"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die."

After everyone had left the party last night Auri, Trent, Di Bradley and myself went upstairs to watch "Across the Universe." I'd been looking forward to seeing the movie even though I wasn't entirely sure what it was about. The movie, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, is a musical set to the music of The Beatles, and it's about the Vietnam War and how it affected everyone. Over the last few years, I've heard the talk comparing Vietnam to the war in Iraq and the movie helped me better understand the parallels. I've never been a particularly politically-minded individual, but I'm slowly becoming that way. I am really anxious to see who will be elected President at the end of the year and also to see what will happen over the next few years. I think this election will possibly be the most important election my generation will see in our lifetime. For this reason, I feel it is incredibly important for everyone to educate themselves on the candidates, and to vote for the person who most closely represents his or her beliefs and values.

I was talking to Auri the other night and we were discussing the voting process and the Primaries. I told her that I had been on the fence for a long time regarding the Democratic candidates and was having a hard time making a decision. We got a newsletter from the Council for the National Interest and it outlined each of the candidates thoughts on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This is a particularly important subject to me because my family is there, and I want our next leader to take the steps to foster the peace process. I voted based on what I had read in that newsletter. The candidate that I voted for stated that he was a proponent for a resolution that satisfies both sides of the issue. As we were talking about this, Auri made a very profound statement... Anyone who takes sides is directly contributing to the conflict. I couldn't agree more. The sad part of the situation is neither side will ever give up, and I doubt if I'll ever see a resolution in my lifetime.