On Tuesday morning, I joined a long line of registered voters at my daughter's elementary school and waited a half an hour for my turn to cast my ballot. While I stood in the fog and sipped my coffee, I thought it was pretty darn wonderful whatever points of view others around me carried, we were agreed the resolution lay on the other side of the cafeteria door. The vote was everything.

I voted for Obama. Many of the kids at school who asked me for whom I voted were shocked the white lady voted for the black man. I suggested to them oh so mildly that their thinking was somewhat bigoted. Here was a new idea for these kids: that racism and bigotry are not diseases that afflict white people only. That people are so much more than the color of their skin. Perhaps they will learn from the words of their hero:

"I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life matter at least as much as our GDP." (Barack Obama)

Amen.

P.S. On Thursday, November 6, I read this in the Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1860 that Abraham Lincoln was elected to his first term as president of the United States. Lincoln's only experience in national politics had been a single term as a congressional representative and two unsuccessful runs for senator. He had only one year of formal schooling and no administrative experience. Newspapers called him a "third-rate Western lawyer."

Once he got the nomination, Lincoln lay low until the election. He only attended one campaign rally, in Springfield, and he didn't even make a speech.

The Southern states took his election as a sign that slavery would be abolished, and before he even had a chance to take the oath of office, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas all seceded from the Union. Abraham Lincoln would spend all but the last few weeks of his life fighting to hold the country together.

To hold the country together. Amen again.


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