With both Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving falling due this month, let us pause to give thanks to all veterans and their families for the sacrifices they all have made to both defend our beloved country and to preserve our freedoms throughout the decades.

Thanks, too, go to our American troops who are overseas in harm's way and to those who have freed the millions of enslaved men and women in Iraq, giving them the opportunity to vote for a Constitution of Democracy. It was heartening to see over 65% of the Iraqi citizens make such an extreme effort to vote. They had to walk great distances because all vehicles had been banned to stop the suicide bombers; they had to brave the dangers of being killed or maimed by foreign snipers from Syria and Iran as they walked the isolated dirt roads towards the far-flung voting places. And yet, they voted overwhelmingly for freedom and self-government.

Compare this with our voter turnout: Iraq and California are about the same size. The voter turnout for a recent California governor's race was the lowest in state history. Only about 30 percent of the state's eligible voters bothered to go to the polls, dropping California to 47th in state rankings for voter turnout.  Yet, we here can drive to our polls in air-conditioned cars, and our fear of street bombs or Middle East killers is tiny compared to those voting in Iraq. I suspect that other states suffer the same problems in getting out the vote

Thanks, too, for a President who saw the necessity of creating an oasis of freedom in the Middle East, knowing that the seed of freedom is the most contagious element any nation can plant. We have seen it already starting to spread to other countries in the Middle East. It is freeing people in Iraq, especially freeing many women from the yoke of being only regarded as property to being able to become members of their government as full-fledged citizens and human beings. How many years did it take women here in the United States following our revolution in 1776 to achieve voting privileges?

Let us be thankful, too, for those voters who take the time and make the effort to study the candidates and propositions and then go to the polls this month to vote for the betterment of local governments.  To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy ---Ask not what your State or City can do for you, but what you can do for it!

Let us hope that as many voters are as interested in good government as the Iraqi citizens are interested in freedom and a form of democracy. This month of November will provide those answers.  We will also learn whether it is more important to have instant gratification and many freebies or to whether our citizens are more interested in creating better local governments for the generations that will follow us.

May God always bless America!

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"I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will rise again." --President George W. Bush

Lee Ellis, Retired Journalist, Combat Veteran, WWII

 
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