The Sanborns

Yesterday was the 5th of November. Thanks to Gray, I’m a big fan of the movie “V for Vendetta” and the big showdown in that movie occurs on the 5th of November. There has been a lot of talk lately about politics and health care and I’m sure that the majority do not care that much about my opinion, but seeing as how I never post political opinions, I figured I should give it a try for NaBoPoMo.

Let me start off by saying that I grew up in a Christian, Democratic family. My parents raised me as a Southern Baptist but politically they always voted Democrat for the majority of elections. I think the only time my mom voted Republican was when Bush was reelected and that was simply because of her stance on abortion. Now, I will say that I did vote the same as her in that election, but now that I am five years older, I realize that while moral issues are important, I shouldn’t vote based only on them.

I would consider myself Libertarian, a mixture of Republican and Democrat. I am against a big government in certain areas, but would appreciate them being around for other issues. Every time I take the political compass quizzes, however, it always puts me as a Left Authoritarian. Yeah, the same category they put Hitler in. I promise I don’t want a dictatorship.

So my stance on certain issues? Well, I’m not a huge fan of guns, but I think that if people take and pass tests on how to properly use them, that’s fine. I grew up in the country and it made me feel safer knowing my daddy had a shotgun hanging in his closet. It was never loaded, and I never felt the urge to experiment. This is coming from a kid who grew up with the Nintendo video games like Duck Hunt and Street Fighter.

Universal health care is a HUGE issue right now and honestly, I wouldn’t mind if it passed. I’ve lived the majority of my life with crappy insurance that we paid a ton of money for. Insurance companies have been ripping people off for years and our system is corrupt. It’s a cycle that will keep going unless we demand reform of some kind. I am for a plan where everyone in the nation has the opportunity to buy into a low cost insurance plan that gives everyone access to good benefits. People could keep their same insurance if they wanted to, but there are so many of us who can’t afford high costs for insurance that doesn’t even pay for half of what you need! When I left BCBST in August, I discovered that they slowly cut off paying for my birth control. I started off paying $45 for birth control two years ago and then it went up in $5 increments every few months. When I left I was paying $60 a month. This past month I told them not to bill my insurance because my new one doesn’t paying for prescriptions like that and guess what, it was only $45. I feel so ripped off. I know a lot of people have opinions about the health care debate. As someone who wants to work in that field, I really feel as though the politicians should be consulting with hospitals to see how to lower costs for everyone.

Finally, the two hot topics are abortion and gay marriage. I’m not going to get too into those because my opinions are kind of conflicted. I can see each issue from a legal point of view and from a moral point of view. My morals tells me both issues are wrong, but my legal side says that everyone should have the right to the legal rights marriage gives couples. I have my own idea for how we should handle the gay marriage debate, but of course, it wouldn’t make everyone happy, nothing ever will. Let’s just say that I disagree with the lifestyle gay marriage supports, but I don’t think the government should be able to withhold legal benefits from them. It’s a civil rights issue. As far as abortion, let’s say I’m a pro-choicer who would choose pro-life. If given the choice, I would not have an abortion myself under probably 99% of the options. I say this because the 1% represents the fact that I’ve never been put in that situation and have no idea how I would honestly decide things. As far the legal side of things… I’ve learned (thanks to Feminism class) that the abortion procedure is used a lot for miscarriages. It has saved thousands of women’s lives to be able to extract the dead baby from their bodies when their bodies wouldn’t be able to get rid of it themselves. Because of research for abortions, they’ve made it as safe as possible. I’ve known women who have had to have this procedure done because of a miscarriage and I’m thankful we knew enough to do it safely. Once again, it’s a rights issue, should the government be able to tell me what to do with my body? Is abortion murder? I don’t have answers to these questions, but I believe it is not up for me to decide that for another woman. I can only decide for myself, and that’s hard enough as it is!

I didn’t intend for today to be so opinionated, and I hope no one takes offense to anything I’ve said. I’m just trying to present some positiveness that can come from these issues because so often we focus on the negative.

We’re in Memphis for the week. Since Gray and I both have three weeks of nothing before school starts back, we thought it was be a great opportunity to visit with our families since the summer has been kind of dead in that category.

It’s definitely been an adventure so far. We walked three miles at Shelby Farms and did a drive by of Graceland. We also had a nasty run in at a McDonald’s downtown that had disgusting bathrooms. I’m sure you realize we didn’t stay there to get ice cream.

I’ve been reading the Sookie Stackhouse series and I’m almost finished with book one and luckily brought book two with me (Thanks Trina!). I’ve also started watching Lost season one and although I’m not addicted, I can see how people get obsessed with the show.

Today Gray and I are hopefully going to the zoo so my next post will hopefully be more appealing to read.

On a side note, what do you think about the health care reform? I think a lot of people are not reading for themselves and are judging it based on the misrepresentation of facts by others. I’m not sure exactly what I think about President Obama’s plan, but I do agree that the health care industry needs reform of some kind.

