BigWill,

No need to apologize. I did not take what you said as a personal attack on me. Craigsub took care of that. I just felt like you were clumping anyone with liberal ideas into a category of mouth puppets. I have formed my views over time and through experience. You are right that many younger people, such as some of the protesters, are oblivious to what is actually going on. But I see that from both sides.

I have both liberal views and conservative views. I classify myself as independent and will vote for who I think will do the best job. Period. I am conservative in that I think government should cut spending and let me keep more of my check. I think the major cutd should come in foreign aid though. We need to worry about our country first.

When it comes to the environment, I am deffinitely more liberal. We are too dependant on oil and natural gas. We need to develop alternative fuels. We have the technology in many cases already, but our goverment does not push those alternatives.

Even though I work in law enforcement, I believe some drugs should be legalized. We create problems by making marijuana illegal just as we did when we made another drug, alcohol, illegal during prohibition. It did not work because the demand was always there. We created crime by creating bootleggers and organized crime organizations. Our jails and prisons in Indiana are all overcrowded. We are releasing people early to make room. I would rather use the room for serious criminals. I use an example. I had a man in Court that molested three young girls. A class C felony in out state. He received an 8 year sentence. Another man that was dealing in a lookalike substance, not even a drug, but powdered sugar, received a 15 year sentence. You tell me who should be locked up longer.

I think this nation is so polarized into democrats/republicans, liberals/conservatives that nothing effective can be done. We need to work together to fix al the problems or we never will.