A "confused" email

Following is a cut and paste of my response to a Pro-Obama email I received. The italics are from the original email, regular font is my response. I have been trying to figure out what is bothering me about this email. That fact that someone wrote it is no big deal, but this email had been sent and forwarded at least 10 times before I got it. 10 people looked at this list of poorly written non sequiturs and thought it was making a case for what?

Frankly, the only case it makes is the desperate need for educational vouchers in this country.

Let's see if I can clear up some of the confusion for you:

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. Name your kids Willow, Trig, and Track: you're a maverick.

Since I've never heard Barack referred to as "unpatriotic", no response there. I have referred to him as a radical, but that has everything to do with the company he keeps.

The Palins chose very weird names for their children; so what? Had she chosen to abort them, the left would defend her.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating:you're well grounded.

Where or whether you went to college has nothing to do with whether you are unstable or well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

Well, I guess we need to define "brilliant" then define "leadership". Typically, leadership requires responsibility and achievement. Frankly, as a mother of four navigating the waters of 4 different high schools, 3 colleges (so far), a grade school, boy scouts, girl scouts, football, rugby, soccer, the Navy, traffic school, various insurance companies and the DMV, responsibility and achievement have been requirements.

We all know enough professors and enough politicians to realize that we, as parents, exhibit more leadership on a daily basis than most of them do in a lifetime.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

Once again, I've never heard BO referred to as not a "real Christian"; so no response needed. The only time I have heard BO's religion questioned is when we were all treated to audios of some of the anti-American and hate-spewed sermons he sat through in those 20 years.

What the beauty of his children have to do with anything is beyond me.

John McCain is certainly no saint but I think we would all be better served by leaving the judgment of whether or not he's a "Christian" up to God. I can only assume that God will take into account John McCain's sacrifice for Country, sacrifice for fellow inmates in the Hanoi Hilton, and his adopted daughter.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society. If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

Cheap shot. I have a daughter, so I'm not saying a word. But once again, I think we have a definition problem. Who defines "responsible, age appropriate sex education"? News flash: It ain't you. So when someone decides your kindergartner needs education in sex and AIDS prevention, don't be shocked.

And no one has claimed the Palins are responsible because their unwed teenage daughter is pregnant, they are responsible because ... well, because they are taking responsibility. The mother and father of the baby are getting married, they are managing with the support of their families and not the government.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's. If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Well, since neither my husband nor I went to Harvard nor worked for a prestigious law firm I guess I'm not qualified to opine here. My only work for the betterment of the inner city is trying to pay Catholic tuitions for 4 children in the hope that none of my children will ever be residents there.

My husband went to more than one college, I didn't go to any. We have four children of various abilities. I pray A LOT. There aren't enough hours in the day for me to worry as much as I need to about how they will turn out. I worry more about them getting into heaven than whether they will get into Harvard.

So, in conclusion: this is a very important election. We will all be making the choice that we think is best for our families and our country. Let's each give each other the benefit of the doubt and assume we all want the same thing; we just disagree on the best way to get there.

Making ad hominum attacks on the candidates and making rediculous straw man arguments does no one any good and certainly does nothing to make your case. And if that's what you need to do to justify the guy you're voting for? I'd suggest rethinking that vote.

Sincerely,

Anne