Make Them Listen to You

It's election day.

Adelaide has been asking more and more about elections, the political process, etc, and I was happy to hear her interested and questioning until a couple weeks ago when she off-handedly said, "I don't think I'll ever vote."  

I took a deep, deep, deeeeep breath, and although my nostrils may have been flaring while I did so, that was the only part of me I allowed to have its way; the rest I kept admirably under control, and very calmly told her, "Huh.  Maybe you should have been born a hundred years ago," (a continuation of an ongoing conversation we have on what era we believe we would have thrived in).  She asked me why, and I explained that women weren't allowed to vote at that time, so she would have fit right in!  Exclamation Point!  

When she then questioned just why women weren't allowed to vote, I said, "Oh, didn't you know?  Women aren't smart enough to vote!  They- you and me, haha!- simply don't have the proper intellect or decision making skills needed to have a say in who runs our government."  

Oh, was she pissed, but she was pissed and is now eager to vote.  Crisis averted.

Sister Suffragettes

When I said I was going to post every day, I should have taken today into account, and held off until next month.

Election day.

I'm not going to impart anything revelatory to you.  If you're an American citizen, you know you should vote. If you're a woman, you know that we haven't had the right to vote for all that long in our country, and you should really vote.  If you're a person of any color other than white then you know that you also haven't had voting rights for long, and you should really really vote.

Basically, if you're an American citizen, you should be out there voting.

And if you feel very strongly about a candidate, I'm really okay with you telling me why your candidate is the best person for that particular position.  I'll gladly listen to you.

But do you know what I don't want to hear?  Smear campaigns.



I feel like the past several months have been a steep escalation in My-dad-could-beat-up-your-dad-type antics.


"I hear Romney once ran a red light."

"Oh, yeah?  I heard that Obama has never donated blood."

"Well, Romney doesn't believe in the existence of unicorns!"

"One time Obama turned in long-overdue library books and DIDN'T PAY THE FINE!"

"ROMNEY BOILS LIVE PUPPIES AND EATS THEM FOR LUNCH!"

"OBAMA IS ACTUALLY UNDEAD AND ABOUT TO START THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!"


And I'm over here going, "Jesus, you're really going to have to help me out with this whole love-your-neighbor thing, because right now I hate everyone."



Happy Election Day!