The upcoming election may be more important than any in recent history. We are a nation at war and we have problems on the home front. Those problems, just like the ones in the Middle East, did not crop up overnight; neither can they be fixed with the flip of a voting lever.
 None of us are oblivious to the plight of oppressed countries like the former Iraq, but what we see in our own backyards often sets the tone of how we feel about our country’s leaders. In our own backyard, we have high unemployment rates. In our own backyard, we have not only teachers and state employees frustrated over insurance and healthcare, but also self-insured people and companies that provide those benefits.
 Also right in our own backyards lies some of the richest coal veins in the world — coal that once helped miners buy new cars and build houses creating a multitude of spin-off jobs.
 We Muhlenberg countians are again poised on the threshold of an economic revival. Our county and city leaders recently joined together with the “We Believe in Muhlenberg County” campaign realizing that we cannot compete against each other in our own backyard and be competitive with other states and regions for the jobs we so desperately need.
 While industrial diversity is key to economic growth and potential, we still have the opportunity lying wait in the ground beneath us. Coal that once made Muhlenberg king, is waiting to be used for good paying jobs with good benefits.
 Perhaps it is a coincidence that the final decision on permitting for the Thoroughbred Energy Campus will be made little more than a week after the election.
 But we do know that the Bush Administration has been friendly to coal and that according to the National Coal Association, presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry’s voting record for the 106th, 107th and 108th Congress was not.
 Maybe it is also a coincidence that the Owensboro Area Building and Construction Trades Council has sent letters of endorsement for Kerry to area newspapers after filing a 32-page objection to the Thoroughbred Energy Campus being built in Muhlenberg County in August 2002. That objection stymied the process to locate that plant here in our backyard along with its good paying jobs and their benefits.
 As the new leaders of Muhlenberg County look to the future with a new attitude about working together, it is even more important that each of us show the world and our neighbors to the north that we are not content to live in the past. We should be the proving ground that shows we can progress and that we have some of the most hard-working, intelligent and talented people in the world right here in our backyard.
 Times have changed and deciding to pull a straight ticket without studying the issues is wasting votes that count. When Muhlenberg goes to the polls Nov. 2, we need to consider our own backyards before pulling the levers.
 

 Before sunrise this morning, I went outside to get something out of my car. The air was perfect. The weather was clear and the temperature was just right like you couldn’t feel it at all. Only the slightest balmy breeze was stirring.
 I had my mind on a multitude of tasks lying ahead of me at work as I walked back to the house but an old, green metal chair on the carport called out to me to come and sit a spell. I looked up at the starry sky and thanked God for the wonderful weather and the site I beheld.
 Knowing that I faced a hectic day with decisions to make that affect so much, I asked God for wisdom. Knowing that the printed word holds more weight than any other media, I take my job seriously and I’m sure that you wouldn’t have it any other way.
 I asked God for the strength that I needed to write the words that were in my heart that might not be popular opinion. Knowing that what I said would ruffle some feathers, I asked God to guide my pen strokes that I might not offend but rather enlighten.
 After several minutes of prayer, I got my answer. Since the day that I had asked the Son of God into my heart, anything that I wrote from the heart had to be the best that I could do.
 With that in mind, I want to warn you of an unsettling trend in our nation. While we sit in the middle of the Bible belt, the words and actions of people from throughout the nation visits our home via the Internet, newspaper and television about issues that are not shared by the majority of people.
 Evil often presents itself as something beautiful, desirable and sometimes very amusing. The Bible warns us that there is pleasure in sin — but only for a season. The major networks, television and movie studios and especially the if-it-feels-good-do-it crowd tell us that nothing we want to do is wrong.
 But there are consequences for all actions. There are consequences to taking the life of an unborn child yet there are more than 4,500 abortions performed in the U.S. each day.
 The next president of the United States will need more than the backing of the U.S. Senate; he will need more than the support of the U.S. House of Representatives; he will require more might than the Armed Forces as we move forward into a new age; he will need the help of God.
 Think about the magnitude of every pen stroke a president makes each day. Consider the ripple effect of each of the seemingly small gestures he makes each day. Don’t you want the person who has the power to put his finger on “the button” to have God watching his back.
 While there are some of you who don’t agree, I believe that we must put President George W. Bush back in the White House.
 Right after Sept. 11, 2001, we gave our president one of the highest approval ratings of any in history. When we stormed Afghanistan shortly after and raided the terrorist camps, our chest swelled with pride that the great Eagle had been awakened. And when we liberated the oppressed people of Iraq after the initial days of “shock and awe,” we marveled at the might of our military men and women.
 But those days are a million networks news broadcasts behind us. With the exception of a few Holocaust survivors, we forgot what kind of tyranny we were fighting for and how our military personnel feel honored to serve.
 Everything good has been turned over and over in our minds by the airwaves until we are staggering with “expert” opinions and viewpoints.
 Carolyn Hankins of Greenville recently told me about meeting then Texas Gov. George Bush when he stopped briefly at the Owensboro airport while on the 2000 campaign trail.
 A lady of small stature, Carolyn managed to make her way through the crowd and spoke with Bush. She said only that she was going to be supporting him all the way.
 But he didn’t ask for her vote, instead he looked her in the eye and said, “Pray for me.”
 Carolyn told me that she has complied with that request from the now commander-in-chief.
 “I’ve prayed for him every day since then,” says Carolyn.
 I would sincerely ask you this — before you go to the polls Nov. 2, ask God who He wants to lead our great nation.
 Then vote your heart.

