Toward a More Perfect Union

America is not perfect - it never has been. Our founding fathers understood that, which is why the Preamble to our Constitution states it's purpose is to form a more perfect union. We have been faithful to that promise, moving steadily, if haltingly toward that more perfect union. That progress has included the end of slavery, the end of separate but equal, the recognition that internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII was an abomination. It's meant recognizing Joe McCarthy for the shameless demagogue he was and Martin Luther King for the transcendent figure he was. It's meant giving women the vote, an African-American the presidency and gay Americans the right to share their life and love like everyone else.

It is the nation that saved the world from two global wars and sought no land or treasure in return, only peace and liberty for both the victorious and the vanquished. It ensured stability for trade, safe harbor for those faced with oppression, and armed reassurance to those faced with a Soviet threat across their border. As a result, the world has enjoyed the most peaceful seventy years in human history. Mankind has the United States of America, and the generosity and sacrifice of it's people, to thank for that.

The arc of our history is as clear as it is dramatic. We have an opportunity to keep America on its path and pedestal, serving as a beacon and example to the rest of the world. We can seek to be generous and open or selfish and closed. We can be confident and resolute or fearful and vindictive. We can believe in the future, or long for a past that never was. The choice we make will determine whether we continue to be the America the world seeks to follow, or a nation unrecognizable from which the world turns away. That opportunity, that choice presents itself this Tuesday.

Vote.