All throughout this mean season, I’ve been saying I could not in good conscience vote for Mitt Romney. I was going to abstain from voting in that particular race since Gary Johnson was denied ballot access in Oklahoma. This morning I cast a vote for Romney. I still disagree with him as the GOP candidate. However, a good friend of mine would’ve voted for him today but couldn’t. He was killed in Paktya, Afghanistan on 9 September, 2011.
A lot of people who’ve heard of U.S. Army Specialist Christopher Horton know he was Killed In Action in a firefight in Afghanistan. What they might not know is that he was Romney’s Oklahoma campaign coordinator back in 2008. Chris deserved to be here to cast that vote. He couldn’t, so I did it for him. Rest in Peace Chris.
Picture of Romney wearing a black bracelet commemorating Chris’ sacrifice:
Thanks for that man. All that matters is that you voted how you felt you should. Actions like yours keep me clinging to the hope that our species isn’t all bad.
While the cynical side of me says he only wears that bracelet around military types and for his own political advantage, another part of me hopes it is evidence that he isn’t the flaming bag of dog poo on the doorstep that he often appears to be.
While McCain / Obama was a “no win” contest in nearly every sense of the word I don’t feel the same way about today’s election. While Romney remains very far from my ideal candidate, there is a clear distinction between him and Obama and I can only hope enough people see that to spare us four more years of the worst days we have seen since the Carter administration.
Looking back it’s good to know that as 40 somethings we were spared full awareness of the crisis which surrounded us. Had no real understanding of adults complaining about 20% interest rates and gas shortages as a child.
Also, I’d like to also offer my respects to Glocktogo for his good and noble deed.
