To the editor:
Will we the people of the United States ever have another national election as we are about to have this November with the favorableness of both candidates being so low with the majority of Americans? They go at each other in their stumping across America with no holds barred as to what each will say about the unfitness of their opponent for the Presidency of the United States.
One is accused of being a pathological liar, crooked, deceitful and not worthy of any one’s trust and certainly not suitable for the highest office in the nation. The other candidate is considered by many as simply unfit, rude, lacking civility, insensitive to people in general, narcissistic and seemingly to lack any kind of filter between his mind and his mouth. To put this in very blunt terms neither candidate is what many would consider ideal for the Presidency, so where does that leave us the American people in choosing one of the two for our next President?
I have heard it said by countless people that this is the year to pick the better of the two unsuitable candidates. Wow, how did we get to this state in our nation that we have to vote and give approval for a candidate that is far below our standard of character that we may hold ourselves to, yet we must drop this standard at election time to try to make this person the standard bearer of our national character?
This begs the question, how did we as a nation find our courage, strength and character in the past, the very fabric of ourselves that we had to rely on to meet the needs of our nation at a certain time? Our founding fathers in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Later in our history, Abraham Lincoln spoke that “we here resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”
Franklin D Roosevelt spoke his address to a joint session of Congress; “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” He concluded; “with confidence in our Armed Forces with the unbounding determination of our people we will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God.”
It seems that throughout our history we have had to look beyond our humanness for help from the Divine. We realize that we are all flawed vessels in so many ways and are capable of error and not sufficient many times in our own strength and abilities. This is true for all of us and also for our two presidential candidates. God has deemed these two individuals as our choices this election and maybe He wants us to see ourselves in their humanness. The elected candidate will need our prayers regardless of political party. Once our President is elected we owe our nation our prayers and support for their choice.
With this said, how desperately does our nation need prayer now, with our runaway national debt, our constant and growing threat of ISIS, our violence in our cities, our lack of harmony and peace between our ethnic groups, and our economy that is so anemic it keeps the middle class in constant struggle.
This year I believe that our vote is very important and only superseded in importance by our prayers and support for the candidate of our choice. Once we have our new President then I’m going to make my prayer simple; “Dear Lord, may Your will be done, Amen.”
