This is a note I wrote and pasted on my Facebook page.  I'd like to share it here:

When I was a kid, I was a space program junkie. Every time a rocket went up, I was watching it (if I wasn't in school). I followed every mission, knew the names of all of the astronauts. When I was just shy of 11 years old I remember insisting that my parents remain at my uncle's house until the Apollo 11 astronauts stepped out onto the moon, because there was no way I was going to miss seeing that.

As I have gotten older, I look back at the space program with a little different perspective. I'm still proud of what we did. But now the trips to the moon mean much more to me than the science, the exploration that excited me then. Most of my facebook friends (hell, who am I kidding..... ALL of you!) weren't around then. Consider this. Those men made that quarter of a million mile trip, touching down on the moon and returning to earth, using 1960's technology!!!

Our parents and grandparents built a world power. A nation that was the envy of the rest of the world. No enemy could withstand us, not because of our brute military power, but because we had justice and right on our side. America defeated Nazis, contained and finally conquered communism, and put men on the moon thanks to a spirit of working together and a feeling that as a people we can do anything. A young president challenged a country that was ready to accept a challenge to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960's. He had no idea if it was possible to do, but he knew that if any people on the face of this earth could do it, it would be Americans.

Now our leaders only tell us that we shouldn't expect too much; that there are many things that, sorry, we just can't do. We are told that we can't provide health insurance for all of our citizens. We are told that we can't afford to research and develop alternatives to foreign oil. We are told that it's not possible to make sure that every child starts school ready to learn. We are told that when children do not learn in school, it is the fault of the teachers, the school district, etc, and schools and teachers are punished instead of given the tools they need to help children. We are told that asking those who have benefitted more from the wealth of our country to contribute more to it in the form of taxes is socialism.

My first thought is to ask the people who say these things: "Why do you hate America?" Isn't America the land of endless possibilities? Or is America now, in the post-Reagan post-Bush era, the land of wealth and high living for some, but the land of declining living standards and tough times for the rest of us? Where is the patriotism of the owners of the companies who put Americans out of work when they move their factories to other countries because of tax breaks and cheap labor? Or is patriotism to them a salute to the mighty greenback and a contribution of some of their greenbacks to the politicians that enable them?

Come next Tuesday, I am voting for Barack Obama. I am voting FOR Obama, not against McCain. I believe that Obama represents my hope that things can return to the way they were when I was a kid, when our leaders told us we could achieve anything, and, because we believed them and ignored the naysayers who told us that it was not possible or too expensive, we achieved great things. I believe that Obama will show the world that the America THEY used to know is back. That America is one that was enterprising, ambitious, fair, benevolent, yet ready to fight when necessary to preserve our freedoms or protect our allies. I believe that John McCain represents a continuation of most if not all of the policies of George W. Bush: tax breaks for the rich, war without end, fearmongering at home and bullying abroad.

The choice has never been clearer. Hope for a better future, or continuing down the ruinous path of the last eight years. I have less future left than the rest of you do, but I am voting for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have not even been born yet. It is time to take our country back!