Discourse Daniel P. Beckmann-Moderator of Letters 11.01.04-Long Island City, NY & Lucas County, OH

No matter what happens on election day, discourse certainly will not win. I will go much further than that blanket statement on this. At the immediate time that a person identifies themselves as proudly affiliated with any particular ‘partisan’ group when approaching another, signing up for the entire package deal that such an affiliation provides, the place of discourse has thus ended.

The lack of discourse, in and of itself, may not concern too many people, but it is my view that it is through discourse that postive change can actually occur. People from both of these sides can, in fact, enlist each other in common causes by discussing what they agree upon, instead of where they differ. These places of agreement, which can be found, it may appear to be on the surface what might just be the best grouping of things that should be done next.

One could go into the conspiracy theories as to why groups of people work this way… there are many, but I would like to focus on one. There is a great deal invested in the lack of discourse and the pairing up of sides. It simplifies things a great deal and no matter which side your on, the lack of discourse maintains the present system of governing with its actors like no other. These actors are indeed driving a great deal of bullshit anyway?–aren’t they?

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Democratic strategists argued that the flood of calls could only help their case. “You cannot remind people too often,” said Mr. Ruvolo, the Kerry state chairman. “I hope people start saying ‘Stop,’ because that will mean we’ve done our job.”-The New York Times

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So on this day before the election, as a registered voter in the state of Ohio, let me extend this message to all you self serving people who are calling me up, sending me postcards, hijacking my air waves and most offesively invade my property. How dare you righteous folk ring my door bell come to Ohio and assume that you do good there by your presence? Whether you come from the East Coast, West Coast, around the state or around the block, its not my fault that this electoral system gives me more power than actual breathing people than where you came from. Do you actually think that you coming to my house would help me to make up my mind so that you may get your way? Considering that if I wasn’t registered its too late to even get my vote…and even though I am registered by the 4th time you ring my door bell I am less likely to do what you say and more likely to realize why our wise forefather’s ensured a 2nd Amendment to protect my rights.

OUR DISCOURSE-Below you will find two points of view of the present day… Point of view #1
FACT: KERRY LIESFACT:Mr. Bush pushed for a limit on “pain and suffering,” or punitive, damages awarded in malpractice cases to $250,000.

FACT:n 2003, Bush signed the American Dream Downpayment Act, which provides $200 million a year in downpayment assistance to low-income buyers

FACT: st 2003, 1.5 million jobs have been created

FACT: real after-tax incomes are up 11% since December 2000

So. Being an education major and a future ESL teacher as well as a reading specialist in the schools of my beloved country I will begin by showing you what I like about Bush’s education plans.

FACT: under bush, federal funding for education has INCREASED 36% since 2001

No Child Left Behind is a good thing. Do I really need to justify why it’s good? How can something like that be questioned…

Apparently I do.

Literacy in America is a crucial issue (which is a big part of why I have decided to get certified as a literacy specialist in addition to the ESL stuff).

"It is estimated that $5 billion a year in taxes goes to support people receiving public assistance who axe unemployable due to illiteracy." (This is from the Laubach Literacy Action organization)

Anyway. Bush’s "Striving Readers Initiative" (in FY = 2005) is going to provide $100 million for the SRI which is going to give grants to schools that have middle/ high school students struggling / falling behind in reading. Higher funding for the Math/Science partnership program (authorized in NCLB) will provide xtra help to middle/high school students who are falling behind in math (FY 2005 will provide $120 million for this program). Bush’s FY2005 budget will provide an increase of $28 million to expand AP programs in poor schools. This should help more poor students go to college. Good idea, yes? I think so too. FY 2005 budget will also increase funding for the Pell Grant program, which gives grants to low-income undergrads. Bus also has plans to make college more affordable with student loan programs, reduced interest rates for student loans, etc. Bush is also making a point of having high schools be certain that their graduating students will have the skills necessary to survive in the ‘real world’ work force.

I am only mentioning some of Bush’s many excellent plans for improving education in the United States.

NICOLE DISCUSSES BUSH ABROAD

See now… Bush thinks it’s smart to take care of terrorists BEFORE they blow up our buildings! Hooray for brains! (loveee the t-shirt… "liberals are so open-minded their brains have fallen out!")

[[[[After the 1993 World Trade Center attack Kerry introduced a bill to cut the intelligence budget by $11.5 billion dollars (Bush's response: "His bill was so deeply irresponsible that he didn't have a single co-sponsor in the United States senate." Kerry has voted to cut the defense budget, cut intelligence, and has voted against the first Gulf War resolution back in 1991.]]]

Libya: Ok…they had a program to enrich uranium to use in nuclear weapons.

Bush and Britain engage in "secret negotiations"/ "quiet diplomacy" with Libya’s leader, Moammar Gadhafi. And the result my dear demorat friend = on december 19, 2003 libya announces it is going to dismantle its WMD and ballistic missle programs. Bush neutralized Libya, which was a threat. Yay!

Afghanistan:

Again, I am baffled that I have to explain why I need to spell out why I support Bush. So. As we all know Osama bin Laden masterminded the September 11 attack on the world trade center towers. Afghanistan was housing OBL. The Taliban wouldn’t hand over OBL to the US so the US (with support from great britain, etc) begins an aereal bombardment of Afghanistan. …..yes, innocent people were killed there just as THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT AMERICANS WERE KILLED IN NYC. Thanks to Bush (and others) the Taliban was ousted from power on November 17.

