Does My Vote Really Matter?

For those who didn’t think their vote counted. Here’s a newsflash: it does. Every time, it does.  But for it to count, you gotta show up. 

The next time you’re tempted to stay home as yourself these questions………….

1. What might happen to my environment if I don't vote?

Answer: much, much more of this. Remember "Drill baby drill!"?

Meanwhile, out in the real world this is what is actually going on.

The 'Drill baby drill" crew swears up and down that drilling is now safer than ever, but that red river ain't looking like a particularly good example of safety in action. Unless water's supposed to be red?

2. What could happen to my (or my friends') Civil Rights if I don't vote?

Answer: an erosion of the comfortable, easy, diverse universe you've known your whole life.

It is not accidental that it took this nation until the late 19th century to begin to acknowledge the Civil Rights of some of its members. Neither is it a surprise that those rights have been challenged and undermined at every opportunity since.  That's kinda the way we do. Resistance to the principles and practice of equality remains a central theme of American social, political, and economic life.  

If people who are uncomfortable with growing diversity are going to vote, then those of us who embrace it must vote in larger numbers. That's the math.

3. What could happen to my healthcare if I don't vote?

Answer: the candidate you fail to vote against might wipe out any chance you have of owning some.

If you're really lucky, the eventual election winner might think health savings accounts (HSAs) make sense. But in a world where income barely meets current expenses HSAs are not going to help you much.  

Or, alternatively, the winning candidate might gut healthcare access entirely, as they seem intent on doing in Minnesota. Check out this list of procedures and care options that AREN'T covered. Numbers 1, 5 and 23 are especially interesting. But don't worry about them because there's no war on women.

As I written before, democracy is nothing without us in it. We may have forgotten recently that democracy won't continue without our express participation but I think we know different now. We have the proof that it will not. We gotta show up. Every time. 

We must get back in the game. And we must do so in numbers too large to ignore. 

Thoughts on the second presidential debate

I don't know about anybody else, but the second presidential debate of the 2016 campaign  triggered a profound feeling of hopelessness. I watched an experienced (you don't have to like her experience to agree that she has it) woman 'debating' an imbecile and it looked like my life on steroids.

To be clear, I've not debated many imbeciles but the sense of being more than capable but that you're just missing that one thing - some particular appendage; the right skin color; the right nationality; the right 'look' - some f*cking thing over which you have zero control, that'll put you over the top? Yeah, I know that feeling all too well.

I'm not the smartest person I know, but I'm good at what I'm good at, and I gotta tell you, I've had more than a couple of interactions that were similar to what I saw a few weeks ago. Watching Sec'y Clinton basically re-litigate my own life was deeply disturbing. It just showed me (as if I needed showing) how completely out my control my world (the world?) is. It was depressing. Deeply depressing.

Mornings like this, I wake up knowing that my professional life is over. When a man of Donald's obvious incompetence, moral turpitude and overall stupidity is being held up by even a single person a some kind of model? When his millions - largely inherited - are the measure of his 'success'? Yeah, I don't have a f*cking shot. I know why people drink and I know why people act out. I know why the caged bird pecks out eyes. F*ck singing.

I don't trust Hillary, everybody knows that, but at least she's intelligent, does her damn homework, and is ready for the job - even if I think the war with Russia drum is already beating. But Donald, Donald is the quintessence of knowing nothing but having ever been given the benefit of the doubt. White male winning. Dumb as a box of nails and as useful when there's no hammer in sight, but winning and grinning anyway.

Donald is just like f*cking Columbus: lost no arse but receiving acclaim five f*cking centuries later for having 'discovered' the New World. And I, little brown me, with my $50 words, an accent and a vagina, think I could have something to add to the world? Not this century.

It's going to be hours before I purge this from my system.