Well, time to go back to work. I'll be heading to south Georgia and then on to Tennessee and down to south Texas. I don't have a clue as to when I'll make it back home but it probably won't be in time to cast my vote. I will not let this year go by without at least having some say in the elections. The wife and I headed down to the County Elections office first thing this morning and cast our votes in early voting. Done. I love it!
Taking an impromptu poll of family and friends I found that only about 1 in 20 are even registered to vote. This is horrendous. Voting is not only your right, but a duty. Of the 19 who are not registered a few of them are the ones yelling the loudest about no jobs, rising gas prices, stagnant economy and any other thing you can think of. SHUT UP! If you don't vote then you have no say. You don't have a right to complain.
I can't believe the excuses. The biggest one is that, "My one vote ain't gonna mean anything." YES IT DOES! Lets take a look at a few in recent history.
1) This year: Rick Santorum defeated Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses by 34 votes out of 121,503 total votes cast. A margin of only 0.28%. Of course Romney went on to win the nomination overall but this was the closest GOP primary in history.
2) United States Senate election in the State of Washington, 2000. Democrat Maria Cantwell defeated Republican Incumbent Slade Gorton by only 2229 votes out of 2,461,379. A margin of less than 1 percent.
3) 2010 Lakeview, Ohio School District was won by only 2 votes out of 3,570.
Several state electoral races have come in at under 1/2 of a percentage point. We won't even talk about Bush and Gore in 2000 where it was 0.009%.
Don't say your vote does not count.
Talking to our daughter this morning I asked her why she doesn't vote. "I don't keep up with the issues enough to stay informed," was her response. You're a young, bright, college student. The future of this country depends on your generation to be informed and keep up with the issues. You're an accounting major. It seems like the economy would be first and foremost on the minds of all your classmates and yourself. I know that you look at more on that computer than Facebook. Flip through the news pages. There aren't too many newspapers left anymore but get the news from someplace and not just one source.
When Diane and I started dating I was still an Investigator with the Johnston Police Department. She had never voted, and other than workplace gossip, she didn't have a clue as to what went on in her own town. She was amazed that I was getting called out at all hours of the day and night for robberies, murders, any, and every, imaginable crime. She told me after only a few weeks, "I didn't know all that went on here." She just got up, went to work, and came home. Now she is one of the most informed people I know. She developed an honest interest in what went on not only in our town and county, but the entire country.
That is just what everyone in this country needs to do. Instead of just walking around looking at the sidewalk, look up, look around, see what is happening. Find out why your gas prices are rising. Find out why your groceries have gone up about 37% in the last two years. Your gross income is the same as it was last year, so why am I seeing less in my paycheck?
What I'm asking is to take the time to get informed and get out and vote. Your vote does matter.
On another note I wish the best to my friends who are running for office this year: Sonny Cox, Coroner Greenwood County, Bob Fisher, Greenwood County Council, Sonya Spray, Aiken County treasurer, Donnie Myers, Eleventh Circuit Solicitor and Shane Massey, SC State Senate.
Sonny, Bob, and Sonya I can't vote for you since I don't live in your counties, but I do wish each and every one of you the best of luck and I know you'll do great things for your citizens.
