Your Vote Counts

It's Election Day!

Yay us! It's time to pack away the lights, the lies and the signs for another year; the vote-me tide season is over.

Election Day: the anti-Christmas.

Christmas is all about God's gift of love and our love to collect other gifts we don't need while praising a fat guy in a bad suit.

Maybe it is the same thing.

"You'd better vote correctly or Candidate Claus won't bring you any policies."

Yeah, kids love Candidate Claus.  He's the next best thing to sliced Care Bears. Or bread. Yeah, sliced bread is good too. It won’t get the same attention from a five-year-old that a sliced Care Bear will. That I’ll tell ya. 

Try talking elections with five-year-olds.

"Part of this is going toward electoral college.”

“Just like my Christmas money?”

“Yup. Now lets talk about your social security money…”

Before they need social security, I think we should teach children more about voting. Not just the “voting is your right” speech, I think we should emphasize a “voting is your responsibility” discourse as well.

Voting isn’t just about all those people who died so that we could, although that can make for a great attention getter for kids.

“You’re Great-Great-Great Grandfather Cougar was shot in the head, his eyeball hanging out to the side, and a strong wind whistling “Yankee Doodle” through the his new skull hole so that you could vote.”

“You said he got the clap.”

“No, that’s your uncle Cooter. Big difference.”

“Uncle Cooter is on Mom’s side?”

“That’s the difference.”

 

No, voting is about real choices and real consequence. Despite the lies we tell our kids, participation isn’t the same thing as winning. And when it comes to elections, voting your conscience is not the same as participating. Participation gets you a sticker. Voting gets you a $10,0000 bond.

“I voted!” 

Who cares that I’m voting along what the glossiest mailer I received, and that the name “Sandusky” sounds like a respectable name for the head of the school board. I voted. That’s all that matters.

No. Like all participation sports, in voting, there are winners and there are losers. And when we vote just to say we voted, we pay a price. More than our “I voted” sticker, we win the “I voted poorly” sticker shock. We win a bond. We win a thieving politician. We win what we deserve.

That’s why we need to teach our poor children the consequence of poor voting before they’re old enough to vote.  Start simple.

“Ok Tommy, would you like a stripped power cord and a wall socket or would you like an X-Box 360?”

Let them get a feel for choices and consequence it before you teach them real politics.

“Tommy do you want the electric cord to the tongue and a dollar or the poke in the eye and you pay me?”

It’s important that we teach our children to think before they vote.  Because their decisions will establish our comfort level as we grow old, and we don’t want them basing those decisions on which TV ad conveyed the prettiest pictures.

“I’m Justin Bieber and I approve this message.”

Speaking of our children, now is a good time to consider how you vote. Baby Boomers have already stolen our children’s social security, Do you want to be the generation to tell the them that you’ve pawned their “American Dream” for a handful of magic coffee beans and a party vote?  God gave you a brain use it.

Over 2000 years ago, God gave the Israelites brains too. They decided to vote for a king.  The king they elected was Saul because he looked the most kingly. Never mind that the best man for the job was a young Shepherd boy with a slingshot. When it comes to elections, image is everything.

That was over 2000 years ago, and we still do the same today. Can we teach the children of today to be the first children to buck the trend? Can we teach our children to vote for substance? Can we remember to do that before we congratulate ourselves for voting today?

That’s my Election Day wish.