Laura, The Pen Pusher's Weblog

I’ve voted all along, but it’s been years since I’ve been actively involved in politics. This election is different. This one can change the whole course of our country.

Over the past several decades, as the internet has made the world a smaller place, we Americans have become a smaller, more narrow-minded people, losing the respect we once carried throughout the globe. Other countries didn’t always agree with us, but they respected our stance, our strength of character, our generosity and our innovation as a people. Now, we’ve become a laughing stock in one arena and a frightening power in others. We’ve become the invader, the bully we used to strike out against. We’ve become the spoiled brats who pick up our toys and go home, or lash out against the person who’s offended our own petty self interests.

We founded our nation on the idea that diverse people could live together in peace and govern themselves without the assistance of an overbearing monarch. But we’ve allowed ourselves to become divided and as a result, weaker as a nation. A collective “WE” have become selfish and arrogant, greedy, and motivated by our own self interests alone, omitting our neighbors, near-by, across the country and around the world.

Companies have moved jobs overseas, eliminating the need to abide by our country’s laws, in search of higher profits at the expense of families here at home. The oil and gas industry, also in search of higher profits, have omitted any concern for the environment or for the welfare of foreign populations, except as handed out by law.

Banking interests, mortgage companies, trying to fatten their coffers, have placed thousands of families in jeopardy of losing their homes. And families have become isolated to areas that reflect only their own interests without thought to the consequences of that isolation.

When did we become a nation of spoiled children, ego-centric, limiting our world to such a small space? A child’s world is only as big as the steps he or she can take. We’ve reduced our world to a comparable space and we’ve reduced our minds as well. We can’t take a leadership role in the world; we can’t become innovators, without thinking of those around us, whether it’s our neighborhoods, our counties, our states, and our country amid a world of countries. We’re all in this together.

We have a planet to save not only for our own best interests but for the interests of the rest of the world and I’m not talking about environment alone. President Bill Clinton expressed his own concerns for our country at a recent interview with moderator Jane Wales at the Aspen Ideas Fest 2008. He talked about the idealism and commitment of young people and about how isolated and divided we, as a country have allowed ourselves to become, citing anecdotes from a recent book, The Big Sort, by Bill bishop and Robert Cushing. “Some of us are gonna have to cross the street,” says Clinton. See his video interview at http://www.ruralvotes.com/thebackforty/?p=202. Now is the time for all of us to “cross the street” and become the adult citizens of America.

In the next few months we’ll be faced with the election of a candidate to lead our country. Will it be Barack Obama or John McCain? Which is the best candidate to bring our country together? Which candidate has already transcended political party divisions? Which candidate has taken the steps to build a cohesive unit to combat our current issues? Which candidate has both the temperament and the intelligence to face our perceived enemies and engage them in dialogue rather than war for the betterment of all? Which candidate has the experience and the wisdom to see and actually listen to all people, regardless of differences, to bring them together in a way that unites rather than divides? Which candidate has the vision to see that we each want a better future for ourselves, for our children and our grandchildren and that this is what unites all of us?

Barack Obama, hands down.