Coffee Talk

What? Elections are happening this year?? Well thanks to Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 I've been on top of things! I was devastated when Stephen Colbert withdrew from the race, but life must go on. So! Obviously, being the young, idealistic invididual that I am I suppose I am slated to vote for Obama. Well over the course of the past few months, on my way to the coffee pot, I've had several long conversations with an older colleague of mine. He's staunchly Republican, but was not always that way back in the 70's when he dabbled in things...

So he chides me, usually just teasing me, for the views I hold and my opinions on what the government is doing or should be doing in the future. He says I'm idealistic, and that's not a bad thing.* We've talked about everything from abortion to Afghanistan to Cambodia to Africa to education to healthcare to the Middle East to the Iraq War to bailouts to Vietnam to the economy. I guess we've touched on a bit of everything. He's brought up very interesting points and opened my mind to different views that I probably would not have thought of before. It's almost made me a tad more cynical as well. Should I vote third party just to protest? Do I really think either of the candidates will follow through with what they've promised, or will they just be controlled by their campaign contributors? Will Obama really spend dollar for dollar, and how will he decrease taxes with all of the new programs he's wanting to implement? What will the world come to think of America if, heaven forbid, Sarah Palin ever became President???
(ohh, I don't know...pew pew pew)

Well the point of this blog is really just to express how much I've enjoyed my coffee talk with him. Not only did it tell me more about him and what he's done and where he's been in the past (which I probably wouldn't have known cause he keeps to himself quite a bit), but it has kept me in check and made me think of the whole picture, what and how might circumstances change my views in the future. And that I'm just not as bright and well-read as I thought I was. Which isn't really breaking news to me, but it always feels good to have it handed to you every now and then. It's made me think mostly of how much I want government to be involved and where it should be involved, and lots of other things too, of course. And I haven't really come to a conclusion. Which can only lead me to my first and only tried and true - I am not leading toward one party or another. I hope to and should always vote on the issues.

*Of course when the whole bailout happened he casually said that I was a socialist because of the thoughts and views I shared on what should/could happen (and this is coming from an NPR/BBC junkie who majored in Biology and is married to a finance major - what do I know??).