Ruminations

*sigh* I warn you, this post is going to be a tad bit rambley. (brambly?) Feel free to comment if you have an opposing view, as well. I want to know what people are thinking.

I am not, generally, a very politically active person. I have never been involved with, or even interested in, politics. But these days I just can't help but feel involved. It seems to me that there are some very strange things going on in our country, and I cannot justify my apathy any longer.
For example:
-When you have a tax-payer-funded federal agency that is enlisting artists to 'push the president's agenda', is that not called propaganda? I did not believe this sort of thing was possible in the USA.
- If the president speaks to school-aged children and then teachers create a lesson plan to help him push his agenda, is that not called indoctrination? Now, I obviously don't know exactly what Obama is going to say to these kids. I don't think that there is anything inherently wrong with a president speaking to the children, as long as there is no political agenda attached. Tell them to work hard, and to stay in school. Tell them that they can be whatever they want to be when they grow up. That's it. Stay away from everything else. If it's not okay to push a specific religious view in school, then neither is it okay to push a specific political view, because the two are inextricably linked in many minds.
- When an ad featuring celebrities who 'pledge to be a servant to Barack Obama' is shown in schools, it worries me a little. When did people gain this mindset that we were supposed to serve the president? Wrong. It just sounds wrong.
-When I find out that one of Obama's advisers wrote a book about sterilization and population control, it worries me.
-When starving, struggling people are deemed less important than endangered fish, it worries me.
-When a congresswoman praises communist leaders, it worries me. Actually, it makes me angry.

Those of you who are acquainted with my family know that my mother is one of the most patriotic people you will ever meet. She was born in Cuba, and lived for 16 years without many of the freedoms that we take for granted here. I have never met anyone who was more 'proud to be an American'. But that sentiment no longer seems to be politically correct. For some reason, it's not okay to say that you think America is the greatest country on earth, that it is the land of the free, the land of opportunity. No, to say such a thing shows arrogance and narrow-mindedness.. Do Spaniards not feel that Spain is the very best place to live? Do Italians never boast that their homeland is the most beautiful, or the most interesting? If they do, I don't fault them for it. And if they don't, why not? Shouldn't it be a good thing to have pride in your country? I read a comment somewhere today saying that the world should come first, America should be second, and the individual should be last. I don't understand it. It seems backwards to me.

I don't know. Am I wrong? I don't even know if this post makes sense. I'm tired and I'm frustrated, and I can't seem to wrap my head completely around a lot of these ideas. Am I being one of those 'sensationalist right-wing nut jobs'? I don't think that Obama is the AntiChrist. But I do think that he has the potential to be very dangerous, and I think that Americans need to start paying very close attention to what is going on in the government. Because, if we don't, we could very easily have some of our most precious freedoms voted away. Is it really so difficult to believe?