I am not about to apologize for it. I am not sure why I should. 

I am proud to share a political philosophy with the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and yes, Barack Obama.

I am proud to support equal voting rights for women and minorities, reproductive choice for women, gay rights, civil rights, education, health care, and the environment.

Like JFK, I try to be “someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad.”

I do believe in a fairer distribution of wealth and power,  but not to the point that the government should take over everything. I am NOT a socialist. I don’t think the government controlling everything leads to fairness in anything.

While I do believe in a strong central government, I don’t believe in big government.  I do think the government has a responsibility to look after the welfare of all of its citizens, particularly those that are less able to do that for themselves like the poor, children, the handicapped, the discriminated-against.

I think welfare, as an idea, is a good one.  There will always be those who will take advantage of government entitlement programs and that while we should do all we can to prevent that, it will be a necessary evil if we’re to take care of those who are less able to take care of themselves. And I’d rather not punish children, for example, because their parents are lazy.

I think the government should be very careful of making social policy.  It should stay out of my bedroom and out of my body and out of my church if I have one.

I don’t think that I have a right to tell people how to live their lives and I don’t think that I should be obligated to live my life by someone else’s standards.

Most importantly, I think that life is not black and white and what may be a clear issue of right vs. wrong to you, may be a clear issue of wrong vs. right to me.  Consensus and fairness are what’s important and sometimes that means you’re going to be on the losing side.