# Shaping My Views Series - Part 0: The Introduction #

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This post will be much different from the subsequent posts in the series as this will serve as an introduction to the endeavor I am about to undertake.  This will be a series dedicated to understanding and shaping my own views on various topics.  It will mainly start with political topics and understanding where I stand on certain issues, but my hope is that it morphs into something that will cover a vast array of topics and issues.

The idea for the series came to me on a drive from Portland, Oregon to my current home of Spokane, Washington.  When I make this drive, I tend to listen to podcasts to keep me entertained and to learn something along the way.  On this particular drive, I had an episode of the "Freakonomics" Podcast downloaded and this episode was the second of a two-part interview with the Koch brothers.  For those of you that don't know who the Koch brothers are, they are a pair of brothers that own Koch Industries and a number of other companies.  They are perhaps more well known for their political donations and support of almost exclusively republican candidates.  I went into the podcast thinking that I would absolutely hate these men as they allegedly stood for everything I stood opposed to, but after listening to the podcast, I realized that my perception of them through the media was misconstrued and I actually agreed with a lot of what they said and stood for!  It was at this point that I realized that I had been lied to about these guys by the media.  This realization threw me on a path of thinking in which I now questioned whether there were other things I had simply accepted as truth without truly coming to my own conclusions.  

As such, the idea for a series of articles discussing my own journey towards discovery of my own views was born.  

I think of this as a multifaceted approach to my journey of self discovery.  This endeavor will be part thought exercise and part worldview development.  I am by no means a research junkie so my articles will focus more heavily on my own opinion and thought, but there are certainly aspects of every issue that will require basic research in order to understand how certain aspects of an issue are affected.

As of right now, I have a short list of issues that I would like to tackle in the near future, but I would love to hear your recommendations of issues that I have not thought of yet.  This is by no means an exhaustive list and I am sure that with each new article, I will find myself asking more questions and finding fewer answers.  Here is the list of issues I have thought of so far:

1. Immigration
2. Abortion
3. Taxes
4. Education
5. Death Penalty
6. Healthcare
7. The Environment
8. Infrastructure

As I mentioned, this is by no means an exhaustive list of issues to tackle, but these are some of the issues that have perpetually come up as dividing issues each political cycle.  While it is unlikely that I will be able to completely hash out each of these issues in a space short enough to actually keep people interested in my writing, I will do my best to mesh entertainment value with actual meat on issues.  Remember that this is going to be a very opinionated series and will likely incite argument and debate in the comments.  I encourage argument and debate as long as it remains civil and I will not allow for any personal attacking.  We are all entitled to our opinions and beliefs, and we are all entitled to our agreements and disagreements, but please keep it civil.

**Please follow @brandonp to get the rest of the series directly to your feed!**