My Mind is Made Up

We brought Toby and Allie home to live with us 5 years ago yesterday. They're still the little rascals they were when we first brought them home. We kept them in separate kennels for the first few months before we gave them full roam of the house. I thought of the kennels as battery chargers. We'd put the pups in them, all drained of energy. When we'd take them out they'd be fully charged.

Maybe you've seen this video of them from 5 years ago. If not, enjoy.

Rachel came home from her dad's this morning so she could go to church with her friends. She attends a service with kids her age and it's an important part of her week. She said that on the way home, a car full of kids pulled alongside her and showed her a paper with the words "show us your tits" written on it. She smiled and did her best to ignore them while they went on ahead of her. A few miles later she saw that a police car had somebody pulled over. Any guesses who?

Speaking of Rachel: she brought home from Camille's a DVD of their ride on the Slingshot at the State Fair back in August. I, of course, got it uploaded to YouTube for all to see. Here you go.

I was reading online last night that Colin Powell was going to be on Meet the Press this morning and the expectation was that he would endorse Barack Obama for President. I had to see this for myself.

I got up a little after 8:00 and took the pups for a walk. I made it back just in time for the beginning of the program. As expected he did endorse Obama and he did it in words which couldn't have described better my reasons for my distaste with the McCain/Palin ticket and my disappointment with the Republican party and what it's become. I don't know that there can be a much stronger endorsement for Obama.

I got suited up to go out and ride. It was a beautiful morning and I had some thinking to do. There's no better place for me to do that than on my bike. I was wrestling with how to get my head around my strong pro-life convictions and casting a vote for Obama. How could I justify that? I kept thinking about Colin Powell and what he'd said.

Maybe a better approach for me would be to fight the fight from the inside rather than from being on the outside. Is it really possible to be a prolife Democrat? It's an approach I hadn't given any serious consideration until being forced to abandon my support for Republicans. But this is where I find myself.

I'd like to say thanks to John for helping me sort some of this out.

Is it right for me to be owned by the Republican party over this one issue? Do I ignore all that is dysfunctional about them because they say they're on the side of the unborn? Is that all just lip service to keep people like me in their corner? Have I had enough of being used? No, no, likely and yes.

For those concerned that Obama will lead our society toward a more socialistic one I have to wonder: what part of obscene executive pay packages are you willing to defend in the face of pay cuts for workers who provide the labor? If that's socialism, where do I sign up?

This decision has been a difficult one for me. I've spent more time thinking about this than I ever imagined I could. What has put me over the edge has been the negative advertising coming from the McCain campaign, especially the assertions that Obama "pals around with terrorists". How ridiculous. The "hate Obama" emails I'm getting are having an opposite effect on me than the intended one.

I've had some Republican friends tell me that by voting for Huckabee (as I've stated was my intention) I'd be throwing my vote away. I've not had one Democrat friend tell me this. Maybe they're right. I should make a decision: McCain or Obama.

I've taken their advice and will do exactly that.

I'll be voting for Obama this election.