Today is the Day

This will be my “Dr. Jekyll” Election Day post.

You can find my “Mr. Hyde” rant at Women On.

Today is election day. The day for which I personally have been earnestly yearning since January 20th, 2001.

The Bush Administration is circling the drain, no matter who comes out on top in today’s election, and that in itself is cause for unfettered celebration.

Still, we must hope for so much more.

We must hope for a leader who will drag us out of the gutter of fear and divisiveness into which the Bush Administration pitched us and held us for eight long years.

We must hope for a leader capable of speaking the words and inspiring the policies that will shepherd us back to the moral high ground we once held.

We must hope for a new administration that will truly join hands across the aisle in Congress, fulfilling the empty promises that George W. Bush—President “Uniter-Not-Divider“—made to the American people, fingers tightly crossed behind his back, at the outset of his presidency eight years ago.

We must hope for a president who will seek the counsel of all the best and the brightest in this great nation, heedless of party politics, rather than make every attempt to fill all the high positions of government with unqualified cronies and “yes-(wo)men.”

We must hope for a president who relies on knowledge, wisdom, sound judgment and wit to carry this nation and the world to a higher plane, rather than one who openly scorns these things in favor of the politics of fear, ignorance and xenophobia that have formed our national policies since 2001.

It’s no secret that I believe Barack Obama is the best choice in this race. And I firmly believe that the majority of Americans believe it, too.

But it’s not enough to believe it. You need to act on it.

VOTE. YOUR VOTE COUNTS.

Do not, under any circumstances, believe that you can spare yourself the ordeal of standing in line for hours, because all the polls say Obama is going to win, and he doesn’t need your vote. I have seen disastrous things happen when people trust the system to carry out their wishes without doing their part. I’ve seen hate measures become law, I’ve seen bad candidates squeak to victory, all because the “good guys” were sure that the bad guys didn't stand a chance, so they…didn’t vote.

Lucky me, I live in a “vote-by-mail” state. I sat at my dining room table a week ago, studied the candidates and the measures, filled out my ballot, stuffed it in the envelope and trundled it over to city hall.

For those of you who are not quite so lucky, I wish you fine weather, short lines, good company, and godspeed.

In a little less than 24 hours it will all be history.

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