Not same. Same, same.

A very long time ago, another life really, I was sitting across a long mahogany conference room table from a very short Japanese man having a disagreement. My company was making a product for this client out of a "new" material which wasn't really new it just had a new name.

I had affidavits from the vendor stating it was the same material.
I had data from manufacturing stating it was the same material.
I had MSDS sheets to prove it was the same material.
We even ran tests on the finished product to show it was the same material.

After all my documentation and dialog (actually monologue would be more appropriate) with this client, he repeated this statement: "Not same".

I wish you could hear me say it...or better yet, have heard him say it. He was unconvinced. I had the data. Let's face it. Everything proved to him that it was the same material. It didn't matter. In his mind and out loud he would pronounce "Not same" after every point I made. I would shake my head, smile and say "No, sir...same, same." He disagreed. Every. time. And if you know me, you know this went on for some time.

I voted today. I stood in line with many, many people in my neighborhood...very few of them I even knew. The line went down the sidewalk, turned, down the other sidewalk, down the school drive, down the road and on and on. It was awesome. What a turnout.

Voting is just a cool thing. I didn't always think so. If you can't bring yourself to thank George W. for anything else, maybe you can thank him for waking up so many to the absolutely coolness that we have the privilege and responsibility to vote.

I stood in line with a lady who looked nothing like me. I could infer from her comments that we had very different lifestyles, different outlooks and we were definitely voting differently. Today there will be short, tall, fat, skinny, black, white, young, old, Democrat and Republican standing in line together. But despite all that evidence, I look at Americans voting today in the most amazing country on earth and declare "Same, same." Not so very different at all.