Dear AARP....

Today I received your invitation to join your Viagra taking, Just For Men using, Depends wearing organization a few short weeks after my 49th birthday. Kindly take said letter and place it on the tip of your colonoscopy camera just before it embarks on its next journey.

Yes We Did!

Tonight the United States of America lived up to its promise.

I was a child during the civil rights movement of the sixties, unaware that it was even going on. We were never taught to hate in my house, and it was a shock to me as I got older and became exposed to the hatred and racial bias around me. Why do so many hate because of skin color? It's as arbitrary to me as hating someone because of the color of their eyes, or hair.

We've still got such a long way to go, but tonight was a wonderful, giant step forward on our journey; not only as a nation, but as human beings. As my wife and I whooped at the announcement of the election results, and later cried tears of joy at President-Elect Obama's acceptance speech, I could only believe that tonight God has truly blessed America.

Vote!

What click were you in? When you saw the popular student picking on the kid that looked different, or had a funny name, did you speak up for the one being picked on, or did you gather in the circle with the other losers and yell "Fight! Fight!"? Did you notice that sometimes the kid that was being picked on had a quiet dignity about them? A silent resolve that said "Give me your best shot, I can take it"? That's what we have right now, in our presidential race.

In the middle of this particular circle we have the former war hero, who has somehow resorted to such low tactics that his words are now widening a rift in this country that we've been trying to close for over two hundred years. A man that loved his country so much that he almost made the ultimate sacrifice for it once upon a time. Now he's like the deranged, estranged husband that "loves" his soon to be ex wife so much that he's got a gun to her head, threatening a murder/suicide.

The other combatant has thrown a few punches, mostly defensive and always above the belt. Unlike the usually one-sided schoolyard brawls, this time the smart kid, the one that's trying to fight fair, is actually winning.

I'm growing tired of this metaphor, but I'm down right exhausted with the way the Republican Party has conducted themselves over the last decade. Politics has always been tough, but the last ten years of brutality that the GOP has inflicted on the American public is approaching treason.

Yes, treason. It has harmed our country and made us weak in the eyes of our enemies.

I remember when I actually admired John McCain, and in fact would have seriously considered voting for him over Al Gore had he gotten the nomination back in 2000. The Bush campaign snatched victory away from the war hero by appealing to the lowest common denominator of the GOP and starting a rumor that McCain fathered an illegitimate black child. That's all it took, and the racist idiots that fell for it were strong enough in number to hand the nomination to Bush. Now it's eight years later, and McCain and his lipstick wearing pit bull are using some of the same smear tactics against Barack Obama.

I don't agree with all of Senator Obama's plans for getting this country out of crisis, but at least I've actually heard his plans, and I think he will do a good job as our next president. All I've heard from John McCain is fear mongering.

Senator McCain, I don't live in fear, and you don't scare me.