I’m in too good of a mood to smack down anyone this week so instead here are my thoughts on tonight’s election:

A little over 4 years ago I remember my wife and I attending a John Kerry rally at our loacl events center and remarking at how NORMAL the vast majority of people who attended seemed.  Living in a red state we were bombarded with anti-liberal propaganda and led to believe that all liberals were anti-gun, pro-legalized marijuana, pro-choice, anti-war/anti-troops un-American LIBERALS (pronounced with emphasis and with a touch of derision).  Marilyn and I knew that we didn’t feel this way on most of these issues but had been brainwashed into thinking that if we attended a Democratic Party rally that we would get a contact high and would spend most of our time avoiding eye contact with extremist tye-died psychopaths.  As we were standing in line I couldn’t help but remark that contrary to this popular notion most of the people there were like us and were talking about hope and change and how things could be so much better than they were at that moment.  My impression was that most of the people there took strong exception to being called un-American or anti-troop simply because we believed with everything in us that President Bush was wrong on Iraq.  We didn’t believe that the cost of battling terrorism was the violation of basic human rights and loss of individual freedoms guaranteed us by the founding fathers and Constitution.  We were all working towards a better tomorrow and a parents primal instinct to provide a brighter future for our children.  We attended another rally in a rural community a week later to meet in person General Wes Clark, a man we supported in his primary bid.  While we enjoyed the company of a small group of Democrats at the rally we also boggled at the mindless pro-Bush rhetoric and talking points in the community and how the election seemed to be taking place 40 years ago immediately after Vietnam rather than through the prism of time that wisdom and age provide.  We couldn’t believe the volume of robocalls as my parents phone rang literally every 15 minutes with pre-recorded messages from the Bush campaign and other conservative candidates.  Tonight I’m sitting here watching a very gracious John McCain concede the election and an equally gracious Barack Obama accept the Presidency and my mind boggles.  Did it really take 9 years to get to this point?  Why didn’t people listen to us in 2000 when we were pleading that Gore would be a better choice?  Why didn’t they listen to us in 2004 when w were screaming from the rooftops that America was in serious trouble?  I don’t know the answers to these questions (believe me I’ve run these through my mindmearly daily for 9 years) but tonight I feel reasured that there are now a majority of Americans that feel the way that we do and only want things to get better.  I also know there are alot of people out there that are very concerned about what it means to have Obama as President.  I get that.  To them I would ask:  How much worse could things get at this point?  The only real choice we have is to look to the future and place our fears and our hopes in God and pray that he will give Barack Obama the guidance and strength to do what’s RIGHT for all Americans.  That’s the best we can ever hope for.

None of this has really sunk it yet and I’m sure I’ll have more to say in the next few days once it does.  I’m equally sure that Obama/Biden will give me plenty of things to rant about in the weekly smackdown so I look forward to that!  In the meantime it’s bottoms up for me and mine as we celebrate and enjoy this moment that is better than our birthdays, Christmas, and New Years all rolled into one.  Good night and God bless.