WriterByNature.com

This will be my last post until after the March.

I am excited, not only because I get to relive memories of anti-war protests during my college years, but because I believe this kind of public gathering is powerful and will make a difference.

Call me naive, optimistic or crazy. But is it sane to live in fear of an omnipresent terrorist threat? I’m not sure how history will treat the past six years, but right now our elected officials have an opportunity to listen and represent voters, instead of lobbyists, for a change.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and habeus corpus will be restored, the Patriot Act will be repealed, and the electoral college will be abolished.

Maybe we’ll stop looking at whether Obama is Black, Clinton is female, or Richardson is Hispanic and listen to what these people have to say. What has each candidate been doing as a public servant in the last 10 years? Do their past actions fit their rhetoric? If not, has the candidate had an epiphany that explains the difference?

Every time I get mad enough to move to another country (I’ve had a secret wish to be a Canadian for years), I remember that Americans enjoy a standard of living unmatched anywhere in the world. Our poorest citizens have access to items which are not even available in many countries. My dumpster-diving efforts have yielded products that were fine - just not the current year’s model or style. If I had to live in the woods - or even in city streets - I’d still have access to material culture most people in the world only dream about.

Americans take a lot for granted. We are wasteful and misguided in many areas, but we may be on the brink of a huge social change. We may actually become more tolerant, more civic-minded and more accountable.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. This one event may not change a thing. But it’s still legal to assemble peacefully (isn’t it?) and form human bonds around some very life and death issues. And it’s still legal to vote. I count my blessings that I have the choice and the chance to walk my talk.