Tuesday November 10th

I have been slamming and getting ready to depart early on Thursday morning for my 13 hour drive to Oakland. I have been making jewelry, making kits for classes, packing, printing, ordering and all of the other things that I do in order to leave town for almost 2 weeks. I am looking forward to seeing many friends in the Bay Area and getting to spend some serious time with them.

I have to admit that I am really rather tired. I always get this way at the end of a year of traveling. I usually get most of December and January off but January is booked solid for 2010 and I will be traveling for a good portion of December as well.

There have been some pretty huge things that have been happening in our world this last week. The horrors of a prolonged conflict and the cruelty of mans behavior to his fellow man has come to slap us right in the face. These things sadden me down to the very core of my soul.

We are a nation of immigrants and those in this country whose families have been here for a few generation seem to have forgotten this simple fact. Too many in this country do not tolerate and too many are unwilling to listen to a differing opinion. A majority of this nation elected a man of African American decent to be the leader of the of not only this country but of the free world and there is a portion of this nation that have taken a stand against the man solely  because of his heritage. I am astounded by the fear mongers and the conspiracy theories that continue these unfounded attacks.

It was the eloquence of his speech, the strength of his character and his desire to bring our nation back onto the world stage as a source for positive goals that gave so many of us hope. Can we please focus on these goals and remember what it is that actually makes this country of ours an ideal to attain.

The issues that confront us cannot be solved in one year and God knows if they can be solved in his first term in office. It takes so little time to cause a mess and it usually takes a great deal more time to dig oneself out of the hole.

We need to recall several other very important elections in our nations history that have caused division in our country. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a 4th term by the narrowest of margins. He beat Dewey by just over 3.5 million votes. Carter narrowly beat Ford by well under 2 million votes. Al Gore won the popular vote by 543,895 votes yet lost the electoral college number required for victory and Obama beat McCain by over 8.5 million votes. In the grand scheme of elections this was a landslide that was only seconded by Reagans defeat of Mondale. I bring up these elections to show that this narrow victory is an illusion. Most of our elections are won by margins that are slimmer.

There is a speech that is given by Michael Douglas in The American President that always resonates with me on many levels.

Watch…
Listen…
Realize that this is what we are as a nation..
There are few words that are more true…