Brent's artical in BTN

THIS WAS BRENT'S ARTICAL THAT WAS PRINTED IN BEECHTREE NEWS




Brent Young: …indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all

Americans need to come together without political party divisions. While we as individuals may have different political ideals, we as Americans all agree that the citizens of this country should have a voice in the policy debates that directly affect our lives.The two Parties hold us hostage by dividing the people with a Left/Right ideology. By letting the two-party system keep us at odds with one another, they know that “divided we fall”.The 2000 Presidential elections brought this into sharp focus for me. I looked at the two candidates that were selected and thought – Are these two men really the best choices to lead our country that we can produce from more than 300 million people? They seemed like two complete yahoos! I became very disenchanted with politics.
I thought about it for a long time, and did a lot of reading and studying. Finally I realized that each party saw them as the “most electable” that they had to offer.There were most certainly better choices on both sides, but they had not proved themselves to be dependable party robots.Anyone who continually and constantly toes the party line just accepts what they are told to think. Most people vote for the candidate that is the “least of 2 evils,” this is not the process that our founding fathers envisioned for us to choose a leader for our country.Many times people agree more with a 3rd party candidate but they don’t want to “throw their vote away” on a candidate that has no chance of winning. The only way someone has no chance is when the two main parties convince or coerce the voter into thinking that you should hate the other guy enough to vote for their guy. As long as they can keep us divided they will always pass control back and forth, while each party wants the power they also understand that they have more control over the voters while they remain only two parties. Three or four strong political parties would divide the votes too much for consistent control.I don’t think that anyone can agree with either party 100% of the time. If they do they cannot be thinking for themselves but just adopting the party line, which is exactly what they need to maintain the status quo. This is how they create “voter sheep” who just vote for the party without thought or reasoning.If a significant number of voters could come together and support a 3rd party “We the People” would regain control of our country. Then the political parties whether it is 2, 3 or 4 parties in the end would have to offer a candidate that people really want to vote for instead of the “least of 2 evils”.In the 2004 Presidential elections almost everyone that I know who voted for George W. Bush really only voted against John Kerry. In the 2008 Presidential election the Barrack Obama camp along with the media and did such a good job connecting John McCain to Bush that many voters only voted for Obama because they didn’t want “4 more years of Bush.”The Tea Party Movement is the perfect opportunity for us to come together as citizens. It is not a Democrat or Republican event. The Tea Party is a very large tent and all are welcome! The proof is the fact that with all the rallies all across the nation there has not been any violence at any of the events. I have attended several rallies and no one has ever asked me with which party I am registered to vote.The Tea Party issues are very general, such as out of control spending, respect for the Constitution, free speech and the citizen having a voice in the policy debates being the predominate issues.My hope is “We the People” can come together and tell D.C. that we are tired of politics as usual. We are not red states or blue states, we are Americans, and this is our country. Please consider joining the other Patriots at a Tea Party in your area.
God Bless America!
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Contributor Bio: Brent Young lives in Sugar Grove with wife Lisa. They own Sugar Grove Photography. They have never been politically active but always interested. The Tea Party Movement gave them the opportunity to do more than just sit on the couch and yell at the TV.

