So Exciting...

I will hit the polls in the early AM. Looks good for Obama, but I don't trust the polls, or the system. Too much can go wrong. Our country has been dragged down for the last eight years and too many have suffered. I heard yesterday that "ONLY 13 soldiers" were killed in Iraq in October. Only? Only? Tell that to the grieving families. I think Obama is the best hope to keep my son out of the Middle East. The thought of AJ being sent over there just makes my knees buckle. And the money...the money we've poured into that place with no benefit to us. So many homeless, so many jobless, so many sick with no health insurance. Sure there is assistance available, clinics, etc. but it's NOT the same! Republicans always say no to nationalized health coverage - that there's not enough money to take care of everybody, then they spend gazillions on the "military industrial complex," and Dick Cheney's stock in Halliburton goes up and up. And the gap between rich and poor just grows and grows. A shepherd friend in New Hampshire who lost her job as a mortgage broker works at a Coach outlet now. She sold $13,000 worth of Coach bags in one week last month. I can go on and on, but just think what the trillions of dollars spent in Iraq would do to enhance our own infrastructure, health and educational systems. Republicans, start packing. Want some boxes? We have plenty at BOCES. Sanity will be restored to Washington. I pray Obama can go the distance, and dodge those bullets, literal and figurative. I'm old enought to remember the segregated rest rooms, waiting rooms and restaurants. My Georgia grandmother, Oma, was a retired elementary school principal who worked at the Pastime Theater in Sandersville. As a little girl I sat on her lap in the ticket booth and helped her sell tickets. Black patrons had to stick their hands in the window and have their palms stamped, then go up a seperate set of stairs to the balcony. When they wanted candy or popcorn, they had to come back down to the street and have their purchases passed out to them through another window. I never questioned this practice, and they didn't seem to mind. It's just the way things were. Oh, how far we have come. A black family in the White House, and those cute little girls roller skating up and down the halls - how wonderful!