This week, or rather Tuesday specifically, will be one that’ll require much rest, training and preparation, at least on our part here at the paper and anyone running for election.
It’s also the day I’m scheduled to become an uncle for the first time, so work and family will become an extreme juggle of stress and time management. But that’s my problem, and my job to solve it. The real thing I wanted to talk about this week is, hopefully, to remind anyone who hasn’t taken the five minutes out of your day to go and vote.
OK, I know sometimes going to the polls can be a gamble. Whenever I’ve been unlucky to arrive only to see a line of people spilling out into the street, I immediately turn around, thinking “Who has time for that?” And I can imagine it’s even harder if you’re a single mother with two kids, working three jobs and don’t necessarily have the time to catch up on what’s happening in local politics.
I never like to talk about who I’ll vote for, or if I lean more toward Democrat or Republican ideologies and ethics. To me, it’s impossible to put all of your beliefs and ideals into one pre-subscribed way of thought. Inspiration and good ideas can come from all sorts of places, and everyone is different. The world and humans are just too complicated to think one way or the other will work for everybody.
Not to mention, as a journalist, it’s not my place to speak out on who people should vote for. I don’t even hang signs in my front yard no matter how much I like a certain candidate.
Politics are a personal thing, and everyone is coming from a different background in what they hope for in their leaders. For example, certain government decisions might affect me, a single person who rents his home and has no kids, differently than say, a small business owner, homeowners, people with multiple children or those who rely on government programs like welfare. It’s different for everybody, so therefore it should be nobody’s business but the voter’s about who they vote for and why.
But I can’t stress enough the importance of voting and…
