Many of you are sharing real live stories about what you are going through with your families, so I thought I'd share mine. Although this is from just one person, there are many like this in my family, they have just chosen not to make an issue out of our political differences.

This is the text of e-mail I received today from my uncle. I'm sure many of you have family members that sound a lot like this...


It grieves me deeply to see my niece so nieve as to buy into Obama's BS.  However I am proud to say that I am going to cancel your vote.  This is the same Obama that while attending a function with Hillary and other liberals stood with his hand over his crotch during the playing of the national anthem while all others including Hillary had their hands over their hearts.  A total slap in the face at all veterans such as myself.  I saw this with my own eyes.  This is also the same Obama that had the american flag removed from the tail of his plane and replaced it with that muslim logo.  I don't know where you got your info about his student loans unless it was from his book.  A muslum communist with the help of the prince of Saudi Arabia financed his education and I don't doubt that they fully expect something in return.  When Bill O'Reilly asked Obama why he shunned the national anthem he stated that although it is a beautiful tune it mentioned bombs bursting in air and that is not appropriate.  And this is the man you want for commander in chief.  He may may make it in spite of all our efforts to defeat him but the whole country will pay for it.  The French and Germans want him to be our president.  I guess they want us to be just like them (heaven forbid).I will be praying for his defeat.  You received this from a flag waveing Marine patriot who loves his country .  I will await the revelution that is sure to follow in acouple of years if Obama is elected.  The blacks already plan a riot if he is not. I am now purchasing all the ammunition that I can store.  Have a nice day but I hope you lose.

My reply:
Dear Uncle ________,

You are receiving this from a flag waving patriot who loves her country, although I have to admit my pride in her has suffered lately. I am not a Marine, but I had a son who was in the Army for 6 years, and it was conceivable that I could have lost him to a war that should not have been waged by a Republican administration who cared less about the truth and my son's life than they did about their own agenda.

I have been voting since 1972 and have never voted for a Democrat for president. My decision to vote for Sen. Obama has not come easily. Early on I had intended to just not vote this year, as I could not reward the Republicans for the mess they have gotten this country into, but knew I couldn't vote for Hilary. Then I heard Barack Obama speak, and began to have hope that under the right leadership this country could be become great once again.

I read his books, researched articles, challenged the drivel I was hearing on "Faux" news and reading in filthy, hate mongering e-mails. I did fact checking through factcheck.org and snopes. I've spent literally hundreds of hours getting information from every source I could find from the right to the left and have "formed" my decision, rather than being told what to think and accepting it blindly, as I have done for way more years than I care to admit.

Unlike many people, I did not decide who I was going to vote for, then reverse engineer all the reasons I could to support my decision.

I have watched as Christians I love and respect behave in ways that make me feel ashamed, not of my Lord, but of my fellow believers. I can't believe that God is happy to see what people are saying and doing in His name. My Bible says that all people are God's children. My Bible says I am my brother's keeper. My Bible says that what I do to the least of God's children, I do to Him. My Bible advocates love, not hate.

The Republicans have nothing positive to bring to the table. They have no positive agenda, no new ideas. They are led by a possibly once honorable man who is no longer honorable, backed up by an ignorant, self-serving, unethical pretty face who, God help us, would be a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency. Their speech is full of lies, divisive language, and a celebration of stupidity, mediocrity and greed. They wrap themselves in the flag and divide us into "real" Americans and "fake" Americans. They paint anyone who disagrees with them as "unpatriotic." They try to divide us by class, race and religion. They offer nothing but try to scare us about an Obama presidency, because they have no horns to toot. They are typical of people who have to slam others and bring them down to make themselves look better. It's appalling. Calling myself a Republican felt as dirty as calling myself a whore.

I am under no illusions that this will change your mind. You have bought their crap hook, line and sinker. You are unwilling to have an open mind. You would rather accept the status quo (only w/ a more erratic, hostile, "fight, attack, fight some more" hand on the trigger) than open yourself up to the possibility of a better America. You would rather accept the crumbs falling off the table of the wealthy than live in a world where the workers that create the wealth get a bigger share of that wealth. You are apparently willing to watch good, decent people go bankrupt and lose their homes because of crushing medical bills, while the wealthy live in their seven houses, drive their eleven cars and get yet another tax break, so they can "trickle down" on us some more...

I find it interesting that you would actually fare better under an Obama presidency that under a McCain presidency. I guess in some way it is admirable that you would rather do worse financially than turn the the government over to a Muslim...but you have to first accept that premise, which I wholeheartedly do not.

I believe that Obama's story is fundamentally "THE" American story. Only in America could a man of mixed racial heritage, raised by a single mom and his grandparents, start out headed in the wrong direction, then pull himself up by his bootstraps and make something positive out of himself. He could easily have grown up to be an unproductive drain on our society. Only in America could he go to the best schools, be president of the Harvard Law Review, work as a community organizer, become a state senator, get elected to the Senate, beat the "Clinton machine" and get the nomination for President of the United States. Add to that getting married, raising his precious children, working his way into the the "upper" class...I'm so proud of him, I could burst. I'm so happy for black children (really ALL children!) to have such a wonderful role model. Standing in the racially diverse rally in Reno, I felt more proud to be an American than I had in a long time.

I am under no illusions that Obama is the "Messiah" who will save us. I can't and won't even try to defend every single thing he has said and done. I don't agree with every position he has taken. But as long as there is a 2% chance he will restore America to her former glory, I'm going for it. I know what I'm getting with the Republicans. I would find it easier to defend Obama's positions than McCain's. McCain's hypocrisy is just more than I can stand. I'll have no choice but to accept it, if they win, but I won't intentionally do that to my kids and grandkids. At least with Obama I will have hope, and that's more than I have now. Just as I was willing to bail out a bunch of wealthy, greedy Wall St. types to keep the whole system from collapsing, I am willing to provide social services to people who "game" the system, rather than watch children live in abject poverty.

But at least you've grown some. You are now refering to "them" as black rather than the more derogatory term you used when I was a child. And at least you are helping the economy with your purchases of ammunition. And at least you are voting.

For the record, I live in a "blue" state, so your "red" state vote won't cancel mine out. (And also, for the record...I don't like those terms red state/blue state - we're the United States - or at least we were once upon a time, and perhaps will be again, one day.) And even if it did, that logic runs both ways...mine would cancel yours, as well. How unfortunate that you chose to look at it like that. It would be so much more productive if we could just accept that we are 2 people who love our country, but have different ideas about the direction she should go.

No matter who wins, one of us will spend the next 4 years being afraid. I would rather be me, than you. At least I will be afraid of something real, rather than of an illusion fabricated by a bunch of rich, bigoted, frauds intent on keeping the rest of us down where we belong, outside the castle walls.

"Have a nice day, but I hope you lose."  Your words. For the sake of our country, I hope we all win...but that will take an Obama victory.

I love you...