#145 a majority

An old Chicago joke was "vote early; vote often."  I don't advocate the "vote often" component, but "vote early" seems to be a prevalent theme this year.  A few days ago, I received a form in the mail encouraging me to "vote early" by sending in the pre-populated postcard to get my absentee ballot mailed to me.  Yesterday, we had a satellite voting center on campus and there was a steady stream of people who came to cast their presidential ballot two weeks early.  What happened to voting on Election Day?

I surmise that it is like everything else: that people want to do things 24/7 and do what they want to do when they want to do it.  While I will admit that I was tempted by the convenience of walking across the street and voting without waiting, I opted to hold out until November 6.  There is so little that we do as a whole these days; it seemed sad to me to add "vote together" to the list.

We no longer have a communal experience by going to events as a town, or even watching the hit show on network television.  We don't all share the experience of hearing the same news or shopping in the same downtown stores.  Yet it is this fragmented society that needs to come together to elect one president -- even though we don't have a collective majority on much else that we do.  

No matter whether you vote by mail, or at a satellite or wait for an hour in November, I hope that you exercise your right to cast a ballot.  It is something that we have in common that we should never take for granted.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com