It's a wonderful feeling -- the opportunity to walk into a voting booth and either fiddle with a handful of paper or play with a touchscreen and cast your vote. Outside there isn't the sound of gunfire, the sound of explosions nor is someone handing you a ballet with a menacing glare that indicates your choice better be the 'official' party line or life could get very nasty.
Democracy only works when its people care enough to vote. Obviously, Americans care enough as record turnout is in progress even as I type. Good. That's the way it should be. Losing one's ability to vote is the first step in the downhill slide toward a totalitarian regime. And if don't think we can go that way, well, you shoulda paid attention during history class.
This election has been damned ugly. No other way to put it. I found myself wishing Clinton was a candidate on more than one occasion. But he's done his bit and now can watch from the sidelines.
What will the next four years hold for America? No clue. I did find Osama's recent video tape annoying. He's still thumbing his nose at us, draining our bank account and rhapsodizing about how the tragic souls in the Twin Towers were probably thinking about failed American policy as they perished. That's bull. They probably had no clue what was happening to them. And if they did, my final moments on earth would not be thinking of OBL (other than wishing him a speedy trip to Hell), but rather my family and all the things I didn't get to achieve.
And that's the worst thing about indiscriminate death -- it robs us of our future. May the next four years help us find a way in this murky and dangerous world, with allies at our side.
Good luck, Mr. President... you're going to need it.
Later....
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