This post's got no title, just words and a tune ...

... with apologies to Elton John and Bernie Taupin.

Historically, I've been reluctant to publish the words of other writers, primarily because the conceptual basis of this blog from the beginning has been to compel me to push aside my slothful instincts and to write on a daily basis.

Like many, I'm my own worst critic, one capable of pole-vaulting from abject laziness all the way to compulsive rewriting. So far, I've been able to avoid the latter, although some days I still need a gentle shove to write when I'd rather be doing something else or simply don't have the time.

One way is to continue reading as much as possible. Doing so gives me ideas and makes me competitive: "Hey, I'm as good as he (or she) is. I can do that, too."

But ... there are times when the best strategy is to gracefully relent and become the editor of the anthology, pointing the way to those writers who are saying what I'd like to say, and doing so better than I've been capable of doing.

Thus far during the two-year presidential election cycle, I've been unable to consistently organize my thoughts as to why I believe Barack Obama to be the superior choice for the nation’s highest office -- given that I continue to find the American two-party system annoying.

Gazing upon the turgid streams of vitriol aimed at Obama, I've felt a renewed puzzlement. Has there been a time since the American Civil War when such a cultural gulf exists between people living across the road from one another, who profess to share a belief in the concept of America, but whose ideas about what that belief implies are so utterly divergent?

It does not make me happy to add that in this cultural fratricide, I find a certain amount of vindication. To borrow a description from Christopher Hitchens, who echoes my viewpoint of a lifetime, it’s quite plain that religion poisons everything.

Axiomatically, the people screaming anti-Obama epithets at Republican rallies identify themselves as religious people. They go to church. What’s more, it isn’t that they’re somehow guilty of incomprehension, or of misunderstanding the sermons they hear while awaiting the collection plate. In general terms, they’re grasping the point perfectly well: It’s us, and them. “They” must convert. “We” must proselytize. The message is clear. If you’re not one of them, you’re not really American.

And that’s bullshit. Always has been, and always will be.

I’m vilified locally as the resident municipal atheist, to be regarded with equal parts condescending pity and violent loathing, and most of the ones throwing stones in my direction believe in God – not that they’ve grasped the part about professing their strong convictions without the use of “anonymous” masks. But not once have I proselytized believers on behalf of atheism, and in fact, I’ve no intention of picketing their churches, knocking on their doors, or wasting my valuable time caring one way or another – just so long as they extend me the same courtesy and respect my principled unbelief.

To me, that’s what America is all about, all of which brings me back to Barack Obama.

From day one, what I’ve heard coming from Obama is a pervasive tone of respect for thinking, for thought, for ideas, and for the merits of educational attainment, the sort of achievement that has driven human history forward. He’s undoubtedly a believer when it comes to religion, but he’s not asking me to convert, simply to listen, to consider, and to reach a conclusion. That’s okay by me.

On the other side, the worst angels of our nature have been unleashed by angry people, practically all of whom believe themselves motivated by their possession of religious “truth” to the exclusion of anything else. That’s not okay by me, and it me, it’s contrary to the intellectual principles that prefaced the founding of this nation. I’ll continue to actively oppose the notion of America as “Christian.” During the Inquisition, in Iran and in Afghanistan, we’ve seen exactly what a theocracy is. We don’t need one here.

For the remaining three days prior to the election, I’ll be posting pieces written by others, some of local origin, other from elsewhere. The gist of each is why the author is voting for Barack Obama, and not merely against John McCain.

Thanks for reading.