Perhaps it is good that you did not have to witness the uprising on Facebook, as friends were made and some lost, this morning when the nation awoke to a re-elected President Obama, although you probably would have shrugged your shoulders and went on with your day.
For the rest of us, it was an impressive display of a nation completely torn in half and one that will never be the same.
I participated in early voting this year, as it was that I was working 12 of the 24 hours of the day yesterday and knew that there would be no way that I could make it to the polls. But as I stood in line while the long ago retiree took my information sheet and asked for my ID, I thought not of the amazing upheaval that was involved in today, but more of your extreme passion to exercise your American freedom. Before you died you had marked on your calendar at your dad's house Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 as your very first "Voting Day". You died 3 days before you were able to exercise that right. So Vince and I went to the polls during the March 6th Preliminaries and voted for you. We wrote in your candidate, Ron Paul, a silly but necessary gesture to your memory. The calendar at your dad's house still holds that "Voting Day" mark, but now, many months later, a very different outcome. You didn't care what anyone thought about your choice in President and you didn't listen to reason, but that is exactly what this country's foundation was built on, the love of the freedom of choice. And I couldn't help but beam with pride when I heard you, very nonchalantly, voicing your reasoning in the choice.
I like to think that everyone thinks as though I do, learning to take life in little strides with baby steps, but unfortunately with so little knowledge of how quickly that can be taken from someone, how could I actually expect that?
You were so expectant on the unknown and so willing to take on the new challenges with stride. I can only hope that as a nation we can do the same. If one 'small voice' can make that much noise perhaps everyone else will listen. We can all hope. So while the nation lull in the wake of the presidential election, I will lull in the wake of the amazing hope that your memory gives me every day. And hopefully we can all do the same and grasp every day with the same hope and love for life.
I did not vote for President Obama and went armed into the polls with the knowledge that I would not vote for him, but it means nothing to anyone else my personal reasons for doing so. And THAT is the American way.
A day so important that my amazing baby sister marked on her innocent calendar on her first year of eligible voting but was unfortunate enough to not be able to participate in, really puts everything into perspective for me. It gave me the drive to make sure that my voice was heard, and really, at the end of the day, that is all that matters.
Who can really tell whether you were just being goofy or you were dead set on your choice for very "important" reasons, but who really cares...
While you did not sway my vote one way or the other, and for those of you that really knew us, know that we often went in opposite directions, you did sway my reasons for heading to the poll at all. You were so excited to believe that you were making a difference and that your voice was heard on the larger stage, so excited for the future and the life ahead of you. You had an insatiable hunger for the life that you were going to live and the life you were going to lead that you actually wrote the day of voting for the preliminaries on your calendar.
If only we could all be that motivated and excited about the lives ahead of us, regardless of the outcome....
I saw this quote by John Quincy Adams and thought about you: "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."
