Election Day 2012

Another election day.  The bitterness in this election has been profound and, I believe, in part is fueled by the media created expectations of anyone who serves as President.
Elections were very different when I first started voting.  My first election was 1976- Jimmy Carter running as an outsider, a new face from Georgia versus the incumbent President Ford.  I had been traumatized, as had many, by the relentless Watergate hearings and the dramatic resignation of President Nixon.  But, even then, I don't believe that there was a similar polarization as I find in today's political discourse.
I hear often about "taking our country back" or that "the America we used to live in no longer exists" or that one party has "Christian values" while the other one doesn't.  It troubles me deeply that the lines between church and state are increasingly threatened by the polarization and the politics of our nation.
Our nation has avoided the problem of religious tyranny, sectarian violence and theocratic involvement due to the wisdom of the separation of church and state as part of our founding credo.  I pray that our nation continues to leave God and my relationship  to God as a matter belonging only to me without the influence, direct or indirect, well meaning or otherwise, of political leaders.
I pray that we can continue to engage each other in our daily lives as Americans to solve our nation's problems.  That too has been sorely lacking in our national politics, but, fortunately, I can see the many ways that unite us rather than the few differences that separate us.
Whether Governor Romney or President Obama wins today's election, I am confident that either of these good men will do their best for our nation and that we will certainly continue to strive to improve the lives of those among us who are most in need.  I will pray for whomever is selected to try to fulfill this nearly impossible task of leading our great nation and urge you to do the same.

Love and peace,

Tony