Oh politics...how I loathe thee

I'm sure this post will not interest many people, but it's mainly a way for me to express what all is going on in my head. For the majority of my life, I have had no interest whatsoever in politics. I am very apathetic to it all. I have had a lot of trouble putting enough faith in a politician to lend my support to them, considering that they all have an agenda (a lot of times, a selfish one) and many of them lie to get ahead. Being a person that is aware of world issues (albeit those mainly concerning Spanish-speaking countries) I will admit to losing a lot of respect toward President Bush. I still maintain the mandatory respect that is required towards someone that is in office and making decisions for our country, but my support for him has dwindled since the recent events concerning immigration issues. How can someone in a position such as his, with these unbelievable amounts of resources at his fingertips, completely disregard those that have so much less than we in the United States do? Anyway, getting off of that soapbox, most of you have probably heard of the controversy this week concerning Hugo Chavez, the current dictator of Venezuela. At a general assembly meeting of the UN, Chavez accused Bush of basically being the devil incarnate. While there are several decisions Bush has made that I don't agree with and am somewhat ashamed of, it is interesting to hear what other people around the world have to say about our current political situation. My main problem with what Chavez said has nothing to do with Bush. In fact, I respect the way that Bush's advisors gave a response, saying that although it is all well and good to insulte our government in a forum like that, Chavez doesn't allow his own people to make those same critiques toward him or the government he runs. Throughout this whole situation, I keep thinking about the awesome ability we all have to have our own opinions and state them in the presence of whoever. We are allowed to worship our God without someone coming to knock on our door and take us away. We are allowed to criticize whatever decision that is made without any consequences. I am so thankful to be in a country like ours, although I can see that our country is in for a rude awakening the further and further away we go from being a light in the world (i.e. helping others out, showing compassion, being like Jesus). I thank God for the blessing He gave me to born here, and I pray constantly that our leaders will learn to be more like Him each and every day.