Of Ballots and Broadsides...

I am a permanent absentee voter. I have received my ballot in the mail. I have voted.

If you are also an absentee voter, and have received your absentee ballot, PLEASE VOTE.

"Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right." ~ H.L. Mencken

This election is one of the most contentious I have ever experienced, in all my voting years. Aside from the various candidates who are trying to buy their office, there are some citizen's initiatives that have been written not by citizens but by corporate interests, and there are many attempts at ballot box budgeting in the works. I have done homework on all of this, and I confess to you that it is confusing, as well as contentious--nothing is straightforward; nothing is black and white; it is ALL about MONEY.

"If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else’s expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves." ~ Thomas Sowell (writer and economist)

Even in the small town, in which I reside, the campaigning is as serious and hardball as at the state level. I have received no less than 45 non-personal phone calls in the past three weeks: campaign messages, push polls, surveys and robocalls that are undisguised smears of specific candidates, as well as one promotion for rug cleaning.

In this day, we are more distracted than ever. Politicians and their campaign managers count on this.

I urge you to do your homework. I urge you to see what your party endorses. I urge you to find out what your local service organizations and newspapers endorse. I urge you to carry on discussions with friends and neighbors.  I urge you to read the contents of the Voter Guide. I urge you to read between the lines, with your critical thinking cap firmly on your head.

"Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner." ~James Bovard, author of Attention Deficit Democracy (2006)

And then, I urge you to VOTE! It is your right, and your civic duty.

"Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting." ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt