VOTE!
Wow, what a feeling...I arrived at the old Lowell School, the polling place for precinct 89 (my precinct) this morning shortly after 7:00 AM; that's the time the polls opened and there was already a line. The electricity in the air was evident the minute I stepped inside the building. People were EXCITED to vote. And what an important election this is. No matter which of the aisles you fall beside, this election matters more than possibly any other since Hoover v. FDR and the New Deal. In Montana we have 5 choices for President/Vice President...5!!!!!! Personally, I think that is awesome. Nader is on as an independent, we have a Constitutionalist candidate, a Libertarian candidate, a Green candidate and the two major parties. In Montana we're also electing a Governor/Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Three Supreme Court Justices, a Congressman, School superintendent, State Auditor, District Court Judge, County Commissioners and City Commissioners and choosing yes or no to initiatives on medical marijuana, cyanide mining, the definition of marriage and noxious weed management. It's alot to be informed about.
Last election I voted for Nader and I wanted to again BECAUSE HE IS RIGHT...but I couldn't bring myself to do it this time as he would be a terrible President in terms of foreign relations, something we need badly right now...I wimped out. Despite my conservative thinking on economic issues and my support for many ideals labeled "Republican", I couldn't vote for Bush. His administration's bumbling of the Iraq War alone caused me to lose all faith in him (I never really had any to begin with). I do not trust Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and especially not Rice or the war hawk Wolfewitz. I cast my ballot for Kerry/Edwards. What will you do? Cancel me out or add to the role? The most important thing of all is to get out and vote.
From the Abolitionist poet, John Greenleaf Whittier's 1840 Poem, "The Poor Voter on Election Day":
The proudest now is but my peer,
the highest not more high,
To-day, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
My palace is the people's hall,
The ballot-box my throne!
for there, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong to-day;
alike, the brown and wrinkled fist,
the gloved and dainty hand.
The rich is level with the poor,
the weak is strong today.
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretence
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man's common sense
Against the pedant's pride.
Today, shall simple manhood try the
strength of gold and land
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!
While there is a grief to seek
redress or balance to adjust,
where ways are living manhood
less than mamands vilest dust
while there's a right to need
my vote a wrong to sweep away,
up clouded knee and wrinkled coat
a man's a man today.
Last election I voted for Nader and I wanted to again BECAUSE HE IS RIGHT...but I couldn't bring myself to do it this time as he would be a terrible President in terms of foreign relations, something we need badly right now...I wimped out. Despite my conservative thinking on economic issues and my support for many ideals labeled "Republican", I couldn't vote for Bush. His administration's bumbling of the Iraq War alone caused me to lose all faith in him (I never really had any to begin with). I do not trust Ashcroft, Rumsfeld and especially not Rice or the war hawk Wolfewitz. I cast my ballot for Kerry/Edwards. What will you do? Cancel me out or add to the role? The most important thing of all is to get out and vote.
From the Abolitionist poet, John Greenleaf Whittier's 1840 Poem, "The Poor Voter on Election Day":
The proudest now is but my peer,
the highest not more high,
To-day, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
My palace is the people's hall,
The ballot-box my throne!
for there, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong to-day;
alike, the brown and wrinkled fist,
the gloved and dainty hand.
The rich is level with the poor,
the weak is strong today.
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretence
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man's common sense
Against the pedant's pride.
Today, shall simple manhood try the
strength of gold and land
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!
While there is a grief to seek
redress or balance to adjust,
where ways are living manhood
less than mamands vilest dust
while there's a right to need
my vote a wrong to sweep away,
up clouded knee and wrinkled coat
a man's a man today.
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