Choose Well

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

Abe Lincoln
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Hello Arlene
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As we approach election day, politicians all over the country will be campaigning to get enough votes to win a job or keep a job. The President and Vice President jobs are at the top of the pile, but other positions from Congress, through State Governments on down to local governments are also being sought.

A lot of money will be spent trying to win votes. Speeches will be made, interviews will be held and debates will take place. There will be a lot of information and misinformation delivered to the voters. Accusations will be made and denied. Records will be held up for scrutiny. Our radios and TVs will be inundated with advertisements for and against one candidate or another. And. yes. unfortunately, lies will be told.

There will be talk of war, budgets, human rights, health care and the "future" of America. Programs, systems and traditions will be threatened by the sabers of opinion and policy.

One of the greatest things about the United States is that no matter where you live, stuffed into a small room in the ghetto of some inner city, in a shack on the desert, a remote island off the Alaskan coast, there is someone in Congress, in your state legislature and in some cities who represents you. It means you have a link to the government, and you have a right to contact that person at any time of you need help or if you feel the need to express an opinion. What that means to me is that although a tremendous amount of power resides with the President, the Vice President and the 50 Governors of our various states, and those people should be carefully chosen. it is equally as important to provide the best people you can for those representative positions.

I look at the records, I hear the speeches, I read the opinions, I consider the issues, I watch the debates. Unfortunately I also have to watch the mud slinging, the back slapping, the nose twisting and the hand shaking. But when it's all over and time to exercise my special privilege as an American citizen to cast my vote I look for the person who has the heart, the heart to care, the heart to help, the heart to heal.

Dana Bate - Vagabond Journeys
Never Give Up
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