Lodge Or Vote?

Not very Shakespearean but a bit of a dilemma nevertheless. This was the decision that I had to make last night at the end of the work day. As I got in the car I still wasn’t completely sure as to which direction I would travel… fellowship was at 7:30 in Ardmore but the polls closed at 8:00 with my polling place more than 30 minutes away from the lodge. While I was leaning heavily toward heading toward home, you never know when the phone is going to ring and you have to adjust your evening by heading over to the lodge.

 Even though there weren’t any seats of major significance up for grabs in my area, there were still campaigns being run and candidates that shouldn’t be allowed near any public office. This seems to be the pattern every election and yet people never learn and keep voting those individuals into public office. With no urgent calls from the lodge and wanting to get home as soon as possible to spend time with my wife and son, it was not a hard decision to head down the street from the house on a small detour to cast my vote.

While it should be no surprise that I didn’t vote for any of the people to the left of the ballot, there were a number of decisions that had to be made and a variety of issues that differentiated the possible choices from one another. As with many of my political decisions at this point in my life, it really came down to a simple concept… who supports my rights and who believes in individual responsibility? That is the basic foundation to many of my views (also the reason that I previously made known my support for Rand Paul).

And here is where everything comes around and demonstrates the flow of thoughts and ideas from one day to another. As I write this Senator Paul has been on the floor filibustering the renewal of the Patriot Act. One of the few willing to take a stand, stand up for our rights, and defend the constitution. While some will surely say that this is a political stunt to get his name out there to support his campaign I will simply remind those making that assertion that this is something that he has done before.

While there is no doubt that his stance will galvanize his base the more important take away is the fact that there is someone willing to fight for our rights and uphold the Constitution. The Patriot Act is something that I have never been able to fully support especially as it has been leveraged time and again from the day that it was passed to broaden the scope of its reach legitimizing a federal invasion of privacy. It is nice to know that there are still some people willing to fight for our rights which is why I will continue to exercise my right to vote whenever I am given the opportunity.