I don't know about you, but personally I can't wait until this election is over.  Of course it probably won't be over next Tuesday either, more's the pity.  As we get closer to the election, I find my blood boiling on a daily basis.  We seem to have lost civility and reason this time around.  I have my point of view, you have yours, let's respectfully exchange views and make our own decisions.  But let's not tell lies.  Let's not exaggerate things, and spin everything one way or another.  Let's not call each other names.  Let's make an effort to understand each other's point of view, even if we disagree with it.

I find that some of the people I've been friends with and colleagues and neighbors - people I've been close to for a long time - have suddenly gone crazy.  (As well as bloggers I read daily.)  They act as if their candidate is the only answer, and the other candidate is horrible.  They act as if anyone who disagrees with them must be an idiot.  The level of discourse has reached bottom, and continues to dig down through the mud.

No matter who wins, we're friends, we're Americans, we're humans, we need to live and work together.  It feels like bridges are burning left and right.  No matter who wins this country is going to be divided.  And why?  I have to admit, Bush and Kerry are pretty different.  But if you're anything like me, you don't agree with 100% of either candidate.  Most people are somewhere in the middle, or off on another axis, or something.  Are we really that far apart?

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, were horrible and senseless.  There is no justification for them, at all.  In the days and weeks following the attacks, the country pulled together; bipartisan efforts led to bipartisan progress.  It was good.  So what happened?  Have we forgotten already?  Today a video message allegedly from Osama Bin Ladin was broadcast.  Look at the reaction.  Everyone is giving their opinion, everyone is spinning.  This man is our sworn enemy.  He directed attacks on civilians in the U.S. without provocation, killing thousands of people, affecting thousands of families, causing billions of dollars in damages, altering our world.  Can't we simply condemn him and everything he represents, completely and totally, without making it a partisan issue?