#sparkchamber 110220 — a public service announcement

Today’s #sparkchamber is a public service announcement. Tomorrow is election day in America, but of course, this year it’s been an election season. Early voting, vote-by-mail, drop boxes … a lot of ways to stay safe and still be counted.

If you haven’t yet, get out there and do it. The current administration has brilliantly dramatized that elections have major consequences — not just for the course of policy, but for setting the standards. By voting, we choose the proxies who speak for us, act for us, represent us. If the current administration reflects the character and values you share — vote them back in. If blowing past every norm of common decency is, in your opinion, the wrong direction — vote them right out.

Either way, have a say.

Political analyst Larry Sabato in his book Pendulum Swing, writes, “Every election is determined by the people who show up.”

Former congressmen, now Attorney General of Minnesota Keith Ellison advocates, “Not voting is not a protest. It is a surrender.”

American social reformer and women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony asserts, “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.”

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, former U.S. President, reflected that “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.”

Let’s go, America. Vote.

1.] Where do ideas come from?

Talk is cheap, voting is free; take it to the polls — Nanette L. Avery

2.] What is the itch you are scratching?

Somewhere inside of all of us is the power to change the world — Roald Dahl

3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?

We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. — Thomas Jefferson

4.] How do you know when you are done?
I’ve dropped my pebble in the ocean, and hopefully, throughout the course of the day, millions of others will drop theirs in too. No single one of us knows which pebble causes the wave to crest, but each of us, quite rightly, believes that it might be ours; an act of faith. ― Michael J. Fox