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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Whelp! It's Election Day!

I hope everyone completed thee civic duties for the season. I had the opportunity to learn we can vote at the town office, at least a month prior to Election Day. Excellent! I didn't ever change my voting district when I moved, therefore, I knew I'd be stranded without a way to the polls. So, I took the advice to vote early. Sincerely wish I'd known this opportunity was available 4 years ago. It took me soo long to cast my ballot, as I was just regaining my ability to process the written word visually. This time, there were no lines, just an empty room, and me, my pen, and ballot. I even received the congratulatory sticker proclaiming my participation in American Civics. That has probably been the most entertaining thing about Facebook today,?is realizing I'm not the only one who still gets excitement from receiving a sticker! It's like vindication we did something good. Which, we did!
I feel like its easy to get caught up in the media frenzy surrounding politics. Although, I personally have been relatively immune to it this year. Not having cable, has done wonders for my abilities to relearn to consider my surroundings. I really mussed it last winter, when I made that choice, but after being exposed to it, in my travels recently, it seems SO over dramatized, and well, treacherous. I'm not exceedingly unhappy in the world I live in, unless I watch tv, and realize a lot of what I've missed in the last5 years. I'm not saying I'm against tv, but I will say, I think we'd be lot better off, as a race without it, because it shows you what you're missing, or even portrays entirely negative mind sets. More or less, I'll say it's a real catch 22, because I do know that the ability to stay current on civic duties, and outcomes, is entirely necessary . However, the extremes of political villainy, I was exposed to, made me very uncomfortable. What on Earth would make me want to trust someone as a leader, when their campaign is based on back-stabbing other candidate. Nothing says, 'trust me ' like an ad porting the opposing parties downfalls. News flash, it might be helpful to point out your own merits, and qualifications as a leader, before yo deconstruct the current one. Obviously, I'm late, on raising these issues, but I already feel relieved, as there are only 2 hours left of being subjected to torture of this kind.

As Americans, we are exceedingly fortunate to live in a country where we all can have the opportunity to select our preferences. It wounds me, to meet, or hear others say , that it doesn't matter. If we all had that opinion, no one would even make it into office. This country is founded on freedom, fundamentally. There isn't a day that has gone by in the last few years, where I haven't felt like a slave, or rather a mouse stuck on a wheel. For me right now,, Election Day, is a concept I fervently hold onto, because it enables me to believe that I can make a difference towards my personal economic situation presently. As with my brain injury, nothing happens overnight. No matter what today's outcome, our political system is an ingeniously designed system of checks and balances. Looking back on my decisions, I feel ashamed for not sticking to my own ideals, and following my own voice. This year, it was a race between the lesser of 2 Elvis, and I felt an enormous amount of pressure to conform, and vote Democratic. It's such a difficult choice to make, as I always prefer to vote Independent, well, almost always. I was pretty excited to see Obama come into office, in 2004. I agree with much of the country, that it doesn't feel likes he's accomplished much in the last 4 years. Although, that said, CHANGE is I a big job, and 4 years is a short amount of time to dig a nation out of the size hole we were in. I don't actually know where we're at today, other than its a much smaller number. It's my opinion that this country needs a new foundation. Economically, we need a fresh start. Knowing that will never happen, I can't help but feel hopeless, as no one seems to have proposed a plan to repair the fundamental flaws in our nations framework. Trying to figure things out for myself, is hard enough, I can't imagine the pressure of supporting an entire country. Oh America...

3 comments:

Julie/Mom said...

Well put Court. Politics and running the country are mind-boggling when you think of all the partisanship there is and it needs to stop but that's not likely either. Thanks for your thoughts...and doing your civic duty!

Unknown said...

COMPLETELY agree with you about the TV thing! I've seen a number of articles about this lately, calling it "fear of missing out (FOMO)". It's the quasi-official term for people becoming borderline depressed because they always feel like someone else is having more fun, has more stuff, better car, better job, etc. Social media takes a lot of the blame for it too. Every time I see an article like that, it makes me want to cancel even my basic cable and give up Facebook (never gonna happen, but still).

-- Amy

Patricia said...

I wish I'd been as smart as "you girls" when I was your age....