Yes, you can.

One evening four years ago, I wandered into the family room where the television happened to be on, and someone I'd never seen or heard of before happened to be speaking. I stood listening for a few minutes before I yelled for Patrick.

"Get in here, quick."

"What?"

"Just come."

He came in, alarmed now. "What?"

I hushed him, pointed to the screen. "That man," I said, "that man is the next President of the United States."

That man, of course, was Barack Obama, and I hope with all my heart that the prophecy of my goosebumps comes to pass.

I've been debating for several weeks now, how much to say about that here. For one thing, I can't vote in this election, so it seems a little out of line to tell anyone else how they should cast their ballot. And even if I were a citizen, if I had a platform of millions, instead of hundreds, I couldn't tell anyone how to vote. Every person must vote their conscience. This I believe to the bone.

I keep that belief tucked next to my faith that America will come around to the right thing finally, though that faith wavers at times, as it has this past week or so. I've found myself slipping into fear. Fear that slightly more than half the electorate might not believe as I do, share the values that I do, think the same as I do. I've watched more television news in the past month than I have in the past four years, and there's a direct correlation between that and the fear.

It's time to change the channel. No matter what happens in this election, we all have to wake up and live together the next day. It's not as if the losing side gets voted off the island. The ideas represented by Sarah Palin and her most ardent followers scare the hell out of me. I'm guessing mine would scare the hell out of them. But I bet if we met each other as people and neighbors, not idealogies, most of us would do alright.

Ideas are important. Ideals, too. Don't get me wrong. It's good to ask yourself what you stand for. But then it's just as important to ask if that idea is something that works offscreen, in the context of living, breathing humanity. Is it a value you can embody at ground level, in one-on-one, face-to-face, encounters with real people? What if this were an island? What if you were stuck there with people who believe differently, act differently, think differently, and you had to make it work? How would that change the way we get behind ideas?

Because this world really is an island. We really are stuck with each other. And we really we have to make it work.

I won't tell you how to vote. I know you can and do think for yourselves.

Craig Ferguson does too:



P.S. Obama people, Dwight Yoakam's version of "Let's Work Together" would make a kick-ass campaign song, don't you think? McCain people, you didn't see that. ;-)