Life Between 0 and 1

This long and drawn out clown show, aka the 2016 Election, is almost over. I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but I’m sure it will be just as fubar as the run up this past year. If you’ve been reading these past few weeks here, you’ll know that I’m a third-party supporter. If you’ve really been reading, you’ll know which third party candidate I supported. The who doesn’t matter anymore and at this point, not worth talking about any longer. I’ve refocused my energy on the things that I think I can do over the next three years to make the 2020 election season more of a democratic process than a two-sided vote for unsavory and unpopular candidates.

I was first in line this morning at my polling location. I was #4 to be checked in. I walked past someone in their car parked up front just outside the door and I was thinking to myself “they’re not first because they didn’t get out”. I honestly didn’t see who was inside the car and hadn’t taken notice. I was in line at 6:30am and was patiently waiting with people lining up behind me for 20 minutes. I caught a glimpse of the person in the car starting to get out and realized she was in her car for a reason; she had two canes and had trouble walking. I motioned for her to come up front to sit down on the bench outside the door and got a few brief looks of disgust from people in line until they turned around and saw the older woman walking up. No one contested her being the first in the door and I was happy that there was some decency left in us as a society.

She thanked me for letting her come up front and sit down on the bench and I just smiled and nodded. That must have been enough for her to think I wanted to have a conversation and asked how many elections I’ve voted in. After telling her I’ve never missed a single vote except for primaries (which are stupid when closed) she proceeded to tell me she’s never missed one either. The first election she voted for President was in 1952 and she proudly voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower. The way she spoke about Adlai Stevenson was similar to the way some people talk about Donald Trump, it was actually quite amusing. I helped her into the building and walked her over to her check-in person.

I honestly had no idea at the beginning of this year how rough the last few months leading up to this election would actually become. The roughness being my own personal awakening to the corruption, lies, deceit, and manipulation that has taken place for as long as four decades. I’m glad it was rough though because I’m in a much better position to not only make better choices, but also speak with others with conviction and facts to back up my statements. I rarely force my opinion on anyone anymore as it has only caused me problems in the past. My approach now is to demonstrate facts and sources to others so that they may, if they choose to, do their own research and form their own opinion. Some will engage with me at a later point in time, others will write me off and I don’t bring it up again. One of the reasons I deleted Facebook was because I no longer tolerated attacks on my right to have an opinion without a valid reason to do so. I’ve accepted that the next four years are going to be extremely difficult for us as a country and I hope that it will be enough to finally make people question their loyalties to an oligarchy that has used them to make themselves more wealthy.

During the last few months, I’ve found others online that have, like me, discovered the cloak of deceit and manipulation.  I’ve learned so much from them.  I’m sure that I’ve lost a few people as well, and that’s OK, they weren’t ready to accept that what they believed to be true could potentially all be based on a huge lie. I respect your choice to vote for the candidate that you think will do the best job; you voted and that’s what is important. For those of you who did not vote, you know who you are, you’re right to complain about the outcomes of this year’s elections has been revoked.