And you are the star
May 16, 2012 (Wednesday)
Remember when the political conventions actually selected the candidates? Those conventions were followed by a few short months of intense campaigning before the general elections in November. Well, those days are gone. Here it is mid-May, and we know very well who the candidates for the two major parties will be. They’ve both been politicking for a very long time. A third party has given up on finding a candidate, according to today’s news reports, so the two will each spend the next six months telling us why the opponent is a bad guy and why we should vote for him (the good guy).
Most of us already know how we will vote. So the candidates’ pitches will be aimed at the undecided voters. Perhaps the candidates will stumble along the way and lose some votes here and there, but the minds of most people are made up and nothing that is said or done during the next months will change them.
While everyone’s attention will be focused on the race for president, many, many other offices will be decided in November, including local and state governmental positions. We owe it to our country to know who is running and what they stand for, so that we may vote intelligently. We owe it to our way of life to go to the polls and vote when the time comes. The refusal to register and vote is an un-American action. Let us be thankful we have the vote. People in many other nations do not.
My country,’ tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims’ pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!