With four days left until Election Day and three days left to vote early, The Famuan staff has decided which candidate to endorse as the president of the United States of America. We have carefully compared the platforms of the Republican incumbents, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and their Democratic opponents, Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards. After much consideration of both tickets’ goals for the next four years and reviewing their interactions with the black community, we have selected the Kerry/ Edwards ticket.
In this time of war, it is important to have a leader in place who will thoroughly review all information given to him and act accordingly. One striking quality about Kerry is that he seems to be able to admit when he has made a wrong choice, something that he has labeled him a “flip-flopper”.
Kerry said if given the opportunity he could reunite our allies and get the world on our side for rebuilding Iraq and eventually pulling out of the country. He has put his plan in writing, something Bush has not done to this date.
As for national and homeland security, it is true by some standards that we are living in a safer society than prior to 9/11. However, we cannot afford to go to war with every country someone thinks might be a threat. Kerry has already aligned himself with military officials who have America’s interests in mind.
Kerry has also reached out to the black community in a way President Bush has not. Bush’s policies while in office have been nothing but unfair to blacks, starting with his cutbacks of Medicare and No Child Left Behind.
On the issue of healthcare, the incumbent has been pushing a “consumer driven” plan that would leave the drug market unregulated by legislation and allow companies to compete and create monopolies on particular drugs. That is the same healthcare plan the government has operated under since its inception and millions die every year because they are uninsured.
John Kerry proposes changes that would introduce laws to regulate drug prices down to affordability. Kerry will also lobby to make Medicare more affordable to seniors by raising health taxes at major corporations. This legislation, if passed, would give our grandparents one less thing to worry about in the twilight of their lives.
Bush has not left our younger siblings out of his inconsistent legislation. We agree it is important to hold schools accountable for the academic success of their students. However, that can not be done if those struggling schools are not given the necessary tools to achieve. In Florida, the results from the 2004 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test show the disparities in schools with predominantly black populations. The children being left behind look like those at FAMU DRS.
Kerry agrees that students should be held to high standards and said he will provide schools with the resources to meet those expectations.
As for higher education, minority students are in danger of losing much needed monies to continue. According to the U. S. Department of Education, 84,000 low income students will lose their Pell Grants due to recent Bush education plan numbers.
John Kerry wants to find ways to generate more money for higher education such as a nationwide implementation of North Carolina’s give-back initiative that allows students to pay off their state loans by teaching grade school.
As students, our No. 1 priority is to obtain jobs and start our chosen careers after graduation. However, statistics show that Bush’s policies are not supportive of the working class.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July 2004 report, the unemployment rate among blacks rose from 8.2 percent to 10.9 percent since Bush entered office. It also found that one in three black youth are currently unemployed under Bush’s administration.
The incumbent is further detrimental to blacks and all so-called minorities in this society due to his policies that serve to perpetually disenfranchise impoverished people. His track record as governor says as much. During his tenure in Texas, the state bore witness to more deaths of prisoners by way of capital punishment than it had seen in its history. Additionally, more historically black colleges and universities were shut down during that time than ever in this nation’s past.
If for no other reason than his endless quest to include all Americans in his policies, Kerry should be elected president on Nov. 2. He has shown he is a man of upstanding character who did not avoid his service in Vietnam, though he did report the wrong doings of his fellow soldiers, as we are sure many Lindy England abhorrer would have done from Abu Grahib.
Again, Kerry is not a “flip-flopper,” and has voted in favor of many policies, such as the war in Iraq, because the current president presented flawed intelligence as fact and voting to not disarm a past imminent threat would have been foolish.
Kerry has also been called controversial on the issues of gay marriage and abortion, issues President Bush introduced to seemingly divide voters. To introduce constitutional legislation banning gay marriage would be a slap in the face to individual state legislators who have been deciding whose marriages they want to recognize for over 200 years.
Also, legislation against abortion would remove the woman’s right to choose and send them reeling back into the 60’s back-alley abortionist mind set. Kerry, a known catholic, is pro-choice because he understands the need for choice and that he cannot legislate his religious beliefs.
Most importantly, the next president will likely have the opportunity to appoint three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. Most presidents choose justices with ideologies similar to their own.
Bush’s ideologies are decidedly as conservative as his upbringing. Giving him the opportunity to choose justices would likely overturn many of the landmark decisions that make America “the land of the free.”
John Kerry is standing behind the constitutional amendments of our fore-fathers because those cases are the very foundation of free-thinking society. He votes yes in favor of affirmative action, legalized abortion, civil unions and tuition decreases.
John Kerry votes in favor of the American way of life. We will vote for him. Some of us already have.