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Socialism

Many in the Country are currently concerned that President Obama is leading us toward Socialism. There are so many people on the Polls, blogs and forums that I read that are in favor of Socialism. It would be nice if there were no hungry or homeless people in America. But it is naive to think that under Socialism we will ALL be equal. The rich and powerful, will still be rich and powerful. George Soros, one of the richest men in America, backed Obama during his campaign for President. Now, our Government has given BILLIONS of our tax payers dollars to Brazil for them to drill for oil off of their shores, even though we can't drill off of our own shores. George Soros is invested in the oil company that will drill in Brazil and he will become a much, much richer man because of this. Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric and its sister company MSNBC, heavily supported Obama on his TV station MSNBC during the campaign and still today, will not show any of the corruption currently being uncovered in Obama's administration. Now, he has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve. And GE has been given the contract for producing the Wind Turbines. Immelt will become a much richer man as well, while the people of this Country are losing their jobs and homes everyday. It is always going to be this way with the, "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." I don't care if it is a Democrat or Republican. It will be people like you and I that will be giving things up for those less fortunate. Don't get me wrong, I am all for helping people, but people have to be willing to help themselves. I know there are plenty of able bodied people that get on disability, welfare, food stamps, WIC, and medical cards that never plan to do any better. They want to live off of these programs rather than work. They don't care that it is those people who are WORKING paying in taxes that support them. The whole system is messed up. My 89 year old Grandpa who worked from the time he was 9 to 65, and can barely walk, is not eligible to receive ANY Government assistance because his house is paid for. But I know of people living off of the Government that take 2 vacations to Florida a year, eat and dress better than we do. There are couples that will not get married even though they live together and have children, because they will lose their Government funds. The Government encourages people to not try, and not marry by giving them this assistance, while those that do try and those that worked their whole lives can not receive any help. It is like Chris Gardner, the man that the movie "Pursuit of Happiness" was about said, "Give me a hand up, not a hand out", all he wanted was a job. He is a very wealthy man today. He said, had he of gotten on welfare that he probably would have never tried to do any better. I look at it like this, if we are headed for Socialism, then why should we even encourage our children to try in school? I raised my children to do their very best, to set goals and achieve them. And I am very proud of them both. Brittany went to school for 13 years (counting Kindergarten) and had straight A's with the exception of one B, and that was in "Chorus" her freshman year. She received too many awards to mention, but I was most proud of her winning the "Pre Calculus" award her Junior year and "Calculus" award her Senior year. She graduated high school "Class Salutatorian" with a GPA of 3.98. She recently graduated College "Magna Cum Laude" with a GPA of 3.74. She received some good scholarships that almost paid for her Education in full, but what was her responsibility, she paid for on her own as she went, by working sometimes 50 hours a week. She just finished her "Internship" that cost her $1,750.00 out of her own pocket, and had to work for 3 months, 40 hours a week for free to complete the Internship. She graduated completely debt free, when many of her friends owe as much as $40,000.00 in Student Loans. I don't want to see her work so hard to achieve her goals, just to have the Government take it away from her to give it to someone who didn't try, made bad grades, dropped out of school and won't work.

Health Care Debate

There currently is a huge debate going on over Health Care. I feel somewhat concerned and torn over it. Our Health Care expenses are through the roof, and we get ours through Brent's employer. But after our portion is taken out of his paycheck and our monthly prescriptions are filled our monthly cost is over $400.00. Because of Diabetes, high blood pressure and my ear problems it would be hard for us to get on a different plan because of preexisting conditions. I am very concerned for our Daughter who will no longer be eligible to stay on our plan after the first of the year because she graduated college in May. And I don't know how she will afford a plan if she can get one. She recently had a tumor removed from her parathyroid gland and will fall in the preexisting condition category. But my concern with the Government run plan is a fear of the loss of Doctors. I know of several people that work for Dr's that say their Dr will retire if the Gov plan passes. Then these people will lose their jobs. I heard that over 50,000 people in the Medical field will lose their jobs if the Gov plan passes. My Daughter will most likely be one of them. Then she will have no Health Ins or JOB. Obama said that if you are happy with your Dr, then you can keep your Dr. Well I won't, because I spoke with my ear Dr last Thursday and he said that he will most likely quit practicing, or go into private practice and only see patients with good Ins or money to pay cash for his services. He will not participate in the Gov-run plan. He said that it would not be worth his time, for what little the Government will pay him. If the Gov run passes then most all Business will push their employees off on it, because it will be cheaper for them to pay the Governments fine than to pay for their employees to have Health Insurance. So only people with money or good Ins will get a good Doctor. People on the Gov-run plan will most likely wait months to see a Dr that will take them, then get a band aid or an aspirin and sent home. Plus I am sure that our taxes will go up in order to pay for it. They say they won't, but how are they going to pay the 1.6 trillion dollar price tag for it? Plus the Senior Citizens will suffer because Medicare will be cut 500billion dollars to help pay for it. Which will leave the elderly to pay even more out of their own pockets or have to take out supplemental plans to help pay the difference. I want everyone to have Health care but not at the expense of others. I think that Sara Palin was a little extreme when she said that there will be "Death Panels". But Obama said himself that to cut down on cost, there will be a panel of people who will decide whether or not you need to have a test run. If they decide "not" and you should have had the test run, get sick and die, then it would be a "Death Panel". And if it is going to cut down on health care expenses to have this "panel" decide whether or not to allow your test to be run, then just how much is it going to cost to pay these thousands of people on the "panels" who are making these decisions?