Another election has come and gone and when some people retired for the night, it was very possible their candidate who may have held a lead, and maybe a substantial lead, ended up losing the election.
What’s very upsetting to me is the fact people just don’t get out and vote — still.
There are 202,389 registered voters in Luzerne County., but yet only 61,162 people voted. That’s only 30% of all voters actually casted votes.
This completely baffles me and even though mail-in ballots are available to everyone other than those disabled or voters that would not be available to vote at their local poll, hasn’t increased voter numbers.
Even at that, there always seems to be problems with voting by mail.
Having the mail-in ballots available during COVID was a great idea, but not that we are moving away from pandemic numbers, perhaps we should not emphasis voting by mail as opposed to getting to the polls.
Voting in my early days was something one did out of pride; it was something one did as an obligation as an American in doing your civic duty.
It just seemed everyone I knew back then voted. People felt terrible if they didn’t get the chance to exercise their right to vote.
Election Day was a time when you got out of your house having a chance to meet with neighbors and friends — it almost became a social event.
Not only did it feel right to vote, but also after you voted, you felt proud and happy you were able to cast your vote.
When you don’t vote, you don’t have the right to complain about who’s running the show or what policies are in place that you don’t agree upon.
There used to be several polling places in my borough back in a day, but now, everyone in town votes at the Municipal Building. It’s certainly easy to remember where you vote, but finding a parking spot is pretty crazy.
For many years, I was one of the Inspectors of Election at my polling place. I had great fun doing that job and my position was to check people in, sign their card and we would have them registered in the book of total numbers of voters.
At the time, my polling place had windows to the front sidewalk so in many cases I would see who was arriving to vote. So, I would reach in the box of voter’s ID card, pull it and when they arrived at the table, I’d have the card already for them.
Well, in many cases, they were shocked I would have their card out and ready to be signed because in most cases, nobody knew who I was, but I felt it was my duty to know who they were.
Nobody had to tell me their name, no ID had to be shown, after a bit of time in doing my job of 18 years, I knew just about everyone in my polling district.
I took as much pride in knowing everyone as much as I did in exercising my right to vote.
It always made me sad when someone would pass away between elections and yet their voting card would still be in the voter’s file box.
Not seeing some of my favorite people doing their deed as an American was truly sad. Knowing not only did we lose another citizen of my borough, but we lost neighbors and friends and we lost another American citizen.
Those days are long gone for me and I do miss them. I miss the closeness of the community, I miss the camaraderie between neighbors and friends, I miss the togetherness of borough, county and nation.
For me, it was never about being red or blue, it wasn’t about a party dominance, it wasn’t about finger pointing on who was better or who was worse — it was about being a citizen of the United States of America.
We live in a day and age where we forget the part about being “united” states.
Luzerne County is fully enveloped in the Republican Party after a history of the county being Democratic. Change happens and change can be a good thing. Change is a chance for one to take stock and to evaluate and re-evaluate.
Nothing lasts forever and the Luzerne County Republican Party is savoring the victories in most recent years and the Democrats will be strategizing on what they need to do to regain the foothold of days gone by.
Yes, change is good, but the animosities towards each other, the divisions, the disrespect has to stop.
Life is not a race between political parties; it’s about being a part of the human race.
Being a citizen of this great nation is not about being divided, it’s about being united.
We are at a time when we all need to work together, party aside, and remember we are all citizens of THESE United States of America.
Congratulations to all the winners, better luck next time to those that lost.
The great part about this country is, we don’t have emperors, dictators, or czars. Thankfully we have free elections.
Quote of the week
“Sometimes you’ve got to let everything go – purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything… whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.” – Tina Turner
Thought of the week
“It’s very important for us all to understand that we are interconnected and we need to hold hands together, especially when the going gets tough.” – Michelle Yeoh
Bumper stick
“Life is not so much what you accomplish as what you overcome.” – Robin Roberts
