Excercise your Right (and DUTY) as an American

No matter who you are, no matter what you believe, you must cast a vote. Not merely for the next Leader of the Free World, but on a local and state level as well. At minimum know for yourself what is right for you and please cast your vote. Don't just listen to who your friends and neighbors are voting for, or who the local paper endorses, but look for yourself at what each person brings to the table.
Tomorrow I look forward to the privilege of casting my vote. In Indiana you vote the party, not the person (on so many levels that is wrong and contributes to the divisiveness that occurs in politics) and therefore my husband and I will be meeting this evening to decide which Republicans we want to vote for and which Democrats. I feel very strongly (PJ too except he now gives Hillary deserved props for going on Bill O'Reilly's show and doing well!) about Barack Obama so I will be voting Democrat. PJ feels (me too) strongly about Mr. Jim Howard for County Council so he will be voting Republican. In a perfect world we both could vote for both. Regardless of how the polls look, the only thing that matters is the actual votes. And if people get polled and don't vote, or people don't vote because of the polls we can call that irresponsible. So please, do the right thing. I am going (with both children!!!!!!!!!) to my local polling place tomorrow morning (before my sister in law, her husband and their sweet baby girl come down from Detroit for a lunch visit!) and afterwards I may even get a little verklempt. People reacted strongly when Michelle Obama made that statement about being proud to be an American- who would have the audacity to say such a thing? I am glad she said it. The people who reacted with anger I believe are people who don't give much thought to what is going on in our country, or government, or our place in world affairs. If you stopped to think, you might see how people are treating each other, how selfish some people are, and how there is much room for improvement. And when we work toward that it should give us some pride as Americans.