Family Values, Family Votes: Dear Pop - Shannyn Moore

[Blue_In_AK]

Shannyn Moore has eloquently expressed what many Democratic children of Republican parents must be feeling today. http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2008/11/03/family-values-family-votes-dear-pop/

Family values are coming down to family voters. The upcoming holiday season may have an extra “awkward moment” or two after the election. My family values could be explained with the picture frames on my grandmother’s living room wall. Bedford, Virginia, Dawn Drive, three pictures. The black and white, faded, grainy, long ago wedding picture of my grandparents; a symbol of staying even though it would be easier to go- longevity, determination, loyalty, fertility. A honey haired Jesus, with that senior picture far off gaze; aloof in the painting, but I knew he was really paying attention to me. He knew what I was up to even when no one else seemed to notice. And then there was John Wayne. I loved that. Not the glamour shot, but the one with the red bandana and cowboy hat. Just looking for an ass to kick. Family, Faith and Gun-toting American Hero.

For the last two years I’ve been a broadcaster. I’ve always loved the magic of radio. I remember sneaking to listen to a late night weekend show called “Desperate and Dateless” hosted by the late Herb Shaindlin. He spent hours hooking up strangers for a Saturday date. His show resulted in over 20 marriages and as far as I know, no homicides. Most people my age were watching “Friday Night Videos.” I wanted radio. Since the nomination of Sarah Palin, I’ve spent hours on national and international radio and television. For all the ears that may have heard me, possibly realizing why McCain and Palin are not the choice for America’s future, there is one set of ears I have missed. The closest relationship I have, and I can’t convince him to vote for Barack Obama. Here is the letter I am sending him. Now is the time to write your own. Do it in love, do it in hope, do it with respect, do it with tears in your eyes.

Dear Pop,

I want to thank you for so many things; for teaching me to love and care with no breaks; to accept people where they are not where I wish they were; for the lesson of hope. Those are the gifts that make impassion my beliefs and why I write you now.

Years of sitting through church sermons-how many have I heard? Your sermon on the power of hope is the one I remember. It was powerful to hear you say the “greatest of these is love” was wrong. You disagreed with Paul’s letter to the Corinthians saying it didn’t matter how much you loved if you didn’t have hope. You related something so private as the suicide of grandpa, saying it happened because of a lack of hope, not love. I realized that day what a hope deficit could rob me of, what it already had taken from you. Your dad sat up writing a letter to John L. Lewis in support of bringing the unions to the coal mines of West Virginia. How many times had he buried brothers or friends the second time, after the mountain had buried them first? He fought for safety and wages that weren’t something men who sat in offices all day were going to just give away.

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I love you. I know you are the most thoughtful man I’ve ever met. Pop, I want you to vote for the future. I want you to vote for Obama and Biden.

It is hard for me to ask you for anything. Not because you won’t give it to me, but because I should be able to have bootstraps and do it all myself. I know your loyalty to mom, our family, our church, our friends, and your party are all hard wired for you. I’m grateful. But the Republican Party is wrong for the future.

I love you. I respect you. I ask you to please vote for the future.

All my heart,
Shanny