The 2000 U.S. presidential election was extremely close. Al Gore, the democratic candidate, actually won the popular vote, but not the electoral vote. The final state to swing the election was Florida, and that state's election was so close that the votes were being recounted, and the Supreme Court had to rule on when to stop the recount. (Here's a link to the Wikipedia article about it.) The Supreme Court decided to stop the recount, and George W. Bush became president.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Gore had been elected. I'm sure we would not have gone to war in Iraq. Gore is an environmentalist, and with him as president I'm sure we would have had stronger laws to protect the environment and prevent global warming.
At the time Bush took office, the U.S. economy was in good shape, and there was no budget deficit. Many people think that our current economic difficulties result from decisions made during the Bush administration--the Iraq war, tax cuts and removing regulation from banks and financial institutions. If this is true, the recession we are suffering from today might have been prevented.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Not Getting Married
When I was nineteen, I was planning to get married. I was very much in love, and very excited about it, but it didn't work out. My boyfriend decided he didn't want to go through with it, and broke it off. At the time, I was heartbroken, but now I realize that we would not have been happy together, and that I was actually lucky even though I didn't think so at the time.
Soon after we broke up, my former boyfriend joined the Navy, and later became a career officer. I would have hated the life of a military wife, moving from place to place. I would probably have been bored with the social life in the military. I think it's very likely that the marriage would have ended in divorce. Perhaps I would have had children to raise on my own. I might not have been able to travel on my own, or had the kind of career I have today.
Sometimes things turn out for the best, even though you are very unhappy about them at the time.
Soon after we broke up, my former boyfriend joined the Navy, and later became a career officer. I would have hated the life of a military wife, moving from place to place. I would probably have been bored with the social life in the military. I think it's very likely that the marriage would have ended in divorce. Perhaps I would have had children to raise on my own. I might not have been able to travel on my own, or had the kind of career I have today.
Sometimes things turn out for the best, even though you are very unhappy about them at the time.
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