Hello all! My name is Keith and this is my first diary. I have been lurking here for about three years, but due to my own fear of being criticized, have never posted a diary. This is not meant to be an informative diary, but just a little moral boost of what all of you are capable of. About three years ago I thought that I was republican, only due to my families hardcore religion. I am from a small town called Burkburnett, TX. I was raised as a southern Baptist, but never really shared there views. My family, as much as I love them, can be very racist and very intolerent to homosexuality. But my Mom and Dad, my Mom being from Maine, and my Dad just a kind person, never really shared those views either. They always taught me to be kind to everybody, no matter what there skin color. But my mom died from Leukimia when I was 13 years old, and my Dad started drinking again. Needless to say we went from being well off to very poor overnight because of the hundreds of thousands of dollars we owed to her medical bills. After that, my dad refused to take over the family business, and we had to live with my grandma and grandpa while my dad worked long hours. Follow me below if you want to hear my story.
Now after growing up in that environment, I started to develop some views that none of you would agree with. I am not proud of that moment in my life, but I feel that it is important to share. Alright, lets fast forward a couple of years and I meet a military brat as my best friend. I was about 16 and me and her become best friends. Her dad was a TSgt in the Air Force and a really good guy to look up to. Eventually we started dating and then I got her pregnant. I had dropped out of High school a little before then, but I had gotten my GED. Her Dad, wanting nothing but the best for her, talked me into joining the Air Force. I wasn't happy about it, but felt it was the right thing to do for my daughter on the way. Basic training was another experience that taught me alot about tolerance, even though they hyped up the war, they still taught us amthat we were in it together no matter what race or religion you were from. Now lets fast forward to 2007, I had been in the service for about four years. I still held most of my former views, but I was not racist in the least little bit. Then I met this dude that was a hardcore liberal, and at first when he started blasting the war and my commander in chief I was a little bit offended. But then i started listening to him, and not overnight, he started to make a little bit of sense. Then I dove head first into politics. I was just amazed at how liberal I actually was. I thought I was a republican, but none of what they believed in was truly what I believed. I am for gay rights, I am for letting a women have the right to choose, I mean who I am I to tell a women what she should and should not do with her body. I am also for smaller government, which quite to the contrary, I truly believe Democrats are for. We have seen unchecked government expansion under the rule of Bush in the name of liberty. I believe why Democrats have branded the way we have is because we believe in helping those that are less fortunate than we are. Another reason too, which is not a big one, but because of marijuana. Alcohol is so much worse than pot, believe me I know from first hand experience, but yet we still imprison people because of it. There is so much more I want to say, but I feel this diary is getting way too long. Let me leave you with this, The reason I loved this site so much is because of how united you guys were during the election. But now it seems as though you guys would rather sit here and pout about what you feel is not getting done by President Obama, than to turn out and vote. He may not of been able to get everything done that he said he would, but it is not him that is to blame. It is people like Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, and Republicans who don't give a fuck about this country, etc. I don't know about you, but I stand with my Commander In Chief, and I ask all of you to do the same. Lets put aside our petty differences, because I don't want to see what we have worked so hard to accomplish go down in vain. I am begging you, come together, like we say in the Air Force, Service before Self, or in this case, Country before Self.
P.S. Their is so much more I wanted to say in this diary, but I am no writer, I simply speak from the heart. Thank you guys for helping to turn this republican into a DEMOCRAT. What you do here really effects real people, never forget that.