Ballot Casting

A quick update on the boys - still sick.  Spent the day with Grandma.  Thanks Ma for taking them.  They are in bed now. Medicated.  Blessed.  Prayed over.  We approach tomorrow with optimism that they will be on the mend and ready to head back to school. 

On to today.  I looked forward all day to the opportunity to go and vote.  It is election day in The United States of America and we have the opportunity as a nation to let our voices be heard.  Around 5:30 or so, after picking the boys up from Grandma, I made my way over to South Elementary School to cast my ballot.  As I returned home I sat and pondered our right to vote and I thought about being on mission in South Africa in 1994 when Nelson Mandela was elected President.  I was reminded of the great privilege it is to vote.  I shared the following:

It is always a pleasure to cast my ballot. I can't help but think about the elections of 1994 in South Africa when I watched a people who had never been allowed to vote before line up for two days to cast their ballots. They cherished that opportunity as do I.

We live in a wonderful country.  I am grateful for the freedoms we enjoy and the rights that are ours.  I am grateful to have voted today.

In light of those thoughts let me also express my tremendous sadness.  It would appear as if the candidate I voted for, Mitt Romney, will not win the election.  It has been called for President Obama.  I hope for some sort of a miracle to take place that news stations called it too early and that when the final votes have been counted the results will be different.  I shutter to think what four more years of President Obama will bring to our country.  

As I knelt at Andy's bedside and said my prayers I thought about our great country.  We are more then the person that serves as President.  We are Americans and we can accomplish great things.  We are not subject to a ruler or dictator, we are free to do great things and we should.  In the great game of politics the leader will try to take claim for what we as a people accomplish.  I can tell you that our little business employs 11 people and I'll be damned if I give the credit for those jobs to President Obama.  He has nothing to do with it.  He is not the one taking the risk, not the one working for pennies and certainly has no skin in the game.  The reality is we chose to take the risk as do all entrepreneurs who go out and try to make something more of themselves.  No one man can rob us of that right.  We can choose to sit and do nothing or press forward, working hard to make this country great.  That, I guess, is the pep talk I had to give myself as I shared my feelings with the Lord - well, I didn't say the part about "I'll be damned" in my conversation there with the Lord.  That was just a little creative licence to add a little drama to the blog. 

This is all I have for tonight.  I wish there were more Americans who cast ballots similar to mine.  I know there are quite a few that did and hope that each of us will see fit to do all we can to make this country great, to keep this country great.