 Mrs. Dukes is editor of the Leader-News.
 

Editor’s note: Mathew Manweller, professor of Political Science at Central Washington University, wrote this guest column for the Daily Record in Ellensburg, Washington and it is reprinted with permission.

 “In that this will be my last column before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm, no attempts at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too high.
 This November we will vote in the only election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in the balance. Down one path lies retreat, abdication and a reign of ambivalence. Down the other lies a nation that is aware of its past and accepts the daunting obligation its future demands.
 If we choose poorly, the consequences will echo through the next 50 years of history. If we, in a spasm of frustration, turn out the current occupant of the White House, the message to the world and ourselves will be two-fold.
 First, we will reject the notion that America can do big things. Once a nation that tamed a frontier, stood down the Nazis and stood upon the moon, we will announce to the world that bringing democracy to the Middle East is too big of a task for us. But more significantly, we will signal to future presidents that as voters, we are unwilling to tackle difficult challenges, preferring caution to boldness, embracing the mediocrity that has characterized other civilizations. The defeat of President Bush will send a chilling message to future presidents who may need to make difficult, yet unpopular decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to the demands of history regardless of the costs or appeal. If we turn away from that legacy, we turn away from whom we are.
 Second, we inform every terrorist organization on the globe that the lesson of Somalia was well learned. In Somalia we showed terrorists that you don’t need to defeat America on the battlefield when you can defeat them in the newsroom. They learned that a wounded America can become a defeated America. Twenty-four-hour news stations and daily tracing polls will do the heavy lifting, turning a cut into a fatal blow. Except that Iraq is Somalia times 10. The election of John Kerry will serve notice to every terrorist in every cave that the soft underbelly of American power is the timidity of American voters. Terrorists will know that a steady stream of grizzly photos for CNN is all you need to break the will of the American people.
 Our own self-doubt will take it from there. Bin Laden will recognize that he can topple any American administration without setting foot on the homeland.
 It is said that America’s World War II generation is its ‘greatest generation’. But my greatest fear is that it will become known as America’s ‘last generation.’ Born in the bleakness of the Great Depression and hardened in the fire of WW II, they may be the last American generation that understands the meaning of duty, honor and sacrifice. It is difficult to admit, but I know these terms are spoken with only hollow detachment by many (but not all) in my generation.
 Too many citizens today mistake ‘living in America’ as ‘being an American.’ But America has always been more of an idea than a place. When you sign on, you do more than buy real estate. You accept a set of values and responsibilities. This November, my generation, which has been absent too long, must grasp the obligation that comes with being an American, or fade into the oblivion they may deserve.
 I believe that 100 years from now historians will look back at the election of 2004 and see it as the decisive election of our century. Depending on the outcome, they will describe it as the moment America joined the ranks of ordinary nations; or they will describe it as the moment the prodigal sons and daughters of the greatest generation accepted their burden as caretakers of the City on the Hill.”