A few thoughts

Are you worried about the economy? Although Kevin and I are (surprise, surprise) conservative with our finances, and not presently in any imminent financial danger (aside from the major dive in 401K's that everybody is experiencing), I still feel jittery. I have only a rudimentary understanding of the economy so all this bad news is not only scary, but also confusing. I woke up this morning to...well, first to a nursy baby, but second, to the news that markets all over the world are tanking and governments everywhere are "bailing out" their banks and financial institutions. What does this mean? What does it mean for our country, for Champaign-Urbana and for our family?
I have definitely been more careful in the past month with our spending, especially with food. I know this is a good thing to do regardless, but I have been asking myself, what can we have for dinner with the items we already have? Let's finish all of our leftovers, let's have sandwiches and salads to use up odds and ends, let's not go out to eat, etc.
Since Kevin's work is sales-driven, my own increase in frugality makes me wonder about the companies who buy from him. Are they also tightening their belts? Is Kevin's company going to see a downturn in business? Many questions and many fears, I am sure families all across the country are wondering these things and more. I am afraid that we will start to see companies going out of business and more people losing their jobs before things start to turn around.
This leads me to my next thought. I think John McCain is pretty much done for. We watched the debate last night and I thought he looked tired. He stumbled over his words a lot and his jokes were awkward and corny. I thought it looked like he was just kind of wandering around the stage. He said the same old things over and over (although Obama did some of this too) and I don't think he did anything to change anyone's mind or convince anyone to vote for him. I think it would take a small miracle for McCain to turn this around and I don't think it is going to happen. Kevin and I prefer McCain, but there is something that I genuiinely like about Barack Obama and that is, he brings people hope. I don't think most people can point to the exact thing about him that they like or trust or have confidence in. I don't think it's a specific policy or idea, and it's more than simply "not Bush" (although that's part of it). But there is something about him that makes people feel hopeful about what he can accomplish and the direction he will take our country. That is something I can get behind, a big dose of positive energy and HOPE after these 8 years of so much unhappiness and bitter disappointment toward the president. Yes there are things about Obama that I do not agree with but people like him, the media likes him, the congress will be heavily Democratic and I think these things point to him being able to accomplish something. We'll see what his interpretation of "change" turns out to be and we'll see what a president who has a great deal of support and backing from the people, the media and the congress can do with all of that positive energy. I feel good about a breath of fresh air in the White House in spite of the areas where I disagree with him.
The other day I heard Maya Angelou saying, as a country we are the same more than we are different. We all want our children to be educated, we all want people to get the medical care they need, we all want to support our veterans and take care of our military men and women, protect workers and so on. We may disagree, sometimes strongly, about how to accomplish that, but ultimately what we all want is the same.