A Peaceful Exchange of Political Power...

When Hoover was leaving office, and FDR was stepping in, people talked about the importance of a peaceful exchange of political power. When everything was going wrong in the world around them, these two men managed to uphold one the fundamental stregths of democracy... a peaceful exchange of power. No carnage, no coup d'etat, no blood on American streets.

This is what I am hoping for tonight.

I am not watching any of the "news" coverage. Seeing even a few red states would just make me too depressed. I wish we could have an answer by morning, but I don't think that we will. I am kind of glad that we won't, though. It means that they will, at least, be pretending to count all the votes this time.

I hope that if Bush wins, people will be able to maintain their cool with the situation. I don't think it's out of the question to believe that there could be riots. The people who do hate him, really hate him that much.

I sat on the stage with Hillary Clinton when she came to speak at my first college. In her speech she was talking about Dubya's father when she said something like, "Can you imagine what the world will look like the day after the election? Picture it... you wake up, go outside, the sky is gray and cloudy, and you pick up the morning paper and it says, "Four More Years." Or, you could wake up, go outside to a sunny day with the birds singing (this got a laugh), and see the headline that says, "A New Day Dawns." And we will all get to see the peaceful exchange of power working, once again, in this great experiment we call democracy."

I remember thinking, "Good speech. I wonder if she wrote it?" I don't know if she did or not. But I have remembered it for, well, it's been about 12 years now. So, it was a pretty damn good speech.

I pray that a new day will dawn, if not tomorrow, then very soon.

I pray that democracy will work again.

I pray that we will have a peaceful exchange of power.

Love to all,

Sherry