Election Day Reflections

I took Friday off of work, and in the midst of all our Halloween celebrating (both my little ones had Halloween parties that needed volunteers) I was able to catch some of the news coverage about the turn out for early voting. In Floridia the lines went on for days, and people just kept showing up. It was amazing. In spite of everything that has plagued out country in these last weeks, these last years in fact, I felt prouder about being an American at that moment than I think I ever have in my adult life.

Knowing how big this turn out is going to be makes me truly feel like I am part of something bigger than me. Bigger than all of us. I wonder if this might be what it felt like for the people outside Independence Hall back in 1776. Or when the polls opened on December 15, 1788 for our first presidential election. I know I feel excited for the future, relieved that change is finally coming, and hopeful that things are finally going to get better.

When I see the lines of people waiting to get their early vote in, I see all of us standing together with one voice.
One voice that is speaking out loud to the rest of the world. A voice that is saying “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”

This is how a democracy works. All of us standing together and taking an active role in our future, our children’s future, and the future of those who do not have a way to make their voice heard.

To all of you, republican or democrat, even you wacky independents and libertarians, thank you. I am proud to be standing with you all and casting my vote for what will hopefully be one of America’s proudest moments.

This day is what our forefathers hoped and dreamed of when they signed the Declaration of Independence. When they wrote the constitution. When Kennedy asked “Ask Not What your country can do or you, but what you can do fro your country”. When Dr. King said, “I have a dream”.

Well I have a dream, and that dream is to raise my children in a world where people care about the world around them. Where people stand up for what they care about. Where people have a voice and use it.

Happy Voting on Tuesday. And whatever happens on Wednesday morning, be proud.

When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect. ~Adlai Stevenson