Up To Here

            We are less than two months away from our next presidential election.  The airwaves, newsprint and cyber stories are full of news of the candidates each day; full of their latest quotes and misquotes; full of their claims both true and false; and full of fact checks after every major speech.  And I for one have had it up to here.  (Can you see where my hand is?  It’s right up there where my hairline used to be when I was 19.)

            When making speeches or doing interviews, the candidates and all those who speak for them have no interest in simply addressing the facts.  They all want to beat, berate and belittle the other side.  They all want to slip in their suggested ‘talking points’ of the day.  They all want to sidestep what they might have said a month or three years ago and put a new twist on an old subject that just might get them a foothold in Ohio, Virginia or Florida.  They all want the big prize at any cost. 

            Well, here is what I want.  I want a statesman instead of a politician.  I want someone who will stick to his beliefs no matter what part of the country he happens to be in that day.  I want someone who believes today what he said he believed yesterday unless he has had a revelation of wisdom and learning and then I want him to honestly face the camera and tell me he has changed his mind and then tell me why.  I want someone who cares more about our country and your and my grandchildren than he does about his personal comfort for the next four years.  I want someone who speaks from his heart.  Am I asking too much? 

            Eleven years ago today, we all forgot our partisan politics for a week or so.  We forgot how to make light of the other side; how to twist the facts and tenets of those we disagreed with; and how to slight and slander someone because they were of a different political persuasion.  For a few (too few) days we were all simply Americans, brought together by a terrible and common enemy.  We stood in shock together.  We stood in candlelight church services together.  We draped ourselves in one flag and in our sadness we found a strength we have not been able to recapture. Nor will we ever until something unimaginable besets us again.

            Let’s pray that will never happen.  And let’s pray our leaders will find it in themselves to speak and act out of passion and honesty and not out of selfish ambition.

                                                9/11/12 – Don Reid