Where do you stand? By Eric Smith

Things in this country have gone way past party or ideology. They have gone way past the point where it is correct and logical to assign equal blame in determining the level of fault for our nation's ills. It is no longer about Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative, Left Wing or Right Wing. The issues that define our times has come down to a simple question of what we as individuals define as right or wrong.

We are as President John F. Kennedy said about the question of Civil Rights on the night of June 11, 1963 "confronted with a moral issue; as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the Constitution." This issue gets to the heart of who you are as an individual and what you want us to be as a nation. To answer these questions you must ask yourself the following:

1) Do you think it is acceptable for American citizens to their right to to vote impeded, infringed upon, or denied outright because of the color of their skin or because one major political party thinks they vote the "wrong way" and recognizes that they can no longer win elections on the issues and thus feel that the only way to win future elections is to prevent those who vote against them because of the issues and policies they support from voting at all?

2) Do you regard a woman as a full & equal human being in relation to a man and if so how can you support policies which diminish her humanity by supporting policies which deny her the final say in matters pertaining to her personal health, her reproductive rights, her earning equal pay for equal work, and requiring her to buy what amounts to rape insurance (Ohio) so she can pay to abort an unwanted pregnancy caused by rape?

3) Do you think the hungry should be able to eat and if so how can you support policies which deny the most needy & vulnerable among us the means to acquire life sustaining food?

4) Do you believe that people have a right to good health and if so why do we seek to deny those who are most sick & vulnerable easier access to healthcare?

5) Do you believe in fairness and if so why do you consistently support policies which force the have nots to sacrifice so as to prevent the haves from having to pay more? In other words do you think it is fair to have a system that defines the words handout & welfare as ones that means giving to those in need rather than to those who need not?

These are questions that only you as an individual can answer but how you answer them will determine how you are remembered as an individual far more than your words alone for they will define for future generations who and what you were as a person. Again this is ultimately neither about party nor politics; it is about principles; yours. It is about the type of human being you are today and it is also about the kind of person you would like to be remembered as. No one can answer these questions but you for in the end it is you and you alone who must decide just what type of human being you are.