Notes From My Knapsack 10-24-19

Notes From My Knapsack 10-24-19

Jeff Gill

 

Candidates and platforms and primaries, oh my

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If you're reading this to find out definitively whom to vote for, feel free to move along.

 

We just had a major invasion of politicians and media and consultants and various primary season folk just down the road in Westerville. John Kasich has colonized Otterbein but was keeping his head down as the Democratic Party blue wave crested. David Pepper, the state party chair spoke passionately if unconvincingly about how Ohio was turning blue.

 

Late October, it's true; most of us are turning a little bluer, huddling against the western winds and watching warily for the first snows. The Old Farmer's Almanac claims it will be a snowy winter ahead.

 

But first, for all the furor about the candidate who will run against the Current Occupant of the Executive Mansion, we have our own election coming up on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

 

I'm showing my age by making a point of the day, because we're heading towards 50/50 on early voting versus day-of ballot casting. By the time I get in line at 6:30 am, a quirk of mine, the election may be done, but there's a special quality to joining fellow citizens in the pre-dawn grey and shuffling forward to find out what electronic atrocity will be inflicted on us. The Luddite and pragmatist in me wants stubby lead pencils, a broadsheet with boxes to X, and a sturdy wooden box with a slot on top and a lock on one side. That's what I'd presume makes of a re-count a worthy exercise, and the sacramental act of casting a ballot would feel less like swiping at the register at Ross' Market.

 

Forget the foolishness in the national news and the pseudo-debates on the television (seventy-five seconds? What would Demosthenes do with seventy-five seconds?), and turn your attention as a citizen to politics with personal application. We have levies to renew, candidates to affirm or reject, and for many in the village and township, some extra effort in writing in a candidate, something most of us haven't done since we last voted in disgust for our pet dachshund over the options on the ballot.

 

Don't be afraid, it's do-able, but it takes a little more time and attention and effort, and that's exactly what should be part of voting, in my humble opinion. Write in a candidate for township trustee, and may the best scrawl win, I say. How's that for even-handed partisanship?

Truth is, we don't have many contested races; locally, the school board forces you to make a choice of three out of four, and county-wide along with the Senior Levy replacement there's races for both Municipal Court Judge and Clerk. There's been much discussion in recent years of the lack of people running for offices, and the general flabbiness of democracy you get when there's not a vigorous contest between competing views on the issues.

 

Some of the lack of candidacy may trace back to our general lack of attention to elections. An informed citizenry can become an engaged citizenry. Some of the advertising on the air right now about ballot issues and petitions is intended to make everyone feel anxious and confused about what's going on around the electoral process, and enough of that can create disengagement.

 

Get informed, ask around, talk to people, and vote, early or often. Okay, not often. Hey, I grew up around Chicago.

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's not running for anything. Tell him about your interest in the democratic process at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.