How can anyone vote?
       How can anyone vote? The choices are so daunting.  The candidates are so human.
     Honest candidates do not always seem capable. Dishonest office-seekers sometimes appear to have answers we need and the chameleon in them is well camouflaged.
      Sometimes I think they even believe themselves. The information is so vague.  Things are not as black and white as they once seemed.  There is so much more gray. Which candidate may be more dangerous... the "opportunist" or "radical believer?" 
      Military surge has pierced the enemy but where is the "diplomatic" surge?  Trusting is difficult. Where are the undaunted civil heroes I once saw so easily?
    It seems impossible to find excellence and skill in politicians.  Promise after promise, insurance, taxes, cunning politics, polite stabbing, ambiguous expressions, pork barrel spending. Character assassination with poisonous porcupine-like pens.
     Where is the voice I once thought I had? Is anyone listening? If so, do they have the answers?
     I am not the same naive person I was when I first voted so many years ago.
     Candidates are many and campaign pocket money is heavy, with spending in multimillions of dollars.  Debates flourish and viewers diminish. Many are preoccupied with a lighter life. But, an election is once again on the horizon.
      Oh, I think I know my problem. I am getting too old for this. That is natural, and nature doesn't look out for you -- it just  IS. Maybe, this election is just another crisis that also will go away.
      Why does anyone vote? Do you?   After all, "life" is not like a trained dog ... it is more like a cat.

Tipi Larkin (November 2007)

Email Tipi Larkin at: blogs@gulfbeachrecord.com.