Civic Duty Complete

This morning, I mailed in my absentee ballot containing my votes. After waiting three hours to vote in the last presidential election, I determined not only that three hours would probably be half the time I spent in line this election, but that I did not have the patience to wait in such a line. Absentee ballot was clearly the best choice for me.

I think my choice of candidate is relatively clear, however, I am slowly coming to acceptance that it is unlikely my candidate of choice will win. I have done what I can, made my peace and now just have to wait and see how the whole process shakes out.

On my ballot, there were many public bond issuance, many of which I voted for - and contributing to my own increases in taxes. One thing I feel is being VERY overlooked in this election season is the aging nature of our American infrastructure....the three greatest examples I can think of in this arena is the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, the many near misses at airports because of an aging air traffic control systems and the gross failure of the levies in NO during Hurricane Katrina. I have become very aware of this after working for my company for just a very short period of time - an area of great focus for my company in the gas distribution business (ie, the business that provides gas to homes and businesses) is the replacement of aged pipe in the ground. Much of our pipe is 80 year old bare steel pipe starting to corrode and cause gas leaks. We have a program in place committing hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 5 years to replacing this pipe in the ground. Also, cities and local municipalities are being affected as well, as they need funds to replace aging school buildings and public safety equipment (ie, police and fire trucks) David's engine is regularly taken out of service for repair - their main engine is ~ 6 yrs old with close to 150,000 miles on it, hard miles I might add.

So please take these thoughts under consideration as you head to your local polls this election season. It may cost you some dollars, but these are important dollars that impact the health and welfare of every citizen.

While your at it, be sure to cast your vote for the McCain/Palin ticket. :)