A New President

In seven days, we will have a new president.

Humph.

I don't know if I will bother to vote. Obama will certainly win this state, regardless of what I do.

I am, however, "bothering" to pray.

I remember back in 1992... Laura was born on October 8, 1992 into a family with a 16 month old and a 2 (almost 3) year old. My body was worn out from having babies, and I had a terrible time with post-partum hemorrhaging after Lulu was born. There was just no way to stay off my feet. When Shawn was home, I tried, though, because the bleeding was really very alarming; it came in such violent gushes for such long periods of time.

So that Tuesday night in November when Bill Clinton won the Whitehouse for the first time, I was in my bed with the baby, nursing, drinking herbal tea and watching the election on TV. After Shawn got the other two tucked away, he joined me. We watched state after state go for Clinton, and I just felt sick dread in my stomach as I held the baby and wondered what kind of a world we had brought her into.

Well, even with hindsight I think Bill Clinton looks like the All-American kid next to Barak Obama. Barak has a more pleasant speaking voice and is much more handsome. But he is scary. Oh, he is SCARY.

Are the rumors about his birth certificate true? I read that he has a Kenyan birth certificate. We all know that one of the few requirements for qualification to be president of the USA is to be a natural born citizen. It is surmised that Barak was born in Kenya to a Kenyan father. He was recently asked to provide a birth certificate, and he produced a computer printout of something that said he was born in Hawaii, but neglected such facts as his birthweight and the name and signature of the attending physician.

Good grief. We had to go through so much more than that just to apply for Laura's driving learner's permit. You have to have an OFFICIAL birth certificate, one that has the OFFICIAL embossment on it. If you don't, snippy ladies who can barely see over the tops of their glasses will pull political-clerk-rank on you and send you away empty handed. But apparently the rules do not apply for Obama. He can run for president with a lame computer printout to suffice for his proof of natural born citizenship. (BTW--McCain provided an official, embossed birth certificate when requested to do so.)

If they find out that Obama is not, indeed, a natural born citizen, but he has already won the election, what then?  If they took it away from Obama, I suppose we would end up with Joe Biden for our president, which would probably be a fate worse than any we have considered so far. Say good-bye to freedom of religion (if you are a Christian--everyone else will be OK). Say good-bye to freedom of speech (unless you are a pornographer), good-bye freedom of assembly and the right to bear arms. Oh, and also bid farewell to the right to keep the money you earn. You won't have that, either, although it never was listed in the Bill of Rights. I guess our forefathers didn't dream it would be necessary to say that people ought to have the right to keep their own stuff.

I get upset. Then I have to look to the Lord.

Psalm 33 was my comfort during the Clinton years.
"We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May Your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You." Psalm 33:20-22