It is approaching noon on the day before the U.S. Elections. I’ve read emails, written blog posts, joined in on conference calls, gone door to door, yet I’m sitting with a feeling of unease. Have I done enough? Have any of us done enough? Have we focused our energies where they are most needed?

What will happen tomorrow? Will Sen. Obama become the first black person to be elected President of the United States? Will Sen. McCain pull out some miraculous comeback? What about all the other elections, the congressional elections, the state legislative elections, and the ballot questions? Will they bring about significant change?

Even if Sen. Obama is elected, how effective will he be in bringing change to our country?

My mind wanders to Dec 31st, 1999. Year 2000 was just moments away. I watched as one timezone after another celebrated the New Year without any disruption and somehow, it feels similar. So many of my friends are doing everything they can in preparation for a major change. I share some of their hope, but I also suspect that we won’t see as much change as people hope for.

Yes, we may see a bright charismatic young new President, but I expect that Sen. McCain will still get an incredible number of votes. Perhaps over sixty million votes. Perhaps more votes that President Bush received in 2004. Some people will celebrate. Some people will mourn. Some will be jubilant. Others will be angry and complaint about voter fraud and people who shouldn’t have voted voting, votes not being counted and so on.

Then, over the coming days, we will return to our daily lives. We will forget about the election as we struggle to make ends meet and the question will perhaps become deeper. What has all of the politics leading up to this election really done? Has it made our country better? Have people’s minds been changed about important issues? Are we changing the way we live to make our country and our world better?

I will get up tomorrow morning, and I will vote. I will stand at the polling place and talk with voters that haven’t decided how they are voting in the State Legislative races or on the ballot questions. I will hop on a train to Washington to cover the election returns. Then, like Sisyphus, I shall watch the bolder of politics roll back down the hill for the next batch of candidates to start pushing back up.