One more

I wasn't going to go see Obama today, but a professor gave me a ticket at lunch and I decided I wanted to see him for myself. He is certainly charismatic and confident.

Again, I don't want to discuss my political views here since I can't hold my own in an argument. However, I just have to say something that irks me to no end. All politicians over-simplify very complicated issues, and the audience eats it up. First of all, everyone started cheering about jobs not going overseas because he would change the politics of Washington. Well, how many of them shop at Wal-Mart because of the cheap prices? How many of them would be willing to pay a few dollars more to shop at a locally-owned store or farmers' markets? American labor costs more than Chinese, Mexican, or Cambodian labor; keeping jobs here means having less material stuff. Speak not just with your vote but with your wallet as well.

Same goes for environmental issues. Solar and wind power have serious problems in providing the amount of energy needed and not causing other environmental problems. From my limited understanding, geothermal and nuclear energy are the only two solutions that have real potential. But how many people know much about these?

I don't think I live these things very well, but hope to someday.

So I said I wasn't going to get political and I just did. I have also previously kept this blog related to my profession, but I think this is related. This is what we strive to promote as information professionals... for times in the real world, outside academia, where society needs to make an educated choice. The choice of the next president in such difficult times (though which times haven't been difficult?) has crucial implications to the future of our country and the world. I hope that when Americans vote, that they have read newspapers, watched debates, done their best to understand what each candidate really stands for, and then critically evaluate each one. I hope they pick the one that their research leads them to believe will do the best job. We cannot vote for a candidate just because they are a woman, just because they are a republican, just because of their race, just because they are a war veteran, or just because we want to bring back those more prosperous moments we had in the 90's. The world is a complicated place, I hope we will all do our research and then come to an informed decision.