Remember…Remember

That the fifth of November is always my birthday.

I’m actually doing a somewhat political post, since the election is over, I'm not going to sway anyones vote. As a pretty middle of the road guy, I admit, liked both candidates and choosing between the two of them was a bit difficult but in the end (well 3 weeks ago) I mailed in my vote. I liked that they didn’t seem lean heavily one way or another and if you listen closely, a majority of their disagreements were just semantics. My takes?
Being from Arizona and being in the Military, John McCain has always got my vote for Senate and in 2000, I was excited that he was going to run and it was the only time in my life that I wished I wasn’t an Independent so I could vote during the primary. He’s a class act. This time around though, it’s a much more complex world then the one of 2000, lots of moving parts in the air and gratuation 695 out of 699 at Annapolis and his age, I wasn't sure he could handle it.

Obama, stuck a nerve with me, he’s a mixed breed American Mutt like myself, raised by his mother with his father out of the picture. Being the editor of the Harvard Law Review is a fairly big deal, with the list of problems the next President is going to receive, he's going to need to be smart and quick on his feet.

So up until maybe a month and a half ago, I was still undecided. Then the emails started coming out, claiming he was Muslim, sworn into office using the Quran, the test messages with video of him turning into a monkey, the anti-Christ, a terrorist and some just racist, talking about lynching, more lies then I could shake a stick at. Were they trying to swift boat him? Growing up, I had my share of racism around me, I was one of the few non white kids in my school, it didn’t matter that I grew up there, I looked different and it became a regular thing to trip me or try fighting me. I have friends on both sides of the isle, but didn’t receive anything as mean and viscous as these emails, well a few Palin jokes which were actually funny.

There are other reasons why I choose to vote for Senator Obama which I won’t get into, but the reason here had nothing to do with the candidates, both of whom I admire, respect and believe would do a great job. No, this part of my vote was against the bigots and narrow minded people who came up with this crap and are feeding it to the people who forward everything. Please, before you forward an email, perhaps you should fact check them at someplace like http://www.factcheck.org/ or http://www.snopes.com/ , not all of us are sheep who believe what these emails say and to us, for whom truth is important, sending us a lie is a big deal.

So sorry, Carla, Wendy, Jason, Toni, Teresa, Ronnie, Jim, Matt(s), AWTM, Kim, Dad, Amy and actually most of the who’s who of my sidebar, sorry for not hopping on your band wagon and for being a disappointment. I had to make my own path. And for the other people, congrats, let’s hope we made the right decision.