This is a great pic. There’s the Sun, falling out of that tiny hole in the clouds, falling on you.

It seemed a gift, this picture from Trish. This little bit of the Sun, with the cooperation of the clouds, has chosen us. Our work is to say yes; to choose back. You know me, what I think we’re to choose back, what I think we’re to say Yes! to is Peace. Our world, and specifically our country, is in deep need of Peace.

What to do? Well, here’s one place I think each and every one of us can make a huge difference. As many I know, I’m disturbed by the people, young and old, who think that opting out of civic responsibility is a choice. Today I’m really talking about voting.

Voting is a gift of the republic. It is also a gift to the republic. We are to vote in the best interests of the republic, not simply based on our hopes and disappointments.

If people are put in harm’s way as a result of our actions, we are responsible. Are people safe? Are they fairly paid? Do they have insurance? Do they have enough to eat? These are things we cannot put in jeopardy. Or perhaps farther in jeopardy.

Not getting what we want in an election is a call to be involved in the long term, rather than notice to abstain.

Voting is just one thing where we need to be involved over the long haul to make a difference, or to make the difference we want.

I keep reading that good, responsible, caring people, when it comes to voting, fail to cast our votes in ways that will protect the people most in need.

This means that we must wake up. We are our brothers’ and our sisters’ keepers. We are our mothers’ and our fathers’ keepers and our aunties’ and our uncles’ and all our children, and they are all our children.

We do not stand apart. People’s lives depend on our actions. The Sun shines on us… we are responsible for Peace. Let us lift our faces to the light. And let us do what is just. Peace is all about Justice.