Today’s the day so let me ask
you… Have you voted yet? I just left my local polling station and as I
walked back to my car after placing my votes, I felt grateful that I live in a
country where I can vote in a clean, safe place of my own free will. Yet I also felt saddened by the fact that we
live in a society where everyone feels entitled to their opinion yet so many
seem to do so little to earn it. Let me explain.
When you do a bit of homework
and go to the polls to vote, be it for President or city councilman, I believe
you earn the right to have an opinion about how things are going in your neck
of the woods. Take me for example. I’m loud and outspoken and I have an opinion
about most everything. If you ask me, it’s
highly likely I’ll have an opinion about the things going on in my
community. But I’ll also be certain to
tell you that I voted. Why? Because I know my vote is my voice. You won’t ever hear me say one of the more common
excuses I hear like “why bother” or “it doesn’t matter, they’re all crooked anyway,”
or the famous “I don’t have time.”
Voting is too important for a lame excuse.
While today’s vote in my city
for mayor, city councilman, treasurer and school superintendent might seem like
small potatoes to most, it’s a big deal to me.
I live in an amazing community, one of the best in the great state of
Indiana. Great schools, plenty of city
services, good roads, safe neighborhoods, thriving free market economy, clean
streets… But we still have our
problems. We actually have a few BIG
problems and we have a few things that need to be addressed that have been
overlooked in recent years. So I vote.
This morning I got to meet
the very city councilman that belittled my husband and I in email over an issue
set to take place near our neighborhood last year. The project has since been completed and it’s
plagued with unresolved issues. When I
asked Mr. Councilman-Wonder how he felt about his former projections regarding
the project now that it was complete, he had no choice but to admit there had
been oversight and mistakes were made.
You betcha there were mistakes, buddy.
So I did what any good voter
should do… I smiled and shook Mr.
Councilman-Wonder’s hand and said “good luck.”
He’s going to need it.
