ELECTION DAY IS NOT APPROACHING FAST ENOUGH

Onarato or Corbett, Sestak or Toomey ... Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum -- election day is next Tuesday and it cannot come fast enough. They say independents will vote with the Republicans this time, or maybe people won't vote at all. I have turned off my phone in the evening because I want absolutely no more political phone calls. Now if I could only get the emails captured by my spam detector on-line.  I thank God for the mute button on the TV. If I see one more yard sign polluting my neighborhood's lovely brown lawns I may go on an environmental rampage.

Like many people, even those who have declared a party affiliation, these mid-term elections are becoming an exercise in cynicism and frustration.  The process is so relentlessly predictable and negative.  And the issues are so much more complex than sound bytes and stump speeches can explain.

I have long been a fan of West Wing. No, I do not identify with President Bartlett and his policies (at least not some of them); but it was sometimes a penetrating look at the democratic process in America--warts and all. Recently a friend reminded me of an episode where Leo is trying to convince Jedd Bartlett to run for office. It goes back to the motives for running for office that all politicians and voters need to reexamine with more frequency than we do.


I am not about to give up on the democratic process and I will vote to the best of my efforts at insight and values.  If we give up participating in the democratic process, we are toast. The alternatives, history has proven, are far too frightening.

So get out your voter guides. Open them with prayer. Go to the polls and vote.