I agree, Amos.

A lot of times, it seems that we throw out these labels, but as we see here, the vast majority of us posting fall somewhere between L and R on the big scale. I may be closer to the R and several of you may be closer to the L.

The hot button issues such as abortion, capital punishment, welfare reform, social security and the likes, when brought out and debated in the mainstream media tend to, too many times, come to a screeching halt over a case that is really on an extreme side of the issue and that side, more often than not, is made out to be the norm rather than the exception.

With that in mind, neither side really has all the answers. We all are a collective group of different personalties thrown together in a country and told that here is the system, framed up more than two hundred years ago by men that had grand ideas in mind. These ideas, while as grand as they are, leave some question as to interpretation. Such as which "rights" as some see them as today are found in the constitution. And if they're not found specifically in the constitution, then which idea in the constitution covers that particular issue?

There is no way in which we can put ourselves in their shoes and know what was going through their minds. Some issues today are a lot of the same issues that they were faced with during their time, but then on the other hand, those other issues have been either clouded or created by the advance of technology. That's not to say that those issues are not dealt with in the constitution.

I believe the founding documents were drafted in such a manner as to let us make those decisions based on the ideas found in those very documents.

An issue that was brought up peviously but just mentioned was the religion factor.

As I go back and read those documents from time to time, I realize that the separation of church and state wasn't to save the government from the church, but to save the church from the government. However, for some reason, a backlash has been created over the last several decades that, for some reason, made the institution of church the enemy of the government when it was not at all intended on being that way.

Our founding fathers were very religious men. Now whether or not you look at religion as being important or as just being a crutch for the weak-minded, that perticular institution was used heavily in the construction of the ideas that founded this country. That, I feel, is a non-negotiable fact.

But just because the ideas that you and I live by now were based on religious men wanting to exercise those ideas and create a new country based solely on those ideas doesn't necessarily mean that those ideas were "wrong".

The issue of what constitutes what is "conservative" or what is "liberal" is very broad and while intresting to cuss and discuss between us, it almost begs us to take the specific issues and cuss and discuss them one by one until all can be hammered out.

But the advances of technology has so made it to where we often feel that spending too much time on just one subject has become a waste of our time.

Where do we go from here?


Yes!!