Growing up my parents had a big burlap banner that hung on the wall of the cottage we lived in all summer at the camp my parents ran. The banner said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.” I can’t look at the three photos below (taken this morning) without thinking of that banner.
The boys are sporting their “BarackO” shirts today and have a pretty decent grasp of the basics of a big presidential election. Here’s what they know: a) the president is the “boss of the whole country,” b) the country we live in is the United States of America, c) we elect our presidents here by voting, d) voting means you choose which person you want to be president, e) voting is important, f) not every country designates their leaders this way, g) here in the U.S. people 18 and older can vote [they are –understandably so– very perturbed that children can’t vote], h) today we are choosing between Barack Obama and John McCain, i) our family wants BarackO, j) it is very exciting and Mommy and Papi are all revved up about it. If only it were all that simple. There’s a lot more for them to learn in the years to come… obviously. The magnitude of this historic moment in our country’s past-present-future is pretty much lost on them. But I hope that someday they’ll ‘get it.’ In the meantime, they are pretty pumped up about the parts of it they do ‘get.’ And they know ‘it’ must be huge because we actually turned the t.v. on this morning and had the news on while we got ready for breakfast (the t.v. is basically never on while the boys are awake). Later today we’ll be bringing them with us to vote so that: a) they can see it in action, and b) so that we can always tell them that they came with us to vote in that monumental election when –*HOPE*FULL*Y*– BarackO became president and a corner was turned in our nation’s history. BARACK THE VOTE PEOPLE! OBAMA FOR CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the J-M 3 watching the election coverage closely