I just wanted to comment on yesterday’s election. I am glad that for once I bothered research the primaries before voting—that is what everyone ought to do. Of course, I could not, on such short notice do all the research in local news before voting. I am ashamed I do not at least read the Wichita Eagle for that. However, I got on-line and read up on the different candidates, and found one I particularly liked on the Democratic slate. I found Mark Holland. I like him firstly for personal reasons: he said that he believed in service, had been a pastor, was a Kansas native four generations back, and was against extremism in politics. There is nothing there not to like, as far as I am concerned.
Next he talked about the importance of the economy—a big issue these days—public education—another big issue—and healthcare. He said he was basically pro-choice, and though I am ambivalent on the issue I am basically okay with that. I am pleased that along with these hot-button issues he also said that he mentioned both the environment and the fact that environmental concerns could be good for the environment. I am glad that he says there is no widespread fraud in the American voting system: I believe it is the truth. I am glad that when he talks about history he balances “living in the greatest state, in the greatest nation in the world” with “honest history about how far we have come and where we fall short.”
I agree with him about campaign finance laws needing reformed.
I also basically agree that we need to “stop criminalizing social issues.” I am reminded of a story Mr. Chacko, a college professor, told us in class once. He said that once when he was visiting some cousins he smoked a cigarette secretly with a few of the younger members of the family. Then he said that his aunt, who saw them, walked all the way to his home village to tell his mother. He was in big trouble because of that. He has never smoked a cigarette since. We need to have a common understanding of right and wrong as a culture that goes beyond law and involves social norms which are enforced by the approval and disapproval of our peers. It is not possible, I don’t think, to outlaw adultery. It is possible to create an attitude in the people that it is wrong so that people think twice before doing it. I don’t know if that is what Mark Holland meant, but it is what I took from what he said.