Gratitude #5 - Elections

Yes I am grateful for elections!  They mean that I have a choice in who leads our country and state.  This one has been rough.

Four years ago when Mitt Romney lost and I felt so despondent, I had a distinct impression from the spirit that I was to stop listening and watching all news.  And I haven't watched any TV news or listened to talk radio until the last month or so!  I know that my cold turkey moratorium on news has given me much peace during these last years.  I have been listening a bit more as November 8th got closer.  Last night I had no plans to watch the returns but our son John kept texting me results and I finally decided  that I had to tune in and be witness to this shocking turn of events.  I never in a million years thought that Donald Trump would be our president.  Truthfully I really didn't want Hillary either but I was sure she would win.  Totally unexpected results!  As I've watched the reactions on TV and Facebook today several memes have stuck out to me.  I share them here.  Now I just pray that our country will come together and that President Trump will be a successful president and prove so many wrong!

Look at that sweet grin!  He's right.  Things will work out!

Easier said than done but important.

 Facebook should not be something that divides us.

 James E. Faust was actually quoting Barbara Bush in this quote.  I love it and I KNOW that it is absolutely true!

  And last of all this one:

 

Amen and amen!

Reagan Library

Check one off the bucket list!  George and I had Alaska Airlines credit that had to be used by mid January so we decided to take a couple of days and fly down to California to see the Reagan Library.  It did not disappoint.  I love President Reagan's attitude and approach to life.  As I thought about how to make a blog post about him, I decided to use some of the photos I took and some of his best quotes.

For many years Ronald Reagan collected quotes on notecards and organized them in a flip folder.  He often used these quotes in his speeches. He truly was the 'Great Communicator'.

No foe of freedom should doubt our resolve. We will prevail, because our faith is strong and our cause is just. 

February 26, 1981

...let me say, I take full responsibility for my own actions and for those of my administration. 

March 4, 1987

I believed - and intend to make it a theme of my campaign-that America's greatest years were ahead of it.

Whatever happens now, I owe my life to God and will try to serve him in every way I can.

from his diary March 1981

Whatever else history says about me, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts.

Republican National Convention 1992

As for the enemies of freedom...they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American people.  We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not surrender it- now or ever.

January 20, 1981

And so we will work together, that we may forever keep our swords at our sides.

May 31, 1988

I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.

What wonderful words to live by!  What a positive uplifting man!  I will try to remember his optimism and emulate it.

Election 2012 - Thoughts

 I woke up yesterday morning feeling cautiously optimistic.  I knew that it would take a whole series of things to go exactly right for a Romney win but I thought it was possible.  I didn't watch a lot of TV during the day so when I did tune in, I remained nervous but hopeful.  The moment I knew it wasn't going our way was when I listened to Rob Portman address the Romney crowd in Boston via video link from Ohio.  He didn't sound like a man delivering a state to Romney.  My heart sank and soon all the networks were calling Ohio and the election for Obama.  I cried.  I just couldn't help it.  Last night as sleep eluded me, I tried to figure out why this election touched me so deeply.  I have voted for men who didn't win before....in 1992, 1996, and 2008. What made this one so different and so personal?

I think it is because I felt as if I knew Mitt Romney.  I might have sat beside him in church and attended church socials with him had I lived in Boston.  I have direct experience working  along side professionally successful men like him on leadership counsels in our church.  I have seen their practical solutions to problems.  I have seen them reach out to people who didn't agree with them, to people with vastly different experiences, and to people with totally different financial situations.  I have seen them give amazing amounts of help both financially and with their time to people in a variety of circumstances.  When dealing with a family's financial challenges, I have observed their careful stewardship of the church's money, money voluntarily given by others to help the poor.  The ultimate aim of all church financial help is to assist a person or family temporarily so that they can again be  in a position to help themselves.  Time and time again I have seen men like Mitt Romney help people out of the need for assistance rather than making them dependent on assistance. I could see a Romney Presidency implementing these same principles and changing the direction of our country.  But alas, it was't meant to be and so I cried.

I also came up with a few take-away thoughts from Election 2012

• The polls are accurate.  Realclearpolitics.com got it almost exactly right.  Next time I will trust them.
• While I am sure that there were people who didn't vote for Romney because he is Mormon or Obama because he is black, the vast majority of citizens did not cast their vote based on these criteria.  Our country is NOT racist or anti-Mormon.
• Our country is close to evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats; Liberals and Conservatives.  Our elected officials need to figure out how to reach across the aisle without giving up their core values and principles.  They must come together for the good of our country.
• We will never know the difference the media made in being so behind Obama.  What if 60 minutes had released the tape of President Obama saying the Bengazi attack was not a terrorist attack on the day after the Candy Crowley debate?  What if all the networks had covered the Bengazi attack with the accuracy and thoroughness of Fox?  We'll never know.
• We will never know what affect Hurricane Sandy and Governor Christie's bipartisan dance across New Jersey had.  We will know how accurate he was in praising the President's leadership as things unfold. 
• With the House and the Senate almost identical to the last 4 years, President Obama will not have free rein to just implement any thing he wants.  I'm most nervous about his possible executive orders but hopefully my fears are unfounded.

So what am I going to do now?  Life goes on! I'm going to take a total break from all things political until at least after Christmas.  No talk radio, liberal or conservative, no news shows, no blogs, no political sites on the internet!  I love this quote by James E Faust, one of our church leaders. "Your success as a family, our success as a society depends not on what happens in the White House, but on what happens inside your house."

So in my house I'm going to concentrate on making myself a better person and I'm going to pray for our President Barack Obama and the newly elected House and Senate.  I'm going to concentrate on calming my troubled heart.