Strange Days Have Found Us

With only a few weeks to go until the election the experts have started to make their predictions. The fever pitch at which the media is covering the decisions already made is equal to the pace at which the media covered our indecision a few weeks prior, because the show must go on.

No longer is our great process a true process. The era of twenty-four hour news has ruined our method. Once the issues have been covered over and over and once again, there is space between commercials to be filled still, so let's look at what our potential first ladies are wearing and what those choices say about them. Let's fill the space between Coca-Cola and Geico with an in depth analysis of how our candidates put their pants on, “It may not be one leg at a time. Tune in at eleven for details.”.

I remember being an average elementary student learning all about the history of the United States and learning about the hard choices made by the people through the vessel that was their elected leaders. I had a certain pride in saying the pledge of allegiance once. Now I am an average thirty-year-old man. I like my group of friends have participated in every election I have been able and I, as my friends feel smaller and smaller with every passing presidential term.

Recently during a phone conversation with one of my more intelligent friends after we had shot back and forth a dissection of issues, after we listened to each other , had every fact we knew examined and had a good laugh that if the government were listening in on the right conversations more change would happen than doors being knocked in for “protection from terrorists”, my friend made it very clear that she would be leaving the country with her husband if the seat of the commander in chief remained in the hands of the Republican party. I was shaken by this notion but not shocked. Her faith in the system and our nation is faltering just like my own faith, just like other members of the population. Just not enough of the population.

This particular race for President is so shadowed by sensationalism and the flash of the media scrambling for not only influence in the election but for ratings, that a true election by the people has become impossible. Frankly, I am worried for the future. I am as worried about us as Americans being manipulated by flash and charisma as I am about energy, economical stability and health care. There is so much lipstick on the pit-bull that it care barely be identified as a junkyard dog. There is so much “Hope” that we can no longer see that we are just crossing our fingers and wishing for change. We may as well be throwing coins into a well.

If and when my friend leaves the country with her husband, a loss in the nation will occur. It will not however be felt as it should. A very small portion of honest tax paying citizens will be gone and a large portion of intelligent voters will have made their way out of the three-ring circus. Fear is my motivation for voting on November 4 th, not patriotic duty. I fear that I will never feel the same pride in our country that I did as a child. I fear I will have indifference during the national anthem, that I will feel nothing for my home and that you too will feel the same.