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March 8th, 2005 A Declaration - Grrr. Double grrr. The purpose of the Senate originally was to provide the individual states a voice in the governance of the nation, while the purpose of the House was to provide localities a voice. With the 17th amendment we gave the localities two types of representation in the Legislature. The issue of John McCain's representation of Arizona, either of a locality or the state as a whole, is now in question. To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Representative or officer of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to remove the officer from the post, and to emplace a new officer, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness, and the safety and security of their rights. I have contacted Sen. McCain a number of times on various issues, along with Sen. Kyl and Rep. Grijalva. Only McCain has ignored my requests for his stance on various issues before the public. McCain voted against cloture on the Defense of Marriage Amendment the last time it came around for a vote in the Senate - in other words, he voted against bringing it up for ratification. McCain has commented derogatively against ministers during his campaign for President in 2000. In many other respects his has demonstrated an unwillingness to represent fairly the people of the state of Arizona, even to go as far as restricting their ability to contribute to political causes which they deem right and proper for advocating their own positions. To the extent that he has sought to restrain the citizenry he has, if reports are to be believed, sought to expand his own capability to raise funds and increase his own political influence for his own political causes. This is duplicitous at best, hypocritical at the worst. Yet we have continued to return him to the Senate, even to the extent of giving him a 60% majority in the most recent election. I feel like a fool for voting for him, as one taken in a fraud. Who will stand up and oppose him in the next senatorial election? I will support a challenger in the Republican primary for his seat, for he no longer represents the views I hold.
The other students told me to stop pointing at the TV, because my hand was in the way and they wanted to watch the video. We had come to Tucson the month before for Christmas with my paternal grandmother. We stopped in Flandreau Planetarium at the U of A, for I had taken to astronomy because of all the Halley's Comet excitement. My parents had purchased a copy of the January 1986 Odyssey, an astronomy for kids magazine. In the back was a little blurb about the first teacher in space being launched in January. I read through that magazine and begged my parents for a subscription, to which they finally relented nine months later. The first issue was September 1986, which had the kid-level summary of the accident. I somehow managed to keep that subscription going with my parents until about 1990 or so, when they were sold to a different publisher and expanded in scope to a general science magazine for kids. Challenger was my first experience with unexpected death that I can remember. Maybe that's why most people my age remember it so well. |
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This site is copyright 2001-2005 by Matthew Maynard. All rights reserved. All your trademarks, copyrights, insignia, and other distinguishing characteristics are belong to you. Sharks in suits make for good joke material. Don't leave a mess on your way out. Links to external websites are valid at the time of article authoring and may decay as time goes by. But we'll always have Paris. The opinions on this site are those of their author and do not represent anyone else's views. That is, unless and until you agree with them, at which point they become yours as well. Opinions expressed in the comments belong to the comment poster and may be edited for content. Play nice with others, since you want them to play nice with you. |
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Do
You Remember Where You Were? - Everyone my age does. It was our
first Kennedy Moment, or Pearl Harbor Moment, or Ft. Sumter moment,
depending on the scope of your American history knowledge. Third
grade classroom, Jordan Elementary, Chandler, AZ. About 10 in the
morning. I was sitting in a group around the table where the teacher
did the reading & comprehension lessons for the students "behind" in
their reading. One of the other teachers came in and said the
shuttle had blown up. Of course, since a teacher had been on board,
the school was the place to be, since every teacher with a TV tuned
in to see the news. Ours was no different, and we soon were all
watching CBS News (oh, how the times have changed!) as they replayed
over and over again the launch and immolation. I was in the front
row of about 30 eight and nine year olds, about a foot in front of
the TV. Strangely, I was the only one to notice and point out the
small tongue of flame as it came out of the SRB and licked the
orange tank to death.
