I AM AN AMERICAN, TOO

For the second time this week Yuma Conservatives have spread false rumors on national TV claiming the Democrats are committing voter fraud in Yuma County. It is not true. This is Sally Sheridan speaking. I am telling you that it is not happening.
I care about America. I have worked for BOTH parties. I have been a Republican and I have been a Democrat. I care more about America than I ever cared for either party. We vote. That’s how we do it here.
I resent being intimidated politically and I take it personally. Let me tell you a true story. Six years ago, 2004. I was doing phoning and other volunteer tasks for the Democratic Party. I have done it for Republicans in the past, too. I was raised to be interested in politics. Also in 2004, I was caring for a father whose mind was slowly, slowly failing. It was my duty to help my father fill out what turned out to be his last ballot for the Presidency of the United States. I guess I knew that at the time. He cared a lot about the Republican Party and had held elective office for eight years.
The year 2004 was a year when I did not favor the incumbent administration and was actively working to unseat them. I felt terrible, terrible, when I, myself, had to mark his mail-in ballot in exactly the opposite way as I had marked my own. It was tempting. I could have marked it my way. I had the power. But I didn’t do it. I marked every single choice exactly as my Dad said. I hated doing it. I felt like I was going to be sick. But I did not fail him and I did not betray him. I am an American. We vote and then we count the votes and that’s what I believe is the best political system on earth. I believe in it even if it means I know my side is going to lose. I would rather lose the election than lose my country.
I was so repulsed by the experience that I actually carried my Dad’s mail-in ballot in my purse for two days and just played with the idea of “forgetting” to mail it. But I always knew in my heart that I would mark his ballot the way he wanted it and I would mail it in plenty of time for it to be counted. I am an American.
I have not been political on my Facebook page purposely. I set it up as my genealogy and family tree page and I want to keep it that way. Today and in this one Note I am political. I am asking my Conservative friends to ask themselves one question and I do not particularly want to know the answer. Do you share my picture of what it is to be an American? Specifically, if the 2012 election were to be held today and your elderly parent wanted to vote for Barack Obama or whomever the Democratic candidate would be, would you believe in America enough to faithfully fill out their ballot and mail it in or would you not? Do you believe in the American political system of government that much? Would you do the ballot the correct way or would you subvert the political system? Don’t tell me, just play out my situation in your mind and think of what you would do if you were in my place.