One day and counting

Thee last canvasses have been done, the last hand out has been handed out. It’s all over but the screaming. And the litigation. And the protests. It’s not going to be over on Tuesday. No one is going to lose this one without a fight.

So. What to do. Well, you can start out by voting, but many of you have all ready done that. The polls on Tuesday are still going to be zoos and the lines will be endless . . . but good. We like that. We do not love standing in line, but it’s all a matter on the line you are standing in, and what you are waiting for . . .

We are standing in line for our helping of Freedom From Tyranny, our share of Freedom from Threats to our Liberties, a better portion of Freedom from the Constant Fear of Fear. We want our world back. But we have to be aware that a lot of our world is gone. It won’t be back to where it was on September 10th. Those heady days of fearlessness and constitutional protections are over. The Patriot Act is not going to go away. Hopefully, it can be legislated into something that can protect us and our liberties. But the days of parking wherever you want and being able to leave for the airport on the day of your flight - that’s finished. Hopefully, we were fund all of that airport busywork and make it more about finding things instead of just looking at them. They aren’t checking the crap that gets onto the planes, your sex toy? That they’ll find, it’s a dangerous threat to national security and must be destroyed! You must be a terrorist and we need to do a cavity check Right Now! Take off your shoes and bend over, the box of explosives? Not even a problem, just load that puppy into the cargo hold and we’ll be off.

I lit a candle for John Kerrys’ election at mass today. I prayed for it all the way through mass and all the way out to my car. The huge voter tune out is good for the dems, and the Redskins lost!, But... a little prayer can’t hurt. Okay, a lot of prayer, possibly in groups. Light a candle, say a prayer, ask your deity of choice for the election to go our way, do whatever you can to make this come out a Kerry win. A second Bush administration would be a national tragedy.

Only you can prevent National Tragedy.


Okay, I know you already voted. What else can you do? You could call the Democratic Party Headquarters in your town and ask what they need, you can go to Move On and sign up to be a poll watcher in your area, or you can sign up to drive people to the polls on election day. You don’t want to get involved this close to the date? You don’t have a car? You aren’t a joiner? You can pray all day.

The woman I did my canvass with on Saturday was a recent Chinese immigrant. She became a citizen just last year. This is her first presidential election. She told me that she came to America because of what America means to the rest of the world. It is a fair place, a good place, a place of promise where anyone can go and be who they want to be. Everything is possible. She told me that she had always respected America. She felt that the U.S. treated the Japanese well and very fairly, before and after the war, despite the fact she said “as a Chinese, I hate the Japanese.” She respected America.

She is actively campaigning for John Kerry because she cannot respect America under George W. Bush. America is hurting and she wants to make it whole again. She wants to help heal America. She wants it to be the way she thought it was supposed to be. She leaves her husband and two small children every weekend to go and make America a better place. She is a religious woman. She had difficulty with Kerrys stand on Gay Marriage. So she prayed, and prayed and finally she got her response: God told her : mind her own business. So she does. She walks miles for Kerry, she knocks on strangers doors for Kerry, she drives miles out of her way for Kerry - because she wants an America she can respect. She is praying for a Kerry win.