(a.k.a. I’ll be damn glad when the election is over…)

8 Days.  That’s all that remain between now and the election of a new President.  We get the honor and privilege to let our voice be heard in this country.  It’s unique and special and shouldn’t be taken for granted…ever.

This weekend, I received a pin in the mail (you might call it ‘flair’) from MoveOn.org.  They were giving away free Obama ‘08 pins through Facebook, so I signed up for one.  It took about 6 weeks to arrive, and when it did, it was tiny.  The pin is probably no bigger than an inch in diameter.  It’s red, white and blue (naturally) with a picture of Obama’s face on it, and the words “OBAMA”, “2008″, and “VOTE” on it.  It’s very understated, which is why I decided to wear it to work pinned to my sweater vest today.

It didn’t take long to start receiving comments about it.

“Can you wear that to work?” - My wife
“Where did you get that??  I want one… (after hearing it took me six weeks to get it) … oh…well, I won’t get mine in time for the election…” - A co-worker
“You mean they haven’t told you to take that off yet?” - Another co-worker
“Bold move.” - Yet another co-worker

I had a few come up to me asking me what it was all about (not being able to see what it was until you got up close to me) and after seeing the button, seemed to lose interest in whatever they were doing and went off on how cool it was.

The most interesting exchange was with a good friend of mine at work who told me I shouldn’t be wearing the button.  If that person is reading this, I hope she knows that I truly do appreciate her friendship and I am not trying to make this a bigger deal than it is.  I just like getting my thoughts out with this blog.  For the sake of privacy, I won’t name her.

She said that by wearing that button on school grounds (I work for a proprietary school in Marketing), I’m basically saying to any student that walks in the door that ITT Tech supports Barack Obama, and that is wrong to send out that message to any student.  She said that it would be the same if I was wearing a small McCain pin as well.

I don’t happen to agree with her, because while I believe Barack Obama is my choice for President, and I chose to support his candidacy by wearing a one-inch pin on my vest, in no way do I feel like I know he’s the candidate for every single person in the US.  You see, to me, it’s all about individual choice.  I think what I think, and if you think differently, that’s fine.  The beautiful thing about America is that we can exist in perfect harmony socially while in direct opposition politically.

A good friend (and fellow Democrat) told me the story of how he witnessed someone scraping an Obama sticker off his car a few months ago, and approaching the guy as he was doing it.  The guy told him basically the only reason he was doing it was because he was a McCain guy.  After talking to the guy (and not reporting him to the police as was his right), the guy ended up apologizing to him for vandalizing his car and trying to remove the sticker.

A pin is just a pin.  A sticker is just a sticker.  Issues are what divide us, not these things.  You can have my pin if you want it.  Taking that sticker off isn’t going to stop someone from being influenced one way or another.  And as far as I’m concerned, it won’t change what I believe.