The Day before Election Day

This morning I dressed up (not my usual jeans and boots) and drove to Waco to a press conference at Congressional candidate, Van Taylor's headquarters. Sen. John Cornyn was there as well. Although I have already voted, and voted for Van Taylor, I had not met him. My first thought was, "Wow. If only all the other people in Congress were as nice as Van is." That was my second thought as well.

The point here is why should we settle for smarmy, professional politicians to represent us, when there are smart, sincere, and ... what can only be described as...nice, people running for office? Well, we shouldn't settle for less. The original plan was that our elected representatives were to represent us, our values, our principles, our dreams. Sadly, over the last couple hundred years, the majority of our elected officials seek public office just to fatten up their own personal coffers. It is our job to weed those guys (and gals) out. If we do not get back to our basic core values, we are going to be in a whole heep o' trouble.

Although I've voted for Sen. Cornyn everytime he's been on the ballot, I had never met him until a couple of months ago. At that first meeting, he thought we were acquainted. Should I be embarassed that my name probably sounded familiar to him because of the hundreds of emails, faxes and phone calls I've sent to his office? The comment I wanted to make regarding Sen. Cornyn is that he seems like a really decent human being. We had a brief conversation about the border issue, and not only does he does understand the ramifications of a porous border, but he has a good perspective on the "big picture", and he is doing all he can in the Senate to provide funding for securing the border, as well as dealing with the illegal aliens in our midst. Imagine that! A Senator with a clue! Amazing.

So, what this boils down to is, we, citizens, must get more involved with the political process. During the primary season, take an hour or so out of your busy life, and get your tail down to campaign headquarters, and meet the candidates. Ask them their views on issues you are concerned with. If you really like them, then how 'bout helping them get elected? It's time we got back to choosing representatives who actually do represent us, and unless you've actually spoken to the candidate, how will you really know?

If you haven't voted, be sure to vote tomorrow. If the Iraqis can turn out to vote, not knowing if they will return from the poll alive, I think we should be able to run down to the corner and vote, don't you?