for myself and not let my friends, or neighbors, or relatives, or anybody change what I know is right and good in my heart and soul and mind.

I like to think that my thoughts and beliefs and political leanings are a product of my own making, my own education, things I have seen and experienced over the years. And in part those things have made me an independent. Mostly, though, it was my upbringing, my old man. And maybe a barber strop that was never used.

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This and other pieces also appear at the blog site of the Democratic Party. To read any comments that people have made about this brief essay, or to read other pieces please visit there.

I don't like Hillary

Over at the DNC site, someone named Jim in a recent post asked for unfiltered attacks on Hillary, which he later tempered by asking that I, and others, give reasons why Mrs. Clinton should not be President.

I apologize for not answering sooner, but, as you know, life got in the way of this less weighty endeavor. And the time away gave me a chance to mull over my thoughts before replying blithely.

Mrs. Clinton is definitely qualified to be President. She, as does any of the candidates, meets the Constitutional requirements. She has served as a Senator for more than one term. She has introduced and cosponsored legislation which she believes is for the betterment of the country. She is no more, nor less, "qualified" than any of the other candidates. They all have a record of public service and life experiences on which to draw. So, Mrs. Clinton is qualified.

But, I will not vote for her.

Some have touted her trips to foreign countries as first lady. This, some say, make her eminently qualified on foreign policy. Uh, she was hardly anything more than a tourist on those trips. As far as I, or the American taxpayers, know she had no policy making role on any of them.

No, I will not vote for her.

At the most recent debate among the current Democratic candidates, she chided Mr. Obama as being naive for suggesting that he would meet with leaders of countries that right now are considered as problems, such as North Korea. She said something to the effect that such meetings could be used for propaganda purposes by such countries. Isn't that exactly what the Bush administration said when the Speaker of the House made an overseas visit to an unfriendly country? And didn't Mrs. Clinton say she would open diplomatic conversations with these same countries back in April? Sounds like talking out of both sides of her mouth to me.

Nope. She ain't getting my vote.

A recent poll of registered voters, both Democratic and Republican showed that 52 percent of them won't consider voting for Mrs. Clinton.

Seems to me that a lot of other people ain't voting for her either.

When her husband was running for President he made much of the fact that we would be getting a twofer deal. So, I think I am safe in assuming that much of what he did can also attributed to her then, and now. I was not a big Bubba supporter. During his presidency, Nat Hentoff, a respected writer and expert on the Bill of Rights, called Clinton a "serial violator of the Constitution" and referred to him as the worst President in history for the Bill of Rights. Given his penchant for attacking Bush regarding Constitutional violations, I would think that Hentoff has probably revised that assessment and moved Bill down to number 2 on the list of worst ever. Still, I find it ironic that those who rightly decry what Bush is doing to the Constitution never acknowledge that the guy before him was engaging in the evisceration of our rights, too. I simply do not trust Hillary to do the right thing regarding civil liberties. And I don't think she will do a thing to correct the mistakes of her husband or the current President.

Much has also been said about economic growth during the Clinton terms. I teach. The national average salary for teachers doubled during the Reagan years. By the NEA's own statistics, teacher salaries during the Clinton years remained stagnant. So from a personal economic standpoint, I don't see anything that Hillary has proposed that will do much for me, and if we're honest, that is what any voter really considers when pulling that lever.

Almost all politicians get their money to run from donors with some type of special interest. Hillary is no different. She is getting larger donations from drug companies and the health care industry. They will expect her to back their interests, and I suspect that she will. She is not stupid and will do what is necessary to keep the money rolling in to her coffers.

In short, I do not like her. There. I've said it. I think she will be bad for the country, bad for the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

I most definitely will not vote for her.

Somewhere in the comments in Jim's original post, some one said "I have no tolerance for independents..." I think that is a mistake. Yes, any election is about winning it. But recent elections have been decided by independent voters, not partisan ones. Members of the Democratic party will vote for their candidate, pretty much regardless of who it is. Members of the GOP will do the same. But the independent voters will have to be convinced about who to support and turn out for. Right now, for me, it ain't Hillary and won't be.

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This and other pieces also appear at the blog site of the Democratic Party. To read any comments that people have made about this brief essay, or to read other pieces please visit there.