By Rohan Andresen ’12
THE ROUNDUP
Recently under the political spotlight is Christine O’Donnell, the Republican nominee in Delaware’s 2010 Senate special election.
O’Donnell has been brought to the media’s attention for the accusations of her being involved in witchcraft.
She admitted on Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” in 1999 that she had dabbled in witchcraft when she was in high school and “hung around” people who were involved with witchcraft.
It is important to understand that we have all made mistakes in our past and that we can grow from these mistakes.
However, we must acknowledge that our current leaders don’t have the cleanest past either.
Vice President Joe Biden partook in plagiarism during law school when he took work from a law review article and used it in his own paper.
According to the New York Times, Biden said that he “misunderstood the rules of citation and footnoting.”
But, the practice continued nearly 20 years later.
During a presidential debate at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 23, 1987, Biden ended his argument with the closing lines of a speech made in Britain by a prime minister candidate, without attributing anything to him.
If we can forgive Biden and make him our Vice President, we can surely forgive O’Donnell and look at what she truly has to offer.
It’s fair to take into consideration when examining her religious and moral traits that she regularly attends Catholic as well as Protestant services, according to Yahoo News.
Although she admits to being sexually promiscuous during college and drinking, her views display that she has learned from her mistakes.
She heavily advocates sexual conservativeness and speaks out against premarital sex as well as masturbation.
She currently is endorsed by the Tea Party and according to ontheissues.org, she says she will never vote for tax increases.
She is pro-life at all stages (with the exception of the endangerment of the mother’s health) and she strongly commends the Second Amendment (right to bear arms), according to her campaign website.
I do not think that her past spiritual beliefs have any impact on what decisions she makes or on how we should view her because of our dedication for a separation between church and state.
Her current beliefs do not coincide with any aspects of witchcraft, and even if they do, I do not think we should base our decisions because of her emotional and personal feelings.
All in all, her past has the ups and downs that we all do and we are all able to learn from them in order to become wiser, stronger and better people.