The World Is Watching

Nov. 4 is fast approaching, and the candidates are making their last-ditch efforts to get your vote.  Many states have opened up early voting to help ease the congestion at the polls, and mail in voting is in full swing.

Have you voted yet?

If not, I would like to toss a couple of thoughts out to you… in the interest of being informed.

1 – think of small business owners when you vote.  If these small business owners are taxed too much, they will go under, resulting in a loss of jobs for more and more people.  More people out of a job means more people losing their homes, means the banking industry will continue to fail, means that the gov’t will think they have to continue to step in to take care of them.

2 – think of military families whose husbands, wives, sons and daughters are serving oversees.  Who is going to take care of them the best?  Who will give the the support that they need to do their job to the best of their ability?  The better they can do their jobs, the sooner they can all come home.

3 – think of our children.  Our schools are becoming a battle ground for them between parents and special interest groups.  Yes, public school is still the only option for many families (unfortunately) and many of us have no idea what our kids are really being taught.  Unless we have the ability to be able to be there helping their teachers, we may never see some of the books that are being read to them, some of the groups that are brought in to talk to them.

4 – think of the thousands of unborn babies that are killed each day.  What was their potential?  One could have had the cure for cancer or AIDS in their yet-undeveloped brain.  America has become the country that sacrifices its young on the alter of self… “I am more important than anything else” has become our mantra.

5 – look at the voting records for each candidate on the ballot – both federal and state – and see how their voting lines up with what is spewing out of their mouths.  It doesn’t always on either side.

6 – keep in mind that our next president will have the power to bring about change – and both have promised to do so.  The question is this: which change is the best for our children’s futures?  Do we draw closer to a socialist run government?  Do we give up more of our rights because our government is exchanging them for more handouts?  9/11 came, and we volunteered up many of our freedoms – some that we still may not realize we gave up.  Who knows if we will ever get them back.

7 – America is still a superpower, though we have lost much of our former glory and respect.  These are tough economic times, yes.  We are all feeling the pinch of over-spending whether on a personal level or a governmental level.  Both candidates have pans to fix this, but if we as citizens can get back to the basics that made this country great, we will pull out of this.  WE have this power.  Every individual person in this country can play their part.  We don’t need the government to take care of us – that is not what our country was founded on.  It wasn’t “America the country iof I deserve it” but rather “America, the land of hope, promise and the possibility that if you work hard enough, anything is possible.”

Our grandparents and their grandparents understood that.  They understood the beauty of a hard day’s work, understood that hard work can enable you to do something more.  Our generation seems to think that everyone owes us something, that we deserve it just because.  We haven’t learned that we need to earn certain things.  I for one don’t want to trade my “inalienable rights” in so that the government can give away free money to people who haven’t paid into the system through hard work.

Part of the economic plan right now is to bail out the people who bought houses that they couldn’t afford, banking on the future.  Those people who have sub-prime loans that are folding are getting a bail out – my question is this: What about those of us who did it right?  Those of us who worked to get our credit where it needed to be, saved up and have an A-paper loan, possibly at the edge of what we can afford, but within our means?  Why aren’t WE getting any help?  They could buy some of us out, and we might be able to sell our homes for a profit and go out there and help the economy once again by doing it right.

This presidential election is arguably one of the most important elections our country has had in decades, and the world is watching.  The future of our country will be based on the decisions that we make as a collective body.  The man who becomes our next president will have the ability to guide the rudder of the most powerful country in the world, and it’s anyone’s guess where we may end up.  Some outcomes are more than a little frightening.

This election has been a very hard one for many voters – myself included.  I have spent many hours, nay DAYS, reading their stands on the issues, their voting records, and the special interest groups that are helping to support them.  I have approached this election with some fear, with a lot of prayer and a lot of soul searching.  I know which issues became the “make or breaks” for me, and who I have placed my vote for, do you?

I’m not typing this to tell you who to vote for – that is between you and your conscience.  Just keep in mind that if you don’t vote, you have no right to gripe when you don’t like who was elected.  All I am asking is that you make an informed decision.  Look at the issues that are important to the future of this great country, that are important to the future of our children, and base your vote on that.  The past is the past, and there is nothing that we can do to change that.  All we have is the here and now, and we are responsible for what we do with it.

Vote.  It’s your civic duty.  Make your voice heard.

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