I encourage everyone to get out
and vote in this election. Voting is the act of a free people. Casting your vote is an
affirmative act of citizenship. It says to the world that you claim your right to have a
say in how your community, County, State and nation are governed. Your ballot names those
individuals who you have chosen to represent you in the process of lawmaking. When you do
not vote, you hand that choice over to other people. Exercise your civil rights or they
will lose their power.
Living in a sparsely populated precinct, I have already voted by
mail. I cast my personal vote as a citizen for President George W. Bush.
I like President Bush. He is a passionate man, guided by a moral
compass of traditional American ideals and rugged Western principles. He is well educated
with an undergraduate degree from Yale and a graduate degree from Harvard. Even so, this
man has calluses. He gets out there and does the hard physical chores on his ranch. He is
anchored in the real world of folks who live on the land. He knows what work is.
The real world of resource management and the health of rural
communities has been reflected in the direction of the Administration’s environmental
policies. The Healthy Forest Initiative is an effort to allow for the rational management
of forests. It provides for fuel reduction in vegetation choked forests that surround
communities just like those in my district. A recent Executive Order by the President
requires federal agencies with responsibility
for implementing environmental laws to cooperate
with state and local government and individuals who may be affected by federal action.
That’s just common sense to me.
I listened closely to the President’s speech at the Republican National
Convention. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040902-2.html I liked what he said, particularly his statement
that a guiding principle of his proposals is to provide “more freedom, and more
control over your own life.” That means a belief in limited government in my mind. I also liked his expression of the conservative
beliefs that “some things do not change: the values we try to live by, the
institutions that give our lives meaning and purpose.” To me that says that he shares
my belief that there is a right and a wrong; that America embodies certain fundamental
beliefs and values about the nature and rights of man expressed in our Constitution, the
Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
The President also stated: “Our
society rests on a foundation of responsibility and character and family commitment.”
These are rock solid values that are the glue that binds our community and calls on the
best of each of us in our relationships with others.
There was a section of the speech that spoke about the aftermath of the violence
perpetrated upon America by extremist terrorists. The shock of 9/11 came relatively early
in Bush’s first term. All of America experienced a loss of its innocence in the
dramatic realization of our vulnerability to acts of terrorism. I remember the angry
reactions of many Americans and the great restraint and leadership shown by the President
in our measured response as a nation. The press seems to forget that about 40 nations
stand beside us in Afghanistan, and some 30 in Iraq.
The President’s speech laid out his strategy in the Middle East: “I believe
in the transformational power of liberty: The wisest use of American strength is to
advance freedom.” He stated further:
“Others understand the historic
importance of our work. The terrorists know. They know that a vibrant, successful
democracy at the heart of the Middle East will discredit their radical ideology of hate.
They know that men and women with hope and purpose and dignity do not strap bombs on their
bodies and kill the innocent. The terrorists are fighting freedom with all their cunning
and cruelty because freedom is their greatest fear -- and they should be afraid, because
freedom is on the march.”
Just this month, people in Afghanistan stood in harsh weather for hours to vote in a
free election. Citizens of Iraq are scheduled to hold their election in January. It
boggles the mind that more than 50 million people have won their freedom under the
leadership of the United States with George W. Bush as President. And in fighting that war
on Middle Eastern soil, the focus of terrorists seems to have been drawn away from our
shores for a while.
The President’s vision makes sense: “as freedom advances -- heart by heart,
and nation by nation -- America will be more secure and the world more peaceful.” And
he understands his own role and states it with resolution: “I believe the most solemn
duty of the American President is to protect the American people. If America shows
uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward tragedy. This will not
happen on my watch.”
I voted for George W. Bush. Guess my heroes have always been cowboys.
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