I hope you all had a fine holiday weekend celebrating Labor Day. We here in rural upstate New York had the most superlative of weekends; Exceptionally fine weather enjoyed with our daughter, who motored up from Albany, and our good friends and neighbors. A festive weekend it was, consisting of hours of canoeing the calm to rough St. Lawrence, imbibing delicious libations, feasting on gourmet food preparations as well as dining out, and reading; novel, blogs, and newspapers. I would have to say that weather-wise it was the best weekend of the summer, just for the fact that it linked four beautiful days in succession.

The fact that our neighbors entertained friends from away added to the holiday's entertainment. Although we missed the best events, hearing the tales and viewing Shannon's photos gave us a good feel for what went on.

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The USA's presidential race heated up with Sen. John McCain's selection of the Gov. of Alaska to be his VP running mate.
The hyperbole and proselytizing from both sides via the media, pundants and bloggers is reaching fever pitch and everyone, including the candidates families have become fair game.

Having run for elected office 4 times (all-be-it, in small-town America) and having been elected all four times I'd like to share my perspective on a couple of points that I believe can be equally pertinent in a grander election such as the presidencing (neologism?) of a country.

All four people in this president/vice-president race have been elected by their constituents before. Two have been elected and re-elected many times, IE 25-30 years worth, and two have been elected fewer times, but still elected. The point here is that the majority of their constituents chose them. They are all, each and everyone well enough liked to be chosen to represent the majority of their voters. We, the voters interested enough to vote, probably vote for the person whose values most mimic our own. That doesn't mean that the candidates and their supporters who hold different or opposing views to mine and my chosen candidate are bad people. No, they're just people who have different likes, dislikes and opinions than I do. (I'm a Yankee fan. I don't hate or despise the players on the Red Sox team nor their fans.) That's what's so grand about this country: We are allowed to express our opinions. I don't think that gives us the right to denigrate people of differing opinions in an effort to make our opinion grander or more forceful.
Lastly, if we are going to quote media sources, bloggers and so on without having first hand knowledge of that which we speak, we are merely engaging in gossip.

If a candidate represents your views, vote for them. Don't cheapen the process by trying to make one of differing opinions seem like less of a person. Always keep the golden rule in the forefront of your mind before dissing someone.

Just saying..................................................
:-) rel