Election Day

I don’t know about you, but there is a sense of relief at my house that today is voting day. We have had several pounds of unsolicited (and unwanted) “fact sheets” about the opponents of everyone running in today’s election and several of the issues that will be on the ballot. We have had robocalls from all persuasions. For the first time in my life, we have “Important,” or something similar, has shown up on my caller ID as much as “unavailable.” Between the mail, the phone calls, radio, television, and strange people waving signs beside the road, it is really hard to not be not only tired, but completely cynical about what the election process has become in America.

This morning, a friend and coworker came by the office to drop off and pick up some papers. She is off work today, but she and her husband were on their way to vote. They were both excited. They were taking their small children with them to witness the voting process. They even wondered if they could TAKE PICTURES!

I felt a little guilty.

You see, it is the first time that they have ever voted in a general election. They just got their U.S. Citizenship in December of 2009. They came to America from Eastern Europe several years ago with a temporary work visa. They vividly remember life under Soviet rule. Even their names were selected by their parents from a book of approved “non-Christian” names. She has told me what her parents wanted to name her, but that name was rejected by the authorities, probably because it was “too Christian.” They came here, settled here, worked here, furthered their education here, found a church here, and they have contributed here. Today they will exercise a right afforded every American, the right to vote.

It is really easy to become angry, disappointed, or frustrated with the political process we have here. Sometimes it is easy to say, “They’re all idiots! I’m not voting for any of them. Why can’t we vote, ‘none of the above?’ ”

As brilliant as they were, our founding fathers understood that they would not get everything just right. Not only did they make provisions to amend our Constitution, in the preamble to that document they spoke not about perfection, but striving for it.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

In order to form a more perfect Union….. We aren’t there yet. We do dumb things. We have made many corrections in our 200+ years of existence. We have elected brilliant men who could not lead. We have elected some really flawed men who have become surprisingly good leaders.

When the results of today’s voting are tallied, it will neither fix all our flaws nor condemn us to destruction. We will have elected some frogs and probably have sent a prince or two home. Hopefully, it will bring us closer to that, “more perfect Union” that our forefathers envisioned.

I am proud to have the opportunity to vote, even if I think that the choices aren’t that good. The new citizens that voted their first time today is proof that we are doing something right. I am proud for them, but I am also proud of them.