Counting down...

Summer "daze" is history now. Footballs fill the air, Baseball stumbles toward the World Series and Fall slips toward winter...and we near the selection of our 45th President along with a potential sea change in Congress; so change is in the air. But is it?

Will this election give birth to real, new leadership or will we simply swap one set of suits for another?  How will we know what the election produces?  Here's my "watch" list...

• New leadership will act reponsibly as stewards of our wealth. No more blown budgets. 
• New leadership will refuse to act in its own self-interest. No more pork. 
• New leadership will build bridges across the asiles of Congress. No more gridlock. 
• New leadership will work on behalf of the people. No more paybacks to unions, lobbies, business or deep pockets at the people's expence. 
• New leadership will set a different tone as it charts our course as a Nation. No more lionizing the "loyal opposition" or winner-takes-all arrogance. 
• New leadership will commit to reform--of both the Senate and the House. No more tolerance for cronyism, nepotism or corruption. 
• New leadership will understand that "less is more." No more unlimited terms of service. 
• New leadership will celebrate our history, diversity, vision and way of life, while at the same time seeking to make us a better, more compassionate and inclusive people. No more excoriating the nation because it seems the "hip" thing to do. 
• New leadership will set a "living example" of good citizenship. No more double standards. 
• New leadership will act in the interests of the nation. No more back room deals where the only winners are the politicians and their handlers. 

Seems polyanna. But we've seen this before. Read about it in John Adams. Leaders serving selflessly, fearlessly and without guile. It is this kind of leadership that gave birth to our nation and now must re-emerge to carry us, our childern, into the 21st Century with a reclaibrated vision, but a vision that stands stedfastly, still, on the prinicples of freedom, equality and the inalienable rights of its citizens.

These principles birthed a confederaton, nurtured a union and established a Nation...of the people, by the people and for the people.