The time has come for everyone in our country to take a moment to think. Critical thinking is a lost art, but one we desperately need as the time for voting our conscience has arrived. It’s time to consider important issues from every angle.
In Nevada, voting began on Saturday with polls opening at 10 am. I’d hoped for a repeat of the primary. On that snowy night, the line of voters wrapped around the Senior Center as people stood outside in the cold waiting to cast their votes.
We’re a tiny town of 25,000 souls. Country folks are often conservative, but our town seems equally divided as the rest of the country. We arrived at the polls 30 minutes before opening to get a place in line. Even though we planned carefully, it still took two hours to vote.
Before we’d opened our car doors to stand outside on the crisp autumn morning, a random man started giving a dire warning. It seemed someone had hacked his voting information. He had already contacted the Governor, Sheriff, and the Mayor. For goodness sake, he’d even sent word to the FBI.
Having received voter ID cards in the mail with all the correct information, we weren’t worried. As much as we tried to politely ignore him, he stuck to us like glue. We’d better check. “THEY” were out to get every vote. “THEY” could change our votes, too. We never figured out exactly who “THEY” were.
Moving into line, it was amusing to listen to the chatter around us. Two very large heavy equipment operators at a local pit compared Caterpillar to Komatsu while my attention focused on a city-fied young man with a folding table. Just where did he come from and where was he going? What propaganda did he intend to set up on his black card table taken out of the car with California license plates?
In the middle of hundreds of people, we knew only one. HHH’s Spanish teacher from high school. Now, HHH is 70 (Sorry, HHH, but I must make my point.) His HIGH SCHOOL SPANISH TEACHER came out to vote. Bless her heart. As she bubbled with happiness, she told us she was there to meet a candidate’s wife who would be visiting waiting voters.
By this time, the man with the card table was identified as part of THAT candidate’s team and we sent her in that direction as the clock marched towards 10 am.
About 9:50, a few activists started spewing hate towards Israel over their bull-horn while the candidate’s wife passed out pamphlets about conservative issues. HHH’s Spanish Teacher was lost in the crowd as the clock struck 10.
The doors didn’t magically open as everyone had hoped. Twenty minutes more in the cold, the line finally began inching toward the polls. By the time we left, City Hall’s parking lot was overflowing. The lights of our friendly Sheriff flashed near the activists. Without knowing what happened, we hurried in the opposite direction towards the car.
My biggest hope for our country this year is that all voters are engaged. Carefully consider issues that matter in our lives. Personality, skin color, gender, or financial statues don’t matter. Political promises often prove hollow at the end of the day.
Search your heart. Are you better now than you were four years ago? Has your life improved? How far does your dollar go at the grocery store or gas pump. Study your sample ballot. If you are a person of faith, pray about your vote. Pray about the issues troubling our country.
Don’t wait until the last minute to vote. If possible, vote at your polling place. Be sure to smile at the poll workers and thank them for volunteering for theirs is a thankless job in an angry society.
Whatever you do, Wake Up and Stay That Way. That’s different than “Being Woke. Once awake, things become much clearer.
More tomorrow.