Kill the Bill

I'm a terrible tourist because old buildings, famous sites, museums, and historical facts aren't nearly as interesting to me as people. So, when I visited Washington D.C. last October, it took me a while to find something that caught my attention. My friends had to work so I explored the city alone.

Several museums later, I spoke with my father who said there was going to be a gathering of Republicans on the front lawn of the Capitol Building. I grabbed my camera and set off, finally having a mission.

I am not an extremely political person. Given my father's adoration for Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and all things Republican, I have been inundated with political propaganda my entire life. I'm tired of it. Even things from the Democratic party. I don't take the time to research every topic deep enough to form my own opinion and I don't want to parrot newspaper journalists or talk show hosts.

I will admit though, I am mildly aware of the current hubbub over health care.

Due to a large amount of effort on my part, I have managed to avoid any hour-long, extremely heated and passionate lectures from my dad on the subject. My defensive maneuvering will definitely not last forever but I hope I figure out what I really think (with some solid facts to back me up) before he finally corners me.

The only thing I really have to draw from at this point is the rally I witnessed in October. I actually thought it rather horrifying. Below, I have posted a few of the photos I snapped while walking through the crowd.

Some people were dressed as Democratic politicians, bound with chains, and covered in blood, intestines and bloody babies. A few scary people in black with masks were whipping them and shouting through microphones, "You'll go to hell for what you've done! Repent of your sins."

Apparently, some section in the version of the health care bill they were going over at the time included government money to be used for abortion. I don't even want to get into that argument but, do you see the face of the child in the photo above? Whether abortion is always right, always wrong, or whatever conditions you want to apply, is it right that this little boy was exposed to something so horrifying? I feel sad when children get caught in political crossfire.

Even though I'm a vegetarian, I don't go around straping deformed chickens to my body and moan through the meat section in the Super Walmart about the horrors of factory farming. I would tell you what I know if you asked me but I wouldn't pick out a child in the grocery store and scare the pee out of him with what I know. It's not appropriate or very nice and that's what I thought about the gathering at Capitol Hill that day. It was a little too extreme to be the beginning of a civil conversation.