“I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
- Abraham Lincoln
This morning the boys and I walked down the street to the local elementary school to cast our vote. Well, to cast my vote.
All the chilly way was filled with talk of ”why?”
Why vote?
Why read up on all the candidates, scribble notes and weigh rhetoric against track record?
Why when it sometimes seems like….
well….
Where are the Thomas Jeffersons? The Benjamin Franklins? The Abraham Lincolns?
Are any of the people on this ballot made of what it takes to fix this mess? Will any of them go down in history as the leaders who restored this nation? Will any of them inspire, work towards, fight for a REAL recovery, one that goes beyond economics?
I don’t know.
“My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy!”
- Thomas Jefferson
But we vote.
Not just because it buys us the right to complain if we don’t like the way things are going.
Not even just because we pay our taxes and so deserve to be heard.
We vote.
Not because we want to stick it to whomever we believe has failed us.
Not because we prefer to invite elephants or perhaps donkeys to our tea parties.
We vote because we have inherited the gift of freedom from those who won it at great cost.
We vote because brave men and women spent interminable days at sea headed toward a new land, risking all that was for all that could be .
We vote because every generation since has poured their own blood, sweat and tears into furthering that great ideal…
America.
Land of the Free.
Home of the Brave.
We vote because that gift, this freedom that we enjoy, is ours to hold for only a little while before we pass it on to our children…. and their children.
We vote because…
“We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution.”
John F. Kennedy
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