Last night, history was made in our country. We’ve elected our first bi-racial President.

However, I don’t feel it is necessary to focus on something that is so controversial right now among my friends.

Instead, I invite you to remember the 5th of November. Did anyone every see V for Vendetta? The movie is amazing and it shows what happens when a government becomes too corrupt.

Anyway, I wanted today to be a happy day, but it seems like that is impossible if you are bitter. I am not bitter, because regardless of the outcome, I know this is God’s plan. How am I so sure? Well, God can do anything, no matter what the situation is. He has a plan for Obama being President, and will use that for the greater good.

I think it’s best summed up by this John Piper video:

Today is of great importance for the United States. Tonight we will know who are next leader is (unless something screws up).

I voted in early voting so I could relax today. I’ve been very particular about sharing who I voted for because people will disagree with me no matter who it is.

The important thing in voting is being well-informed and making your own decision. This Sunday at church they handed out booklets with facts in them. We don’t need to be making a decision on anything BUT the facts. You should be choosing a candidate based upon how they vote and have voted, not what they say they will do. If McCain constantly declares he is pro-life but never votes that way, how can you trust him? I’m not saying he does that, it’s just an example.

I would also like you to know that I’m not ashamed or afraid of who I voted for, but I’m realizing voting is a private, personal matter to me. I am an Independent who leans Libertarian. I care about the issues and who will make a difference.

So, if you haven’t voted, go Vote because otherwise, you’re mocking what our soldiers fight so hard for and the reason our founding leaders left England. They wanted to be independent and have rights. You may think voting does no good, well not voting at all is worse. That’s my opinion.

So, history will be made tonight with the first black President or the first female Vice President.

I know I said I wasn’t posting again until November, but there were some interesting tidbits from our lives that I forgot to share with you.

Friday after Gray got off work I gave him two options. We could either go vote first or go pick up my birth control prescription first. We ended up voting first.

Early voting was pretty much what I remembered it to be, except now that I live in a big(ish) city, we had to actually wait in line to vote. I think we waited ten minutes, maybe less.

When it was my turn, I handed my voter’s registration card to the kind lady. She made me sign some forms, probably stating that I had voted and could not again, and asked me if I still lived at the address of my card.

I was handed a sheet of paper and was told to go stand at the red line. I stood at the red line for about .03 seconds and then a very old man led me over to my voting booth where he explained the process in about thirty seconds. A minute later I had voted and was waiting for Gray in the hallway.

Gray experienced his first election and seemed satisfied. I’m sure he’d love to give you a blog on politics, but that would take time, which he doesn’t have. I, on the other hand, discovered together that my views are Socialist Libertarian/Authoritarian.

After voting, I debated back and forth on whether or not to go to the haunted house. After probably thirty minutes, I gave in and we headed to Nashville.

While I used a port-a-potty, Gray grinned at a clown with a noise gun. The noise gun went off right next to me. I’ll let you guess how I got so lucky.

We waited in line for a little while, behind a bunch of pre-teens and their parents. They had just gotten back from Hooters and were trying to convince their five year old brother to go on. He actually did go through the entire haunted house, we were right behind him.

Behind us were three teenagers, probably seniors in high school, who kept dropping the f-bomb and freaking out about the extra characters outside (clown, Jason, Michael, etc).

Overall, the experience was worth the money, and I’m beginning to feel an end coming to my feeding craving for all things Halloween related. I’ve been renting the A Nightmare on Elm street series through Netflix and I’ll be moving on to the Friday the 13th series next. I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere for Halloween, because this year it just isn’t practical to waste gas and try to come up with a costume.

Gray and I arrived at my parent’s house yesterday and have been enjoying the weather and relaxation since. We also made a few very important wedding phone calls. My pianist is actually my cousin, a professional piano player, and this is what we worked out for the wedding:  

• Prelude (a mixture of classical music and hymns)
• Seating of the grandparents: “You Raise Me Up”
• Seating of the mothers: “How Beautiful”
• Processional: Bridesmaids: “Pachelbele’s Canon”
• Bridal Proccession: “Here Comes the Bride”
• Unity Candle: “Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated to Thee”
• Recessional: Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Wedding March”

So I was very excited to settle on those songs and it was good to talk to my cousin.

I laughed at my mom when I first got engaged and she told me the budget of the wedding, but thanks to so many generous family and friends, we’re getting AMAZING deals. The lady doing the wedding cake/groom’s cake is giving us a STEAL! I’m so thankful that this has been working out so well. I wanted a nice wedding, but knew that it would cost a lot of money to do so that we didn’t have.

Right now I’m immersed in invitations, trying to get all of this done before next week so I can mail them on time. Once the invites are out all I have to truly worry about is the wedding programs, finishing the favors and then making sure everyone gets their attire on time. I also have to get a few gifts for the bridal party but I’m shopping around to find them.

Aside from wedding planning, my family has been immersed in watching the primaries going on. I don’t even want to go into politics right now because I’m not sure what I support yet.