Disclaimer: the person I wanted to see elected President today, barely got out of the starting gate, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico. This is not the time, space or day to talk about that.
If the polls have opened where you live and you're registered to vote-why are you reading this? This can keep. Put on your socks and shoes and pants (I guess. The Constitution says something about the right to bare arms, but not a word about trousers) and get thee to a polling place. We have over one hundred and forty five thousand of our very best and brightest people in military uniforms in places around the world where folks with guns who hate us are shooting at them to defend, among other things, our 'right' to vote and you're sitting here reading this noodling!
C'mon--up and at 'em, Adam Ant! (A story for another time about one of the brothers with whom I slept). If you still haven't made up your mind, it's possible you're one of those people who likes unflavored gelatin or who wears a lot of plaid clothing and drives a beige car. Or, perhaps you really don't have a feel for one or the other folks at the top of your ballot.
Here's a side-by-side tear and compare that seems to be reasonably non-partisan (all of us have agendas, some more secret than others), so if you're undecided "not that there's anything wrong with that", maybe you'll find it useful.
If you're a Nutmegger, native or a transplant (one of the nicer things I've ever been called) here's a reminder that there's a WHOLE ballot to look at in your town, wherever your town is. Across the state, and nation, there are 435 members of the House of Representatives to be chosen. Many of us have state senators and representatives and please don't forget to look at, and decide about, the TWO state-wide Constitutional amendment questions (calling a constitutional convention and allowing seventeen year olds who'll be eighteen by Election Day to vote in primaries). Here's what the Secretary of State's office has put together as a handy reference.
As I said at the top, if the polls are open, go and vote. If they're not open yet, go and wait, and when they open, then vote. As we used to say in New Jersey, 'vote early and often'. I don't think we were kidding. And, when it's all over tonight and the polls close and the talking heads tell us what it means until whatever "it" is is now meaningless, don't lose sight of the real meaning.
Our democracy works only as well and as long as we want it to.
Slogans aren't solutions. Politics isn't policy. No matter who wins, if we voted, we win. I don't care who you vote for and you don't want to know about my choices, either. Whoever is elected will have a plateful and will need a mess of help from all of us. I'm fine leaving 'the post-mortem' to nothing more than that. As that little orphan girl sings, the sun will come up tomorrow. Now get these mutts away from me.
-bill kenny
No comments:
Post a Comment