Life happens and the time melts away. I get it. My life happened and my time for the blog melted away into a river of health problems (more! but I’m working on it) and an amazing trip to Paris*.
And what happens when time melts away? We can forget about our glorious civic duty to vote. If I can stop day-dreaming about pain au chocolat and popping vitamins long enough to vote and write this post about voting, you too can find time to emerge from the river long enough to vote!
You can see how one can become distracted. Butter. Chocolate. Yes, please.
Next Tuesday, November 6, it is game on! For a lot of us, we can even do the hard work at home and fill out those ballots from the comfort of our own sofa. Pause the Netflix, grab your ballot and a pen, and get to work. I did this Sunday and happily dropped off my ballot on the way home last night. Democracy can be so easy in America! We’ve got this.
You even get a nifty sticker!
Seriously though folks, we do need to take voting seriously. What happened last week, from mail bombs to 11 dead in a synagogue, are not random events. They are not happening in a vacuum. Our elected officials and those they appoint and those they support are hurting our country. Before we become unable to do anything about it, we need to speak up. Speaking up includes voting. If “our” elected officials are not “your” elected officials, now is the time to vote in your officials. We need them. Seriously.
While I sincerely hope that we avoid heading down this path, if you need any further motivation to vote please take the time to watch Rick Steves‘ new The Story of Fascism in Europe documentary. If this doesn’t make you want to vote (and eat more pain au chocolat for stress relief), I’m not sure what will. It is an hour well spent.
Lastly, if you don’t already have a ballot at home or if you accidentally put your pastry on it and now need to vote in person (these things happen), please check out your local voting information here or here. And if you suddenly find out you can’t vote even though you thought you could? Take to social and write to your elected officials (these peeps are there for you) and do what it takes to vote in 2020 so you can vote out those who took your right away.
Our country’s future is your future. Don’t lose it because you let all the time melt away.
Fervently, urgently, patriotically yours,
Michelle
“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.” — FDR
* More on that later, I promise.