By Staff
Nov. 3, 2002
Craig Ziemba is a pilot who lives in Meridian.
Election week is finally here. After another harried day spent focusing on the news, I watched my son fall asleep in his crib and envied his peaceful simplicity. He doesn't care about politics. He's into more important things, like playing with the puppy, reading books with mommy, and getting Gummy Bears for sitting on the potty.
Sometimes when you get emotionally invested in things like your career or politics, it takes getting your bell rung to remind you what really matters most. We have to work to put food on the table, and we have to fight for what we believe in to pass along a country worth living in to your children. But it's easy to spend so much time working and fighting that we miss out on some of the really important stuff in life  like teaching your son how to cast his Snoopy pole.
Politics is only a tiny sliver in the big picture of life. The sun will rise Wednesday morning regardless of who wins on Tuesday. America is strong enough to survive the ebb and flow of a fickle populace.
I remember vividly how stunned and depressed everyone aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise was after the 1996 election. In our Ready Room, almost every single pilot expressed sadness, disappointment and shame at the thought of four more years with Clinton as Commander-in-Chief.
Despite the dire predictions of impending destruction, however, America survived.
Our leadership in Washington does matter, but the real strength of our nation isn't found on Capitol Hill or onboard an aircraft carrier. America's families are Her greatest treasure and Her source of strength, and the most patriotic act you can ever perform for your country is to love your family.
We've all known politicians and preachers who worked so hard trying to save the world that they lost the one thing more important than their cause  their family. Life is just a mist, a breath, a puff of smoke that will be over before we know it. One day all too soon I'll turn around and my little boy will be a man. The day he leaves home I won't recall who won this week's election or how much overtime I racked up this month. What I'll remember are the times we played football in the front yard or caught all those bream out of the pond.
I hope to teach my son to do his duty, to vote and to be involved. But, more importantly, I hope to teach him to enjoy life to its fullest. After all, aren't life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness the reasons for having a free country in the first place? Politics isn't an end in itself; it's just a means to an end. The end is to give us the freedom to enjoy the life God has given us.
We all get into heated arguments with friends and family over politics from time to time. It's worth remembering, though, that our relationships with those same friends and family members are far more important than the outcome of any election. Our disagreements over policy issues don't amount to anything compared with the surpassing value of friendship. Political parties, platforms and personalities come and go. Friends and family should last forever.