For those who are still undecided, who are yet unsure, your hesitation is understandable. We are witnessing the unraveling of the very core of the institutions on which we have depended for stability, with the knowledge that those men and women who we had already elected to govern had neither the wisdom nor the courage to foresee or to warn, to enact or to guide. It is a time when it is hard to know who to believe. It is a time when we are unsure how to trust. We now both seek and fear their leadership. We now both seek and fear our responsibility in putting people in office with our single powerful irrevocable vote. We did put them, each of them, in office. We will put vast numbers of people into office again and again and again. We desperately want to know now that our next decision will right our course and yet secretly fear that it will not do so. Perhaps if we look beyond war and economics, we can make our decision based on who will help us to feel most hopeful, who will bring a kind of redemption to America, a redemption long overdue and much needed. Needed, perhaps, as much as, if not more than, economic and political savvy. If you are yet undecided, please remember, that a vote is also a terrible thing to waste. If you are looking for a reason to cast your vote, consider the power of the Inaugural Image. I tried to capture that power in a poem that I wrote during the primaries this past year.
