Hello and welcome to my spot of nabelschau.
I’ve had a change in my world view over the last 8 years and wanted to write down my journey so the people that I love could take a look and see why in a way that would take too many cups of tea and ginger snap cookies to describe. I’ve been meaning to do something like this for four years and especially since the recent primaries started and just didn’t take the time.
In high school, I marched on Washington for pro-life causes, wrote a article on the subject that received a modest amount of publicity, and mourned the fact that I was born too late to vote for George H. W. Bush. He won, we went to the Persian Gulf War, my precious Giants won the Super Bowl with yellow armbands on, Whitney Houston sung the national anthem and made it a top 20 hit. Nationalistic fervor was high.
I headed off to Messiah College and that is where the roots of my change began. Messiah is a Christian college started by the Brethren in Christ. There were many Christians of excellent faith that attended or taught at the college and, to my surprise, many of them held very different beliefs than I did. Many in the Brethren in Christ denomination were total pacifists and I had never met one before, much less talked to one.
My college experience was a total eye-opener and allowed me to think through my beliefs and figure out why I believed what I believed. I don’t know that I graduated college with a huge difference in my world view, but I was in the process of adjusting it, although I didn’t know it yet. Once you open a discussion with people you like and respect, it has a way of allowing you to respectfully consider their reasons for believing that way.
My BFF was one of the few Democrats at Messiah College and later was my roommate for several years. She hosted the transitional phase of my political life. I have a great deal of respect for her mind and her times of nabelschau. We had many a discussion over many a cup of tea and my poor roommate had to deal with me steamrolling her much of the time. (I am a crusader-sort of person and I have to guard against steamrolling my opponents instead of listening to them and treating them with respect.)
I voted for George W. Bush in 2000, even though I was unhappy with him as a choice. I liked Elizabeth Dole and even the John McCain of 2000. I had many reasons for not voting for Al Gore and it was a sorry decision in retrospect. But, I own that choice and Pennsylvania went blue anyway. 
George W. Bush has done his best to completely ruin this country and he is the reason that my world view finally got the push it needed to jump to the other side. I’m sure that my posts will cover how badly he has messed up the world, so I won’t go into it all here. But, I am a George W. Bush Democrat, much like many people were Reagan Republicans.
I voted for John Kerry in a heart-sick sort of way. I didn’t like him as a candidate and I didn’t like his views, but I needed GW to get the message that you can’t make decisions like going to war for no actual reason without repercussions. I had many of the people that I loved write me letters and emails that broke my heart about this decision. I actually sat in my car for an hour in the library parking lot weighing my options (to the concern of a young man from MoveOn.org who thought I was ill). I went into the voting booth not sure who I would push the button for. And I asked God to forgive me, but I was making the best choice between two candidates that treated the right to life so lightly.
I am very happy to have a choice this year in Barack Obama that I can make with very little regrets. We have a sign on our lawn, bumper stickers on all of our cars and in my office cube. I talk about him to the people I meet and hope that makes a little difference. I’m still trying to not steamroll them, of course, but it is hard when I know that I’m making the right choice. 
You’ll note that there are no comments available on the blog. I barely have time to write this thing, let alone answer comments from people. I welcome having a discussion about this with you when we have a chance to get together, but not on my blog right now. My world views took a great deal of time and thought to form in this way and I hope that you might be inspired to do the same.
Cheers, Kathy
