I’m voting this morning because there’s no possible way for me to vote on Tuesday. It’s clichéd to say this, but I do it anyway–no matter what your political views, cast your votes. It’s important. Don’t let anyone intimidate you or challenge that right. Vote even if you don’t think the person you support or position you hold needs your vote. Vote especially if you think you’re supporting a lost cause. Make your voice heard. It may feel at times like our democracy is in danger, that powerful moneyed interests make it impossible to have a real debate, that no matter what we want, we’re going to be disappointed. The one thing we can do to try to change things is vote. Do it.
I do have to say, though, that I’ll really be glad to see a reduction in my daily emails once election day has passed.
We can also change things by not backing down from criticism, even when it seems like nothing you do will ever make a difference.
This person should, at the very least, lose their job. Breaks my heart that it happened in San Francisco of all places.
The Arkansas School Board member who celebrated the suicides of gay students and hoped for more has said he will resign.
n+1 magazine has a terrific article on the history of the Tea Party. No real surprises if you’ve been following them (or if you grew up in the south), but very informative.
After all that, you deserve some happiness, so here’s the results of the Regretsy pumpkin contest. And here are the honorable mentions.
2 responses
While I appreciate the fervor, I disagree with the sentiment the one thing we can do to change things is vote. I mean, looking through the history of things, have you noticed that not much changes from presidency to presidency? You hit the nail with ‘moneyed interest’, not only that, but the budget for education and education period is still on the decline. If government officials wanted to raise the budget for education and wanted to improve the united states educational system, it would be done. Much like how they passed the stimulus bill — pretty damn quick. Much like how we went to war — pretty damn quick. It is a purposed move. I know, I know, not another “conspiracy theorist”, but conspiracy theory works both ways. One can very well develop theories to support what our government is doing as well as against. No, I am not another anti-American American. I just think the way our government has forced us into thinking the only way to change things is to vote is such a calculated move, it boggles the mind. The real change begins when we start to dissolve our differences — not completely because to do this immediately is not very plausible — but dissolve our differences enough to realize we do not have to be consumers to the system, but the purveyors of our government: how do *we* actually want it to be. Of course I guess you can make the argument of what will stop the next government structure from being the same as this one? Who knows. But it will not be an inherited structure (at least not as first) — it will be something of our creation, something we can attempt to mold. The power will be in the peoples hand once again.
I will not say I am all knowledgeable about politics because I read Howard Zinn or watched Zeitgeist. But it does open your eyes. In Africa, if I am hungry, I can trade a sandwich if the sandwich maker happens to want the hat I’m wearing. There are different ways to live.
I should be clear–when I said that voting was the one thing that a person can do, I meant it in the sense that it is the least one can do, and that it is something that no one can stop you from doing if you’re determined enough. That’s easy for me to say since I live in a relatively liberal part of a purplish state and because I was born wearing a +3 Cloak of Voting While White that protects me from challenges by racist groups who want to limit the size of the voting populace, but I think that in the main it holds true.
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