It's time to Vote!

It's time to vote!

Georgia gets to participate in our great, convoluted process of selecting the nominees for the major parties' Presidential nominees.  It's one small thing that actually symbolizes everything - we live in a country whee we can still effect the process if we so choose.

Indeed, early voting has already begun here.  It's designed to increase voter participation,  How successful it's been, in the wake of greater registration and voter ID restrictions, in our unfortunate atmosphere of declining civic engagement, I'm unsure.  Voter participation has not been rising.

Georgia will be part of a big event called Super Tuesday, that in particular has a good number of southern states voting on the same day.  We may be deluged with commercials and campaigning, although all I see in this area so far are Cruz and Trump signs.

But you don't need to vote for one of those two just because those are the only signs you see.  Don't be intimated by the deluge you see, from the negativity and superficial pangs that our political contests are heir to.  Don't vote based on looks or whose personality you find most engaging.  Find what you really want, what direction you really hope the country will turn to, and choose that.  Who is going to do the best for your family, who is going to do the best for Georgia, who is going to help the country and the world be a better place.

Take away the filter of the nasty ads, the puffery personalities, the shifting polls, the intimidating endorsements, the fear mongering and hateful rhetoric.  Replace them with the issues that drive you the most, and who you think can best accomplish the greatest progress with them.  The country may be in less of a mess than some proclaim, but there are many places and ways it could improve.

You're not going to find the perfect candidate.  None of us are completely one thing or another.  We are all mix of motivations and positions.  One candidate may seem refreshingly politically incorrect, wildly swinging at "telling like it is", but then you realize so does your crazy Uncle Bud at Thanksgiving dinner, Another candidate may promise to enforce a Christian version of Sharia law, blowing past any definition or understanding of separation of church and state.  Other candidates may swear to you that they will take on Wall Street and other wealthy interests, while at the same time they are bloated with money received from the very interest they swear to you they will hold in check.

They may have something in their past that other candidates prey on and make you see that their opponent is less than perfect.  Well, guess what?  You're not going to find the perfect person.  One of those hasn't been around for a couple thousand years.  It's the candidate's journey that's most important, the strength of character and purpose that have allowed them to grow to represent the things most important to you.

So find that person that brings you your closest match to accomplishing goals for yourself, your family, your state, your country and Planet Earth.  Disregard the polls, ignore the negativity, forget the clever ads, deemphasize the peer pressure that may cause you to lose sight of what may be important to you personally.  Focus in on the issues that mean the most to you.

You might be surprised as to where the process takes you.  Hopefully, it takes you to the polls as an informed citizen ready to do your part in participating in one of the greatest democratic processes the world has ever seen.

May it be revitalized, improved and continued forever!