And now, a short break from science for

a public service announcement:

Please Vote

If you’re an American citizen reading this blog, it probably hasn’t escaped your attention that Election Day is upon us. If you live in a state where early voting is allowed, I hope that you’ve voted already. If not, please take time and vote whenever you can. It is a privilege, a right, and a duty in our democracy.

If you run into voting problems (and it can happen to anyone of any political persuasion), document it. Here’s a web page that can help you anticipate what to do if your vote is challenged.

So, some folks have written to ask how I’m going to vote. A fair question and I’ll take a little break from writing about science to answer it even though I rarely go into politics on this blog unless they have to do with science.

I am voting for honest change and an upward direction in our country. I am voting for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as a proud and patriotic American.  I came to that decision after eight years of growing dismay over how the current regime has met its responsibilities to the American people it is supposed to represent. It wasn’t an overnight decision and I am normally quite an optimistic person, but this decision was a long-thought-out one, based on my growing dismay about what I could see happening in our government under GOP rule.

To be honest, Obama and Biden were not my first choice at the beginning of this election campaign. Over the last few months, however, and as I’ve done my homework researching the candidates for office, it has become clear to me that they offer a better chance to bring America and ALL OF its citizens better opportunities and better times.  At the very least, I hope they can begin the process of cleaning up the cynical stinking mess that is being left in Washington, D.C. by the current administration. We, the people, deserve better than we’ve gotten from the those who purported to represent us while undermining the Constitution and gutting the economy.

I am a hard-working American who is appalled at the war and torture being waged in my name for questionable reasons. I’m a patriotic, tax-paying American who is disgusted with being called “unpatriotic” if I disagree (as is my right and responsibility) with a president who cherry-picked data in order to satisfy his lust for war. I am a business owner who is tired of seeing people’s pensions being eaten up by Wall Street greed. I am a voter who is sick of seeing other hard-working Americans go without food, adequate housing, and health care through no fault of their own, or who depended on the government for help in the face of such tragedies as Hurricane Katrina and instead were ignored or treated like second-class citizens.

I know we can do better than this.

I am an educated, adult woman who is fed up with having women’s rights attacked and our responsibility over our own bodies savaged by squalid, noisy partisan and religious demagogues who cannot seem to treat us as human beings who deserve respect and equal treatment.

I am a middle-of-the-road citizen who is thoroughly sick of seeing members of the extreme right wing whine on the one hand about how they don’t want big government, but then on the other hand try desperately to insert the government into people’s most personal, intimate and private decisions.

I am angry at the attacks on science and rational thinking that have been put out there by the extremists to fester in our public discourse. In addition, I am disgusted by the attempted dissolution of the wall between church and state particularly as religously based bigots try to enshrine hatred and discrimination into the Constitution of the U.S. and in California with Proposition 8. It angers me to be called “UnAmerican” because my personal, private spiritual choices aren’t respected by a so-called “moral majority” of extreme-right bigots that pervert their religious faith to use as a bludgeon rather than the instrument of love devised by the prophet they claim to follow. (And I understand that not all the faithful are like this and I respect people’s rights to worship and believe as they please — I direct my criticism to those who use faith as a weapon to bludgeon their way into power they do not deserve.)

All those things are not supposed to be happening in the country of my birth, the land that I love.  and, I know we are better than that.

So, it is clear to me (I am an Independent voter) that the divisive experiences of the last eight years (and the “Contract on America” that preceded them) should not be allowed to continue. We need fresh new leadership with a modern maturity and easy grace and an optimistic outlook on what makes this country great.  I is my hope that Obama-Biden will bring that because they seem to have more faith in Americans to do the right thing than the McCain-Palin ticket (with its divisive, ugly rhetoric) does.

We do NOT need the faux-mavericky, shallow cockiness of the McCain-Palin “team”, whose platform masks a deep cynicism and parades ignorance and a lack of common sense as some kind of virtue. We don’t need a pair of leaders who don’t do their fact-checking and who accept lying and smearing as a way to do business.

If they were my students, I would have to flunk the pair of them based on their lack of knowledge of how to do research, how to verify facts, and on their complete lack of understanding of the rule of law, the Constitution, and any of the requirements of the jobs they are applying to us for.  At the very least, we do not need two people who stand up for and encourage nasty, racist rhetoric at their rallies and then blame the media when reporters point these incidents out.

Simply put, the McCain-Palin pair relies on manipulation and lies to get power. We’ve had that for years from their predecessors in office. We’ve had enough. It’s time for a change.

As I said up at the top, I am normally optimistic and far more tolerant of the absurdities of life. But, the last decade of extreme-right GOP rule have taught me that my optimism was not honored, my tolerance not wanted, and that those who have been in charge have gone too far in their attempts to contort this country into something that it should never have become.

And so, I know that we need to elect people who can help this us heal from the wounds of war and the insults of one-party GOP rule. We don’t need manipulations by extreme conservative politicians who have tried their hardest to divide Americans by race, religion, class and gender, and in the process, deprive legitimate voters of their right to cast a vote at all (as we have seen documented in the past two elections and we are seeing happen in this election). It will not be an easy healing, and it will require ALL of us to clean up the ethical and legal messes left behind by Bush and the right-wing power machine.

With competent, adult leadership from Obama-Biden and a newly revitalized Congress and Senate populated by a new bipartisan spirit, I want to see us heal the ugly rifts that have been created and manipulated by McCain-Palin and their defenders (along using a too-compliant press that (more often than not) acts as stenographer for the right wing, rather than objective reporter)).  Americans can be kind and noble and charitable and tolerant and fair — and our leadership should reflect those good traits, rather than mirror the worst excesses of human venality and pride.  Obama-Biden have a better chance of bringing about the changes we need to make than the sorry and sad choice we are being offered by McCain-Palin.

To be fair,  I once voted for John McCain in a primary. At that time, I felt he was an honorable man and could be a good leader. Over the past few years–and in particular the past few months–he has shown me that he no longer deserves my trust or my vote. He has failed and is no longer an honorable man. That disappoints me greatly. Yes, I respect the sacrifices he made for this country, just as I respect anyone who serves our country in the armed forces. But, he has squandered my trust and that of millions of Americans who will cast their votes for his opponent in an act of faith and hope. John McCain (and his party) have shown that they don’t respect their fellow Americans enough to run a clean campaign of ideas. Instead, they’ve shown us a cesspool and expected us to suck it up.

Well, like those millions who are not having it any more, I am saying “Enough!” to the lies, distortions, race-baiting, misogyny, extreme right-wing hatred, greed, and eight years’ worth of daily insults to our intelligence in this country that are the legacy of the current administration and its defenders and proponents. Those people will never have the grace to apologize for what they’ve done to this country, and they will not have courage to own their failures. They’re leaving it for the rest of us to pay for and clean up. But, if common sense prevails at the ballot box, and all legally cast ballots are respected and counted, perhaps it will just be enough to get them out of office and away from the corridors of power they’ve despoiled in our names.

Like others who are voting for change, I am saying, “Let’s take this country to a place where ALL are welcome and appreciated, with opportunities for all.”

Let’s get back there. It’s do-able. But we have to return to a culture of respect and love, not divisive hatred and dogma. And I think that the Obama-Biden candidacy gives us a shot at doing just that.

You may not agree with my choices and I respect that. But, I WON’T respect YOU if you don’t get out there and vote. It’s your right, your duty, and your responsibility to vote for the candidates of your choice.

So, join me in voting in the 2008 election!

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back blogging about astronomy and space science and planets after I vote.