| Subject: PSA |
Author:
Holly
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Date Posted: 17:47:28 08/11/04 Wed
Okay, folks, I've been unusually quiet about the upcoming election. There's a reason for that. I have my own strong feelings about what's going on in the world, and the last thing I want to do is trample on the feelings of others.
I come from a conservative family. They are smart people. They are kind people. They are people who have learned over time. My father is a bona fide war hero who supported the family, after retiring from the military, helping defense contractors design and build nuclear deployment systems. My favorite uncle was a televangelist-turned-politician-turned-fallen-televangelist/politician-turned-preacher. His wife, my mother's sister, is the real fundamentalist in the family.
I am a liberalterian. I agree with my family about some things and disagree with them about others, but we love and respect each other. I understand their views (which are by no means uniform), most of them anyway. They understand mine, and we mostly get along just fine - unless somebody becomes too deeply enraptured by his own rhetoric. See, that's the problem: we're all so diabolically witty sometimes.
The reason I wanted to tell you about my family (including my favorite uncle, whose name I dare not speak in public) is that I am asking everyone I know to remember that we are all family. The level of discourse in this election has already frightened me a few times. Both parties' spin cycles are out of control. Most information we get from the mainstream media is tainted by someone with motive, thanks to the consolidation of media ownership (which has ruined all of the soaps IMO, but I digress).
Question everything. Follow every link and read for yourself what it says. Make up your own mind. Decide for yourself what your values are and how best to serve them.
I am not about to tell anyone else WHO should be President, but I ask you to make your choice with an active mind. Know your candidate, including his weaknesses. Know the other guy, including his strengths. Remember the pros and cons for each guy. Commit them to memory. Learn about your local candidates, too, and vote for them with the same deliberation you would use to choose your President. Some of them may run someday.
After the election, remind yourself of the list of pros and cons. Write your President about your concerns. If, for example, his proposed budgets concern you, tell him so. Write your Senators. Write your Representatives. I know you have stamps, my friends. And work with your local representatives on the issues that are most important to you.
For my entire adult life, voter turn-out and civic involvement have been pretty lame. Every election year, the pundits come out and talk about how whoseywhatsy and thusandso can't really claim a mandate because so few people voted. Well, pardon me for saying so, but they do have clear mandates from us: the mandate to do whatever the fuck they want - because we don't care. Not watching.
We've been expecting the President, the Congress, the Courts, the Media to watch out for us. They don't anymore. I think there are good politicians. I think there are dedicated public servants. But the responsibility to watch out for us really begins with us anyway.
So that's what I'm asking you to do, for this election and the foreseeable future. Choose your elected representative based on information you know to a reasonable certainty to be true. Don't give up on your values if your guy doesn't win. And don't get complacent if he does.
And don't forget that we are all Americans, one proud, disagreeing disagreeable family. Let's not let election year hate and division and even high rhetoric obscure the fact that we are all in this together. And I really believe we all want what we think is best for our country. Disagreement about what that is has to be the starting point in our discussions, not the end of them.
VOTE!
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