(This is a series of brief essays which, taken together, explain why I will be voting for George W. Bush come November, why I am passionate about my choice, and why I am exhorting every voter to make the same choice. Delete them out-of-hand, or challenge yourself, weigh carefully what I write, and respond at will.)

Vote Bush/Cheney Part I: Thank You, Martin Luther

My polling place is a small activity room opposite the main sanctuary in the grand old Trinity Lutheran Church. Itšs within walking distance from my place, and I usually make a quick dogleg out of my routine morning jog to cast my votes. Then I just jog away with a grin on my face.

Therešs few in line that early, but those of us there congregate with cheerfulness and muted chit-chat. We reverence the place, the process, and one another. Electioneering is prohibited by law, of course, but who wants to electioneer now? The arguments have been made, the cases rested; there is no party or ideology here. We are American brothers and sisters, taking a secular sacrament together.

What an odd sacrament this is! The octogenarians, the punch cards, the little booths with the little curtains. (By the way, can we please retain a voting system with real, material, ŗanalog˛ accountability? All-digital is downright scary. More on that another time.)

It fits that the setting is named after Martin Luther. His hunger was that the common man would partake in the Word. He knew each of us stands accountable before God. There is no human intermediary; wešve got to open the Book for ourselves.

Whereas Luther thought on the spiritual, is not voting, this odd ritual, the state embodiment of what he desired? Wešre responsible. Wešve got to know the candidates, their records, the issues, the propositions, the amendments. Wešve got to have done our homework.

Itšs easier to throw up our hands, or sleep in, or dismiss all the candidates as crooks, or Republicrats, or decry the whole thing as not making any difference. Please donšt. Too much blood has been shed, even on our own soil, to have purchased and protected this secular sacrament, just for us to then yawn it away.

This American experiment, this miracle, this ŗcity on a hill,˛ is not promised. Wešve got to keep up the fight. Wešve got our grandkids to think about. My vote for Bush (living in California, naturally) wonšt make any difference. But my right to cast that vote makes all the difference there is.