30 days.
With all of the uncertainty and distractions of this election season, it’s easy to forget it’s significance.
At this point, there is only a passing vapor of time until we name the next President of the United States. Though if you ask most folks, there is little excitement. And even less willingness to truly understand the candidates. It is likened to the dreaded HOA annual meeting.
Everybody knows it’s important to have the right leaders. But no one wants to think beyond what they already know. Or should we say, what they think they already know. Never in the history of our rugged republic, has there been so much vibrato. Or so much apathy. So little interest in knowledge and participation, rather choosing memes and celebrity for fact checks.
Indeed, a perfect storm is nearby. And we fail to realize the magnitude of our inaction.
We are not just electing a President. A single person, a personality. We elect by extension, hundreds of cabinet policy makers who will carry out the vision of the Oval Office. People at all levels of government, and in our localities and schools, that directly affect the affairs of our future. Based on the right to self-reliance, or a declaration of our dependence.
30 days.
Before social media emerged, we always assumed everyone thought just like us. But as we know now, that was never the case. None of us agree with anyone 100% of the time. Certainly not on 100% of things. Ask your friends. Ask your spouse. Even ask your cat.
So, can it really be true that you actually don’t have to like the person you vote for? Yes. Vote for the policies that enrich your life. We want to provide the safest and happiest future for our children. We want our parents to not suffer for living too long. With enough money to enjoy their days. We want to know that what we contribute to our country is being spent wisely. In order to care for us, not overpower us. Life hasn’t just gotten harder, in some ways, it’s becoming unrecognizable. At the end of the day, we just want to know we have a chance.
But today, the only certainty is uncertainty. We see it across the globe, across our communities, and even within our own families. We say we’re more enlightened than ever, yet we’re more distant and isolated than ever.
We work harder, and longer. Only to stay in the same place. We buy half-sized foods at double the prices. All in the name of a ‘thriving’ economy. We look in the shadows for the lost American Dream. Yet can never seem to find it. It’s as if Norman Rockwell took it with him, as he left the neighborhood not so long ago.
Regardless of our individual politics or position, we know the world has changed. Something troubling and unsettling is upon all of us, and it’s not going away. Requiring our attention, and certainly our best decisions.
30 days.
Of course, like the familiar airline ad, with politics it’s easy to just ‘wanna get away’. But choosing not to participate will do nothing to help. Because we are all on the same flight.
Flight USA 2024 is heading into storms and turbulence. Seated in the economy section of the next four years. The ticket costs more, with less leg room and no window seat. Fasten your seatbelts, you are in for a bumpy ride.
Are we safer flying with inexperience and personality, or bombastic proficiency? The ‘I am who I am’ pilot who has flown through rough skies, that is unappealing? Or the attractive flight attendant, who blissfully laughs at serious questions?
It was once said that salvation will never arrive on Air Force One. And a truer statement has never been uttered. We know neither candidate is perfection. Far from it. And that there are no refunds on this flight.
But for such a time as this, choose your pilot wisely.
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