Election Day!

Today is the day! Today is the day that a new president will be chosen by...us, the people of this nation. It is our civic duty to vote. It should go without a doubt that if you don't vote you shouldn't have a say in this government. I'm not trying to sound harsh. I'm just trying to be realistic. If you think I am being harsh then thats fine..I've already voted. As I sit here in the lobby of the UL I see people pass by on their way to voting or they are just coming from voting. The conversations of everyone today have been in some way related to the election. Some are fearful, some are joyful, and some are just clueless.

Last night I had a conversation with someone who said they weren't going to vote at all. I was so appalled and taken a back by his statement that I didn't know what to say for about 20 seconds. Then today in my psychology class my professor decided that the first 20 minutes of class would be designated to recognizing the elections today and how much it costs us. He first read us the preamble from the Constitution and it just gave me such a sense of pride to live in a free country such as this one.

We truly don't fully realize sometimes what is has cost our nation to live in a country like this where we are not subject to physical abuse for our belief even if we do get some verbal abuse. Many men and women have died in wars so that we could have the liberties that we have. So I hope than when you vote today, before you even pull that lever or punch that hole that you would take a moment to remember those who could not vote. Cast your vote for those who could not vote because their lives were cut short.

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~Abraham Lincoln

Links Post

Ok, so tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow is election day. I know most of the people have done early voting, but for those who haven't voted or maybe don't know who to vote for yet because you are so confused I am putting up some links. I hope these links will help you understand immigration better if I have not explained them properly.

http://www.johnmccain.com/informing/issues/68db8157-d301-4e22-baf7-a70dd8416efa.htm

This website is a comprehensive list of John McCain's positions on immigration reform. It is in a more concise form so it might be a whole lot easy to understand. This website splits up McCain's plan into two step, albeit huge steps, but still it is two step. The first step would be securing the border and the second would be comprehensive immigration reform for all immigrants within the U.S. I would recommend this site to all trying to understand McCain's view because he does seem at bit confused whenever he talks about it in person.

http://www.ontheissues.org/International/Barack_Obama_Immigration.htm

Since I gave a link for McCain I thought I should be unbiased and show the other side as well. This website not only talks extensively about immigration but it talks about all of the other issues and platforms of Obama. It is very comprehensive and covers such topics as the effectiveness of our border control now and the safety of the public when immigrants don't have their own ID's. The website even includes direct quotes from Obama about these questions so you know that he actually said it and not one of his assistants speaking for him. There are several sections on here pertaining to how Obama voted for certain bills about immigration. I strongly recommend this website.

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=IL&VIPID=1162

Ok so, so far I have only been given good links to go to. Here is a link that is absolutely horrible to use. The whole basis of this link is to show a "report card" of how Barack Obama has been affecting the immigration platform. This website is very biased, I believe. On the side of each grade there is a link to a definition to the certain issue. However, there is no evidence to prove that Obama has or hasn't done anything for that issue on immigration. This link would be very much better off if there were additional links to other sites citing why Obama is doing good or poorly on certain things. I do not recommend this post.

http://www.immigrationcounters.com/index.html

I found this website to be the most interesting to me. I am more of mathematically inclined person so when I see numbers and figures I can understand them better. This website gives you all the figures about immigrations. Figures for the total numbers of immigrants in the U.S., the amount of money sent back to the immigrants' countries of origin, number of anchor babies, and etc. If you have ever wondered how many illegal immigrants live in our nation or how much it costs for Social Services to help them then this links is going to hook you up with them. I would definitely give this site a two thumbs up.

http://www.wave.net/upg/immigration/students.html

As students of a major research university we should considered how immigrants come to universities like ours and how hard it is for them in certain situations to get into school. As a nation are we hindering their progress and forcing them into low level jobs? This website shows what immigrations have to do in order to become students in our "great" nation. More immigrants in our schools creates more diversity and helps them advance and grow in social status.

http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=team_involved

I am all about application of ideas. I think we could spend all day in a classroom and learn about the political issues but nothing is going to be done about them if we don't get out there and do something about it. This website gives us an opportunity to join a group and do something about it. If you join you could have an active voice in immigration reform.