Pressures are building up with lots of things to do before I go to Finland on the 21st. First of all, I have to finish the paper I will deliver. Then there are projects to complete before I leave, like the Arkansas Governor's Award bases to be made for the Arkansas Quality Awards commission. It looks like there may be as many as three Arkansas businesses reaching a high enough standard this year to receive the award. Then I have one week of classes to prepare for and drawings to complete for new library furniture before I leave .

We are in the midst of another presidential election. This year, is more like a class war than ever before in my lifetime. So, in addition to everything else, I find myself with a sense of outrage at the deliberate lies and hypocrisy. It can be distracting.

Today, John McCain (without his sidekick) and Barack Obama will meet together for a few moments of silence at the site of the twin towers in NYC and then go to Columbia University for separate Q&A sessions in Lerner Hall. My daughter Lucy will be watching on the big screens erected on campus.

We have had 8 years of ugly politics in which the American people have been deceived and distracted by the political machinations of Karl Rove and gutter politics, leading us away from finding real solutions for our nations problems. Read New York Times Columnist Roger Cohen to understand the Biblical proportions

If you believe in prayer, now, while the candidates observe a moment of silence, and while they travel to Columbia University to be faced with real questions rather than political distraction, please pray that the blessings of wisdom enter the conversation about America's future.