Election Day

Throughout the last week, I have started and stopped writing this post several times.  I wanted to rant about how ugly election season had become, about how I hate the negative ads, about how I am annoyed that some people have stopped being respectful of people who have viewpoints that do not comport with their own.

I wanted to express my disgust that the sign on my brother's fence that used to look like this:

now looks like this:

And honestly, I'm still a little annoyed and a lot disgusted (that's the fence of an Iraq-War vet who fights for your freedom to wield that can of spray paint, you arse).

But this morning at my polling station, while standing in line behind a hundred people waiting to vote, I realized why I never got around to publishing that post:  This is cool.  Yes, this election season has brought out the worst in some people, but it has again highlighted one of the best things about this country:  Our freedom to engage in political discourse and take part in the election process.  Our opinions matter.  Our votes matter.  And our actions make a difference. 

Whether it's going to be "Mitt Ryan" (as Zachary calls him) or Barack Obama (Zachary says this perfectly), I don't know.  But I'm proud that we live in a country where we get to choose.