This week, I’ve spent a chunk of time watching the Democratic National Convention.

I struggle with politics. Sometimes I feel like the entire system is broken. I didn’t vote in the last election since I was feeling this way. I have to say I consider myself an apathetic independent. But this much I know: the past 8 years with Bush and Cheney running this country will go down as the greatest squandering and misdirection of any period of time in our history. To put it bluntly, we’ve gone from the greatest country in the world (some might argue in the history of mankind) to a country through its government that steps on the rights of it’s citizens, engages in wars it shouldn’t, tortures our fellow brothers and sisters, squanders our wealth, engages is croneyism and favoritism, expands government and bureaucracy like no other time in history, and in the end, basically a government that hasn’t done much good (and possibly irreparable harm).

Our country has major problems. MAJOR problems. But in the history of our country, the best of our times have come by facing major problems and overcoming those problems. And those greatest times have had nothing to do with the specific ways we solved those problems. They could have been solved 10 different ways. They came about because a great leader helped guide us to some solution. And nuances weren’t important. It doesn’t matter what specific plan gets put down to address health care, it needs to be fixed. It doesn’t matter what specific plans gets implemented to address our financial challenges, they need to be fixed. It doesn’t matter how we restore diplomacy and our relations with the rest of the world, we need to rise to the highest standards of understanding and compassion to the world family.

I just finished watching Barack Obama give his acceptance speech. (Read his speech — Watch his speech) Based on what I say tonight and following him the last little while, Barack Obama is a great leader. He’s someone that when I look at him and his story and listen to him speak, I trust him. I may differ with specifics of his changes if you laid out micro-details of what he wants to do. But that’s not important to me. Solving our problems in some way is what is important to me, and I believe history will show that Barack Obama will be one of those leaders who can bring our country together and solve our challenges. We need leaders to lead the American people to that greatness and moments of the best humankind has ever reached. There is no guarantee that the United States will be here in 100 years, in 500 years. Every government and civilization in the history of the world has failed. The only way we won’t is to let our amazing democratic system work. The way it’s worked before is that great men and women lead the citizenry through tough and critical times. John McCain and the Republicans are not going to lead us to this greatness. Maybe I’m wrong, but this time around, I’m not an apathetic independent. I’m an independent that is going to proudly cast my vote for Mr. Obama, and hope and pray he wins the election in November. I feel like we have to have someone that is a leader and a visionary at the helm of this country. We need major changes if we want to have hope at solving our major issues.

PS - I promise my next post won’t be about politics or the financial problems facing America!