Global Warming

Even though it's Jan and we've had the worst winter in all the years I've lived in the midwest, I can believe in Global Warming. We went from 40F to -10F in a 5 hr period. Crazy crazy weather.

Decisions Decisions

So I've been struck by the news of elections lately. Iowa and New Hampshire are rapidly approaching the time at which the first US electoral decisions are made. Followed forthwith by Florida, Nevada and South Carolina. I am faced with deciding in the near future who I want to vote for. Do I vote for the candidate who inspires me? Or for the candidate who is most electable in the general election (and who will be most palatable to my red republican family members?)? Or for the candidate who looks like they have gained enough momentum to win?

Fortunately, as a Democrat this year, I am fairly happy with the slate so it's just a matter of deciding who I really really like (rather than the usual deciding who I dislike the least). Remarkably for the candidates who are running there has been much discussion of class divisions but little of racial or gender divisions. I've had the privilege of being up close and personal with 4 of the major candidates in the last 6 months. It is remarkable how different they play in an hour and a half stump speech as opposed to in a sound bite or on a carefully crafted website policy statement. I'm truly torn about who I will stand for when my turn to express my opinion comes around.

Even as our electoral process goes forward, I've been struck by the reports of elections all over the world. Even under great duress (the Civil War) we have held elections as a nation and despite remarkably close elections in the recent past, we have accepted the results peaceably. Contrast this with the elections in Kenya where distrust of a close electoral result led to significant ethnic/class violence or Pakistan where the assignation death of a leading political figure has led to widespread rioting, significant loss of life and property, and delayed elections. Can you imagine being afraid to vote for fear of retribution? Can you imagine dreading an election because the results, whatever they might be, would lead to riots and burning people from the opposing party alive?

Interestingly at the rallies I've been at for Hillary some of her most ardent supporters are elderly women. (The campaign seems to have anticipated this, providing local organizers with snow shovels to dig these women out.) Imagine being a woman alive today and able to vote and remembering that your mother couldn't vote (the 19th amendment was passed in 1919 and women first voted in the presidential election of 1920, so I doubt anyone is alive today who actually remembers not being able to vote). As a young woman who has always had the right to vote, that does not stir me in the same way that I see it visibly stirring women the age of my grandmother. I can only imagine a similar ideal appealing to African Americans and Hispanics.

We live in a country where we can vote safely and without fear for any candidate that we choose. A country in which all citizens are empowered to participate fully in the democratic process. And yet I know people who aren't engaged and informed about the political process. How will they make their decisions when they step into the voting booth? And I know people who don't plan to vote in the next two months for no reason at all. How do they make the decision to pass on a right that was so hard won? And I read about people who risk their life to express their opinion in elections that may not carry any weight at all. How do they make the decision to stand up and be counted?