You may hate the back and forth bantering and debate that an election undoubtedly stirs – directing people to poise themselves against each other on their Facebook walls – in local coffee shops – and on their blogs (I’m curious how many people are ACTUALLY moving to Canada today).
But I don’t. Not at all. I may not agree with what I see – but I respect the hell out of one thing: Conviction.
For anyone who votes – regardless of who they vote for – being an engaged citizen is awesome. Having conviction is awesome.
And while I hate that politics can and does very much divide us – at the end of the day – because of our conviction – because of those who take an active role to be engaged – because we continue to learn and grow, I’m confident that we’ll continue to work – together – to build a stronger, better, more unified nation.
So be engaged…
- Be engaged with your political beliefs.
- Be engaged with your faith.
- Be engaged with your work.
- Be engaged with understanding.
- Be engaged with love.
- Be engaged with each other.
I’ll close with the words Barack Obama closed with last night:
“I believe we can keep the promise of our founding, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight. You can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.
I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We’re not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America.”
Regardless of your beliefs – here’s to being engaged.
Because being a convicted, engaged citizen is awesome.