Be careful who you vote for?

I guess you would call my mood thoughtful today. Generally, when I work the early day shift, which requires the 4am wake-up, thoughts, ideas and dreams rattle around the grey matter. Bear with me while I use this forum to dump out the thoughts and free up my human RAM for the day:

The first this that struck me this morning was an e-mail my folks forwarded to me. I'm not much on forwarding e-mails and this one certainly will find it's way to the trash folder. It was a politically motivated retelling of the old ant and grasshopper story - the ant saving for winter while the grasshopper laughs. Once winter hits, the ant is left laughing last. In an effort to twist people's beliefs about one particular political party, this retelling had the grasshopper in court, suing the ant with several Presidential hopefuls, politicians and social activists chiming in to help the grasshopper get a leg up. The reader is led to believe that the grasshopper is a no-good drain on society and is only alive because he is suckling at the Government teat. At the end of the day, the grasshopper is taken care of, only to continue to sit on his ass and toke at the crack pipe. The message: BE CAREFUL WHO YOU VOTE FOR!

Now I'm not one to read too much into things or get upset at a silly e-mail, however this struck a chord with me. To retell an old story in an effort to scare people, nay, anger people to the point where they choose one political party over the other is laughable, at best. Scare politics worked four years ago, but the electorate certainly showed how sick and tired they are of this in 2006. Rather than show why one candidate or political party is better than the other, they revert to the old dirty political tricks, all the while playing "watch the puppet" with the American people - look over here, while I really screw you over there.

The other thing that hit me were the extreme racial undertones of the message. One of the lines had Kermit the Frog with the grasshopper singing, "It ain't easy being green" on a talk show. I'm sure you can figure that one out for yourselves, so I won't go through the trouble. Since it's all thinly-veiled in humor, I'm sure the response to my outrage will be, "settle down - it's only a joke". More smoke and mirrors to blame me for my thoughtfulness rather than the author for their attempt to tear people down for their political beliefs.

The message I can agree with is "be careful who you vote for".

Let us never forget our children are dying in Iraq and who got us there and under what false pretenses.

Let us never forget who's plan it is to remain their indefinitely, fighting someone else's civil war.

Let us never forget who believes that you, an American citizen, can be spied on in the name of your safety.

Let us never forget who believes that safety trumps all guarantees under the Consitution.

Let us never forget who puts the profits of corporations over the basic rights of working men and women in this country.

Yes indeed, be careful who you vote for.