Politics and Mr. A

Okay...this is my last "political" post for this election season.

Mr. A is about the same age for this election as I was the first election that I remember paying attention to. He also really paid attention to the election and he read up on both candidates for two different classes in school. He and I had quite a few discussions about each of the candidates and their positions.

Tuesday night he spent the night glued to the computer, bopping between CNN and MSNBC to see what the news sites were saying about how the election was going. He kept calling out to me (I was in another room) as each state was called for a particular candidate.

He bounced through the house as he came to discuss something he'd read online. He asked intelligent questions about things that were being said about the election process. He was INVOLVED right up to the time I sent him to bed. Or so I thought.

It turned out that he went to his room and tuned his radio to a news station that was covering the elections and stayed up until they'd called it for President Elect Obama.

I don't know if I can express just how much this pleases me. Instilling an interest in politics in the monsters at a young age in their lives is important to me. Knowing that they think about all aspects of the candidates before making a choice is important to me. I don't care if they vote the way I do or go their separate way, but I do care that they are involved.

And he is. It warms my heart.

Until later...

Change

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

~ Anatole France

This morning the nation wakes up to a new President Elect. Many have dreamed for this change, many have feared it.

The nation will not change overnight, and likely, it will take years, even decades for us to see that change that comes from the decision my fellow countrymen and women made yesterday.

My hope is that we will work together instead of against each other to bring about this change. My fear is that we will become even more divisive.

Let's hope that working together is what happens.

Until later...

Civic Sacrament

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

~ Lyndon B. Johnson



Lower voter participation is a silent threat to our democracy...It under-represents young people, the poor, the disabled, those with little education, minorities and you and me.

~ Nancy Neuman



The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower



To make democracy work, we must be a notion of participants, not simply observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain.

~ Louis L'Amour



Voting is a civic sacrament.

~ Theodore Hesburgh

Until later...

What You Can Do

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.
~ John F. Kennedy

I picked up the mail today to find a jury questionnaire. It appears that for the first time in my adult life, I may be called to jury duty soon.

As I filled out the questionnaire - which really shouldn't be called a questionnaire, because they were only looking for verification of my address, my DOB and a few other minor items - I realized that it would be the first of two things I did in the next five days for my country.

We all know - how could we not - that next Tuesday we will be choosing a new president. This has to be the most divisive campaign that comes to mind since I've been paying attention to the campaigns.

The first campaign I remember was in 1984 when Reagan and Mondale duked it out. The first that I was eligible to vote in was in 1992 when Clinton won over Bush 41. So granted, that doesn't mean I've been paying attention all that long, but of all those elections, this one seems to have brought out the rabid on each side.

Voting - like jury duty - is a right and an obligation to make sure that you do for your country what it has done for you. Your country can't continue to do for you, if you don't exercise your right to vote and put the best people into office. By the People only works when the People do their duty.

So make sure that on November 4th, you take the time to vote. Without you doing your part - just like answering a jury summons - this country can't continue to thrive as we have come to know it can. I know I'll be at the polls bright and early that day.

Until later...

Images That Make Us Remember

Of all the images of 9.11 that stand out in my mind, this is the one that calls to my soul. Its close replication of the Iwo Jima image makes me think of both the bravery of those who rushed to the assistance of the victims that day, and also of the bravery of those fighting the war we ended up entering.

9.11 is something that I know is a huge "There but for the grace" moment in my life. If 9.11 had happened on 9.12, I would have been 3 blocks from Ground Zero. I was packed, at work and waiting to leave for my flight when the planes were grounded. I was heading to NYC for work and I was both thrilled to be going to NYC (if only for work!) and a little nauseous because it was my first business trip.

My mom called and told me that I couldn't go. I laughed at her, because at that time, the news was that a small plane had hit the first tower. It wasn't until an hour later that I knew things for this country were worse than they ever had been in my memory.

Everyone at work sat in stunned silence. To give it some perspective, at the time I worked in a large call center and it was never silent on that floor of the building. NEVER. Calls were few and far between as the country tried to come to grips with what had happened.

I drove home listening to talk radio, to the calls that were full of grief and some that were so, so angry. I picked up my children from daycare to their surprise, as I wasn't supposed to be in the state.

It was Mr. A's second week of kindergarten. I wasn't much of the "Mom & Apple Pie" sort, but that day (and since), it was very important to me that he was saying the Pledge daily and that he (and eventually Bugaboo) understood what it meant.

The boys knew, on a very high level, that bad things had happened. I made an effort to keep them occupied that afternoon, through dinner and through our bedtime rituals. I kept the TV off until I knew they were asleep. And all during that time I desperately wanted to be getting the most up-to-date information. I wanted to know what was being said and what was happening.

I watched TV for hours that night. Tom Brokaw was my link to what was going on. In the days and weeks that came after, he remained my link.

Life has a way of distancing us from tragedies. This tragedy is no different. But I know in my heart, that this one moment in time has changed me and the way I look at life, at my country and the world.

And every year, on the anniversary, I look at that image and I remember those who sacrificed everything that day and all the days afterward through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I remember those people, and I offer my sincere gratitude to them for their sacrifices, so that me and mine can live the life that we do.

I'll never forget.

Until later...