Election 2000 has finally passed out of the news, and quite possibly out of most peoples' minds, into infamy. For most of the uproar I shared my opinions only with my husband and generally avoided the news on it, commentary on it, and pretty much was sick and tired of hearing about it. But now I feel I can finally put my own little footnote on this fiasco.

Regardless of its flaws, we still have one of the freest electoral systems around. We may not take advantage of the system that allows us to completely scrap all our leaders, but we can "throw the bums out" if we so wish. There aren't too many countries that allow a citizen to do that. Most of the time we tend to ignore the flaws. Heck most of us (myself included of late) ignore the whole election process altogether, not even bothering to vote for whatever lame reason we happen to have that year. This year was entirely different. All of a sudden, just because a man lost in an area he thinks he should have won, the whole process is called into question. Sounds like sour grapes to me.

A man lost the lectoral college even though he won the popular vote. This has happened in the past and not caused so much as a stir. But not this year. No, this year that man decides to sue. He should have won. The other side cheated or he would have won. So, because he thinks he has been cheated of a sure victory in an election process that has worked for everyone else but him, he takes the whole thing to court.

And instead of upholding our Consitution and electional process by throwing the whole thing out of court from the get go, the courts give the whole thing credence and orders a recount. Here is the true crime of this election. Now any candidate that loses can just take his grievance to court and possibly revive the three ring circus this election became.

Let's be honest about this. This election prime time show had nothing to do with the election process, the Republicans cheating or anything else that got thrown out as an excuse for the behavior we have seen this year. It had even less to do with what was good for this country. What would have been BEST for this country was for the loser (regardless of party) to graciously concede the election to the winner. What would have been best for this country is for the courts to not give any credence to this show of greed and desire for power. Beneath the facade of searching for the truth behind the accusations of cheating was a man who wanted to be President and didn't get it so did anything and everything he could to try to wrest it from his opponent.

No, I have not mentioned my party affiliation. And I won't. I may be registered undar a particular party, but I vote, when I vote, according to my conscience and across party lines. In the end, party affiliation has really nothing to do with what occurred this year. It was based on greed and desire for power and trying to get it any way you can. Both candidates proved themselves to be completely selfish, greedy, and completely inappropriate for the office of President. In the aftermath we are left with an even more tarnished image of our once great country, a shakey election process that is now subject to the decisions of judges, and leadership that will probably forever be in doubt because of childish and greedy behavior. For once I am glad I didn't vote. I would be ashamed to admit that I supported either one.