The 3rd option

Tomorrow is election day in the U.S. Millions will go to the polls (or already have through the opportunity of early voting) to elect a president, senators, congressmen and congresswomen, as well as countless state and local representatives. The right and privilege to vote is one that so many around the world do not enjoy, nor do many of them have any hope of doing so in the near future, if even at any point in their lifetimes. To say that as Americans we are a privileged people is an understatement...

...and our privilege is destroying us. Throughout this election cycle (something that now appears to last 4 years at a time) I have witnessed "we the people" behave in ways that I believe are beneath us. I am not referring to the countless candidates courting our votes, but instead to me, to you, to each of us for whom "they" (the elected officials) supposedly work. Whether a more privileged society has ever existed, there is no way to tell but what is clear is that our position in the world has intoxicated us with the false beliefs that the rest of the world does not matter quite as much as we do, that freedom of speech requires that no actual thought and reason accompany what we say, that only one half of the country's political spectrum has anything of value to offer and that the other half (the one whom we dislike and with whom we disagree) is the reason this country is going to hell on a bullet train.

We say we stand for things like "liberty and justice for all," "give me your tired, your poor," that we are a model and beacon of hope for the rest of the world. But I have read on social and traditional media sites the thoughts from everyday, ordinary citizens (many of whom I know personally) such as myself and I find there very little that seems to exhibit any concern for the tired, the poor, that insists on justice for everyone. How did we become so un-feeling, so un-caring, so mean? When did the absolute crap that flows from cable news outlets 24 hours a day replace reasoned thinking (as well as the civil expression of that thinking)? Why do we refuse to allow the other person with whom we may disagree to express their views without us telling them what an idiot, fascist, communist, etc., they are?

The problems we face as a country are huge. The leadership we have in place at nearly every level of government seems unable or unwilling to tackle those problems in any substantive way. I have heard many people express that they wish there was a viable 3rd option running for president. While that may not be the case regarding the presidency, there is a 3rd option.

You are the 3rd option. I am the 3rd option. No, not to be president (not interested whatsoever), but to be the citizens we are called to be. At his inauguration the first President Bush called on us to be a kinder, gentler nation. Dear God, if ever this was needed, it is now. The founders of our country as well as countless men and women have given their lives to protect the freedoms you and I enjoy. I do not believe their sacrifices were so that you and I could spew venom and call it patriotism, or to deride entire groups of citizens because they do not measure up to my standards of being a "good American." We can be better than this. We should be better than this. We must be better than this.

This is the first and only time I have used social media to share my views during this election. And at the end of the day that is all they are...my views, the views of one guy in the face of a tidal wave of spin and poison that passes for political discourse in 2012. But I am a citizen of the United States of America. I have been handed tremendous freedom, simply because I was born here. With that freedom comes tremendous responsibility. Whether my candidates win or lose tomorrow I am not absolved of the responsibility of living and behaving like a citizen  of this nation should.

I am the 3rd option.