Election Day

Today is Election Day. By the time most of you read this, the votes will have been cast. Or at least, mine will have. By the end of this day the die will have been cast and the future of this country, and of the world, will be set in a new direction.

No one knows where that new direction will take us. Just as we don't know, at this point, who it is that will be at the helm of the Ship of State.

I could tell you whom I hope it is. But I will wait yet another day. Until after the decision we're all making today is decided and announced.

I have been reading about the young Turks who were responsible for what we see today as our form of government. Not the old guys. Not Washington or Adams or even Jefferson. No. The young guys - Madison and Hamilton, the guys in their thirties when all of this stuff was being decided. The guys who wrote the Constitution. The guys who rose to the challenge when their country needed them.

The amazing thing is their youth. Wisdom and understanding usually come with age and experience. Neither of which these guys had. All they had was an innate understanding of the principles of government as attributed to Jefferson - that the ability to govern comes from the consent of the governed. Actually, this thinking is an extension of the writings of the English political theorist John Locke, and was well expressed in the Virginia Bill of Rights, authored in 1776 (see section 6 of the Virginia Bill of Rights) by George Mason, then 51 years old.

Over time I have seen the good, the bad, the sinner, and the saint, rise and fall on the American political stage. Each has espoused a philosophy of one sort or other, but almost always, the real agenda of said politician has been hidden and unexpressed, except after rising to and gaining high office. The old saying is, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." It should be "Any power corrupts." There are no saints out there. The altruists did their best in the 1780's. There have been no true altruists since. Not in government, anyway.

Conservatives espouse a free market economy and smaller government. Liberals would create a more socialized environment in which the common wealth is spent for the common good. Both political views are valid and workable but that they do not allow for one simple and overriding factor that prostitutes either philosophy so that it is unworkable. Greed. Human greed and avarice. And, as it turns out, the greediest and most avaricious of us seem to become politicians.

I grew up believing, with all my heart and soul, that we live in the greatest country in the world. It saddens me that we no longer hold the high moral ground. In WWII, the feeling was that "God was on our side." Just ask anybody who was alive then. They knew. They felt it. As despicable and unconscionable as war is, this was seen as the 'good fight' and the sacrifice of the children of the time was seen in a different and 'holier' light. We were right. Our allies were right. It was time to fight.

There is no such feeling today. Much of the world hates and despises us. We torture and maim, and even kill, prisoners in this war on terror.

We have become what we are fighting against.

We are not right. We hold no higher moral ground. I'm not sure just who is on our side, but I don't think we can claim God as an enthusiastic supporter.

We need to get back to our roots. We need to get back to where we belong. On the high ground. Where we can look at what we do and be proud. And, just to be perfectly clear - so no one attributes the wrong motives to what I am saying - I am not talking about turning to the religious right for guidance. Or anything. The goodness of man lies in his soul. In his ability to love his fellow man. In his ability to do unto others as he would have them do unto him. To realize and understand that all men - ALL MEN - are created equal. No matter where they are. Or what they believe.

Madison and Hamilton have no equals - then - or today. It begs the question - where are the good guys when you really need them?

Pray for us, whatever we have decided.

Peace.