Iraq:

George Bush ACTED ON THE INFORMATION HE HAD and he was a strong leader and did what he had to do to protect our country. I like how Giuliani put it in his speech at the convention: "Frankly, I believed then and I believe now that Saddam Hussein, who supported global terrorism, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his own people, permitted horrific atrocities against women, and used weapons of mass destruction, was himself a weapon of mass destruction."

In my heart I believe if CLINTON or KERRY had done the EXACT SAME THINGS BUSH has done … all the little democrats would be cheering him on…yeah we got that bastard out of power, kerry/clinton’s awesome. I believe many democrats who spout antibush NONSENSE are mere sheep..baa…

Bush didn’t lie about anything. He based his actions on intelligence reports (not just US, ie britain too). The claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa has been shown to be TRUE, and I want to know where all the "KERRY LIES" protesters are because he DOES ("flip-flopper" is a euphanism for ‘lying asswipe useless standsfornothing HIPPIE with ZERO leadership ability whatsoever’, he didn’t even do well in his job in the SENATE, giving him VERY LITTLE experience ..which is not good when you are going to be the leader of the world superpower…he should stick to windsurfing and playing hooky from senate meetings!)

I also like the T-shirt "10/10 terrorists agree, anybody but bush" because since Bush has been in office 2/3 of Al Queda’s known leaders have been captured or killed, as well as their buddies in Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, Thailand, etc.

NICOLE DISCUSSES BUSH’S ECONOMY:

Bush’s tax policies = GOOD. He wants to make tax relief permanent. He wants to reduce frivolous lawsuits (Edwards sucks by the way), he wants class action lawsuit reforms…

the economy has shown job gains EACH MONTh for each of the last 11 months. There have been 1.5 million jobs created since August 2003. Post-tax incomes are up by ten percent since december 2002; national home ownership rate is at it’s absolute highest in teh second quarter of 2004 at 69.2%.

Bush is also going to help small businesses ie let them band together so they can get more affordable health care for employees through association health plans. He is also working to strengthen overtime protection

HEALTHCARE:

He HAS established tax-free health savings accounts so americans can own and control their own health care; he is GOING to strengthen competition between generic and brand-name drugs (which will ultimately save Americans more than $35 billion in drug costs over the next ten years).

Ok i am getting tired now. There is more I could talk about. For example, I think who you marry says something about you. And Kerry’s wife… from what I have seen and read… has zero class. By the way, did you all know she was registered as a Republican her whole voting life until last year? HMM. She seems like an embarrassment to me. Oh, and … I forgot where I read this wonderful line about how John Kerry is making the main theme of his campaign his SERVICE IN A WAR HE IS BEST KNOWN FOR OPPOSING. I think his emphasis on vietnam is a JOKE. I think as the leader of the world’s superpower he would SUCK, I think he stands for NOTHING and i agree with bush’s statement.. "my opponent has very strong views, they just don’t last very long"

Oh, and I could go on for a while too about Michael (NO) MOORE (LIES PLEASE ,FATTY!) has brainwashed so many Americans… by the way, we all know how MM has repeatedly said how Americans are the stupidest, most ignorant people in the world? Fighting for the poor people so he can buy a 3 million dollar manhatten apartment, doctoring speeches, twisting facts manipulating everything… creating the oh so respectable genre of film : the crockumentary!

But that would take about … 3 hours more of my time. And I have spent enough time on this.

You shouldn’t write back any pro kerry anti bush stuff because i won’t read it… i like to go to official sources for this kind of thing….also.., because unlike you I haven’t requested that you defend your beliefs…
Point of view #2
i provided the protest, and you provided the convention: petty, reactionary, contrived. your only political value seems to be the presence of more than one perspective, with no mechanism for filtering out the insubstantial. when you speak seriously (rather than going for the beckmannesque evasions and undercuts) your own opinions are much more nuanced than those of this person. i know you’d rather facilitate the actions of others than act yourself, but don’t shirk the slight responsibilities that come even with that. what you attached has done nothing to create understanding between the two sides. this person is automatic, and can have no effect on the discussion but to distance the parties from each other. and to the liberals (i know the word is hard on your delicate, label-averse ears) who read it, just more evidence that the people with which they would seek agreement are capable only of knee-jerk anger and cheap attacks. what better evidence that the streets and the grassroots are vital to the preservation of dissenting opinions?but what’s the point? you’re attendant to a faith, and are as unwilling to rethink it as any fundamentalist. your architecture of ideological preservation is as staunch as that of the person whose views you endorsed. and the ten minutes spent writing this to you were probably just as wasted as if i had written to her i provided the protest, and you provided the convention: petty, reactionary, contrived. your only political value seems to be the presence of more than one perspective, with no mechanism for filtering out the insubstantial. when you speak seriously (rather than going for the beckmannesque evasions and undercuts) your own opinions are much more nuanced than those of this person. i know you’d rather facilitate the actions of others than act yourself, but don’t shirk the slight responsibilities that come even with that. what you attached has done nothing to create understanding between the two sides. this person is automatic, and can have no effect on the discussion but to distance the parties from each other. and to the liberals (i know the word is hard on your delicate, label-averse ears) who read it, just more evidence that the people with which they would seek agreement are capable only of knee-jerk anger and cheap attacks. what better evidence that the streets and the grassroots are vital to the preservation of dissenting opinions?