GREAT SPIRITS AND PATRIOTISM

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.
- Albert Einstein, quoted in New York Times, March 19, 1940

Albert Einstein must have been a psychic. Barack Obama is the great spirit in this election. The mediocre minds are John McCain and Sarah Palin. Barack Obama, always the cool and calm gentleman with the courage to speak of the virtues of right. John McCain, always the desperate purveyor of historical prejudices that he, himself, cannot identify as old and wrong.

I have to tell ya. Even though the polls are telling us that things are going to change on November 4th and that a new America is on the horizon, I have a little voice inside me that's telling me something could go sooooo wrong. The little voice is reminding me of the stolen 2000 election. The little voice is reminding me how much HUGE money stands to be lost by wealthy Republican supporters if Obama wins. I hear the voices of Republican's already seemingly setting things up so that they can scream "Voter Fraud!" at the top of their lungs when Obama wins tomorrow. I watch TV and see the age-old telltale signs of Republican voter suppression. I watch Fox Schmooze and hope that most of America will see through their prejudicial rhetoric disguised as patriotism. I worry that Democrats and other liberals will stay home on Tuesday, thinking that the election will be such a landslide, that they don't need to cast their own little vote.

There is no such thing as a little vote. Obama needs each and every American who is disgusted by the corruption of the Republican administration, to go out tomorrow and vote big. No matter the weather or the long lines. Stand in that line proudly, knowing that you are going to be a part of a new America. Take a beverage and some snacks. Enjoy your place in line. Do it so you can tell your children and your grandchildren that you can remember the day when everything changed. Keep your voter stub, put it somewhere safe, so that when your children are grown, you can proudly show them how important being an American patriot really is. You will be able to prove to them that your vote counted and it was YOUR vote that changed America forever.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary:

PatriotismPa"tri*ot*ism\, n. - Love of country; devotion to the welfare of one's country; the virtues and actions of a patriot; the passion which inspires one to serve one's country.

My own definition of Patriotism:

That wonderful feeling you will have when you wake up on November 5th. Those goose bumps and that tear in your eye when you realize that Barack Obama and YOU have actually made it happen.

JUST VOTE. PLEASE.