This is it, everybody

Election Day is upon us. Thank God.

No more mailboxes filled with attacks, or hagiographic biography. No more bright-eyed volunteers knocking on your door asking if you've voted. No more robo-calls telling you somebody's a terrorist.

From now on, when you fast-forward over commercials on your TiVo, they'll be for cars and not candidates.

But one more thing before you relax: It's time to vote.

For once, all the cliches are true. This election actually is the most important one we've had in a long, long time. We really are at a pivotal moment in history. There really is a choice, between the future and the past, between hope and despair, between right and wrong.

Barack Obama is that choice.

He's been derided frequently by people who say his impressive oratorical skills mask rank inexperience, and his talk of hope covers over a lack of ability. Don't believe it. And don't underestimate the power of hope, and the need this country has for inspiration.

We're mired in war, in debt and in despair, thanks to bad choices we've made in the past. We need hope like a thirsty man needs water; we need inspiration like a starving man needs food.

Barack Obama will give us all that and more.

His opponent, John McCain, has lost himself in this campaign. So much of the principle and the spirit that McCain had just a few years ago has been sapped by his desire to be president in a quest he knows is his last. McCain slams Obama for being in the "left lane" of American politics, when McCain himself has taken the low road, with lying ads, ugly charges and desperate gambits.

It won't change the truth. Obama's the better choice.

Listen to McCain sum up the election: "Now this election comes down to how you want your hard-earned money spent. Do you want to keep it and invest it in your future? Or have it taken by the most liberal person to ever run for the presidency? And the Democratic leaders -- the most liberal -- who have been running Congress for the past two years, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. ... This is a dangerous threesome."

See that? How do you want your money spent? What about your future? And aren't they awful?

It's all about you, says McCain.

Now, listen to Obama on the same subject: "The question in this election is not are you better off now than you were four years ago. We all know the answer to that. The real question is, will this country be better off four years from now?"

At last, somebody has had the guts, the wisdom and the ability to erase Ronald Reagan's political vulgarity -- 1980's "are you better off now than you were four years ago?" -- from the landscape, and remind us of a fundamental truth: It's not just about you. It's about all of us.

Obama knows the secret: When we're all pulling only for our self-interest, we're disconnected. We're subject to fearmongering, demagoguery and panic. We see things as us versus them. But when we're all pulling together, toward a common goal, fear gives way to hope, resolve and success for everybody.

It's precisely that change this country needs more than anything.

It was another young Democrat 47 years ago who also knew that secret. He told the nation to "...ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." His inspiration literally sent us to the moon, and opened the eyes of the world to a new frontier.

In the decades since, however, we've learned to close our eyes and avert our gaze. We've learned because of war and betrayal to distrust our government. We've learned because of corruption and greed to distrust our institutions.

It's time to open our eyes again. It's time to rise up and use our power to declare the kind of nation we want, one in which everybody -- and not just the wealthy and the powerful -- has a place.

It's time for Barack Obama. It's time for hope and inspiration.

So, in the inspiring words of yesteryear, "with a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Steve Sebelius is editor of CityLife and the author of the daily blog "Various Things and Stuff," available at www.lvcitylife.com. He can be reached at 871-6780, ext. 306 or Ssebelius@lvcitylife.com.