Election day was today. I'd almost forgotten, as I did early voting on Monday. Now, the polls are closed, the counts are in, and I'm appalled by the results.
In Longview, we didn't have any offices being voted on, just 7 propositions: 5 for tax bonds and 2 related to liquor laws. I voted "no" to all the proposals, but all except one passed. I'll admit that it doesn't make me any happier, but what I'm appalled about was the turnout.
The total voting count for the election was <7,000, in a city of somewhere around 75,000. 10% of the people decided what the other 90% should do. To compare to that, the French presidential elections got an 85% turnout a week ago.
Now, I realize that a local ballot is nothing compared to a national presidency. However, it still makes me wonder, when did voting become an unimportant act? In this republic of ours, we don't really get a say in what goes on in the big picture. People like to think that they can contact their member of Congress and that what they ask that person to do will affect his or her vote, but in truth that's wishful thinking, unless the vast majority of fellow constituents also express their opinion in the same way (and oftentimes, even that doesn't matter). The closest we come to that is in a presidential election, when we vote for our representative to the Electoral College. My opinion expressed to Louis Gohmert ain't worth jack squat.
The only place where I really have any hope of being heard is at a very local level. And to see that only 10% of my fellow citizens feel the same shows how far we are from restoring any control over this nation.
I'm not really that mad that I lost this round. I'm mad that so few people care enough to spend 10 minutes checking out what the issues were, and another 30 minutes to go punch a few buttons at a polling booth. We have become so lazy that an hour of our time is too much to spare for our civic duty.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Back On
Okay, I know. I haven't posted anything in three months. No, I don't have an excuse. I've thought of posting many times, just never actually did it.
The reason that I'm finally typing away is that I'm bored. I'm in a hotel room in Houston for the week, atending a training course. So now you know what it takes for me to actually say something about my life.
So, what's been happening to me? In short, not much that I consider noteworthy. However, I'll run through the high points.
February came and went pretty quiet. The only thing I really remember was that I did my taxes. When that's the high point of the month, you know it was quiet.
March was a bit more active. I bought the parts for a new computer, and put it together. I'm still trying to get the TV card to work, but that's another story.
Also, we got a new guy in at work for me to break in (even though his position makes him senior to me). He's OK, though still getting up to speed on some stuff. He's already taken over a couple of projects that I didn't like anyhow.
April started on a bad note. My grandmother had a stroke that destroyed the left half of her brain. She went into a coma, and died a little over a week later. She had signed a DNR, including no feeding tube, so she basically starved to death. I spent the days before Easter in Ohio attending her funeral. Not exactly the circumstances I wanted to see my family under.
The rest of April was quiet. I missed a Saturday canoe trip with the Men's Group that I had really been looking forward to. My apartment's AC had died, and I couldn't get to sleep. Woke up for the alarm clock, and fell asleep again. I was very annoyed.
May looks like it'll be busy. I've got to re-work a project plan for the 5th time, and I'm getting sick of it. However, I have to have the first phase of that project complete by the end of the month, and I lost half of last week on another system failure.
In other news, Nacho's found that he has bigger medical problems than he thought. He went home to Puebla for a physical a couple weeks back, and not a moment too soon. He has severe sleep apnea, which pushes his heart rate to over 200 in a vain attempt to keep his blood-ox levels up. Recently, this has resulted in his blood pressure crashing during the day and his almost fainting. He also doesn't get into REM sleep, so he's been walking around exhausted for a couple years. He's now got a respirator for use at night, so hopefully it'll let him sleep properly. Time will tell. He also finally has a court date later this month on selling his house, so we will officially be roommates again.
We'll see when I write more.
The reason that I'm finally typing away is that I'm bored. I'm in a hotel room in Houston for the week, atending a training course. So now you know what it takes for me to actually say something about my life.
So, what's been happening to me? In short, not much that I consider noteworthy. However, I'll run through the high points.
February came and went pretty quiet. The only thing I really remember was that I did my taxes. When that's the high point of the month, you know it was quiet.
March was a bit more active. I bought the parts for a new computer, and put it together. I'm still trying to get the TV card to work, but that's another story.
Also, we got a new guy in at work for me to break in (even though his position makes him senior to me). He's OK, though still getting up to speed on some stuff. He's already taken over a couple of projects that I didn't like anyhow.
April started on a bad note. My grandmother had a stroke that destroyed the left half of her brain. She went into a coma, and died a little over a week later. She had signed a DNR, including no feeding tube, so she basically starved to death. I spent the days before Easter in Ohio attending her funeral. Not exactly the circumstances I wanted to see my family under.
The rest of April was quiet. I missed a Saturday canoe trip with the Men's Group that I had really been looking forward to. My apartment's AC had died, and I couldn't get to sleep. Woke up for the alarm clock, and fell asleep again. I was very annoyed.
May looks like it'll be busy. I've got to re-work a project plan for the 5th time, and I'm getting sick of it. However, I have to have the first phase of that project complete by the end of the month, and I lost half of last week on another system failure.
In other news, Nacho's found that he has bigger medical problems than he thought. He went home to Puebla for a physical a couple weeks back, and not a moment too soon. He has severe sleep apnea, which pushes his heart rate to over 200 in a vain attempt to keep his blood-ox levels up. Recently, this has resulted in his blood pressure crashing during the day and his almost fainting. He also doesn't get into REM sleep, so he's been walking around exhausted for a couple years. He's now got a respirator for use at night, so hopefully it'll let him sleep properly. Time will tell. He also finally has a court date later this month on selling his house, so we will officially be roommates again.
We'll see when I write more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)