I watched the Inauguration and then later looked at Facebook and was not at all surprised at some of the comments I saw.

There may be room for anger, if you wish to participate in that behavior, but rather than directing it toward a person elected how about toward the real place it should be aimed? Our neighbors and friends that don’t think voting is worth it. If my math is close, President Obama was elected by just over 12 percent of the eligible voters in the country. That is the true downfall of our nation.

When talk moves to the debt, the fact that eight years of war was not paid for is a quiet non-issue while Social Security and Medicare, money we’ve paid through taxes, is said to now be a national burden to be cut as much as possible. While we have overcrowding in prisons; drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers are closed and there are few psychological centers with which to help mental patients in society.

As long as the violence of war is more important than the education of our youth, we have a problem. As long as we send people to Congress that allow corporate lawyers to write legislation and then don’t even read it, we have a problem. When we allow clergy, with their own often narrow views, to write legislation we have a problem. When we allow elections to become popularity contests and mudslinging more important than the issues at hand, we have a problem.

When we, as clergy, do our job and set a moral compass, set a consciousness in our faith communities based on our beliefs, help people get out to vote; then and only then, will our problems begin to become resolved. Our challenge is not one of money, food, or jobs, but one of education and empowerment of the individual.

When the individual, all individuals, become involved in the answers to the challenges before us, then we can move forward, however slowly. I may not agree with you but I most certainly afford you the right to speak and ask that you accept the responsibility to vote — to become involved in our future.