“Get your vote on, and get other thoughts off your head”
Few other places offer you a chance of observing a busy life in its transition than a train, almost any kind of short-distance commuter train. I was recently in San Francisco area, and was riding the train almost every few hours. Seeing people cuddled all around each other observing others and their own life is interesting, and so is seeing people scattered on an adjacent train car, having all the time to look at things around them and their own life is interesting also. While most of the nation is busy trying to decide who to vote for, and deciding on how to go and vote for the person they prefer, life goes on for everyone overall; it is not affected at all other than the small fact that it is on your mind some time, or most of the time [for majority of the people].
Sites such as “Pick Your President” give you a quick idea of what each candidate supports and opposes, enabling you to use it like a Barcharts QuickStudy guides. No longer do you need to know a candidates’ character unrelated to the set of issues that are always around; as long as he [or a she, which will hopefully happen in the next elections in this country, and around the world soon] can give what you want, a candidate wins your temporary support.
This Halloween has been more extraordinary for many, while for others it’s a normal weekend as usual. It could be special probably because the “special” elections this year have caused other events around it to gain some more attention than usual. It could be that people prefer to focus their attention to the celebration of special days in the year to minimize the headache caused by any event such as the election; for others, it could mean that celebrating Halloween is a special way to start the final voting. No longer are majority of the people getting too worried about other issues in the world. All that people can think up of is to say “Are you voting? Go and vote!”; the same theme is visible in person, on TV, on radio stations, and in newspapers and brochures. It’s only when my own friend Elmo tells me to vote, that I think that it may have some potential value beyond what is generally conveyed through the media.
Are we sad that an innocent Japanese hostage has been murdered in Iraq? Some of us are; others are too busy with the elections to worry about other peoples’ lives, literally. We cry or laugh for one year after the elections because of the person who wins, the next 1.5 years we simply take a slow stance and do not question the candidate much of what he has done about the promises he made, nor do we question ourselves as to why we voted for some person. The last 1.5 years is devoted on the next elections. Thus, virtually, it is a 4 year term in terms of getting votes, no in terms of getting things done for the people or issues at hand.
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( November 11th, 2004 at 8:11 pm )
I have mixed opinions on voting. The care of others you mentions IS directly tied to voting though. I, personally, will probably never be in any position to help those "people" who live far away and with whom you suggest I should sympathize. I do know, however, that making a decision to align myself with a person who can is something within my power. People who do not vote have no justification in complaining about the government—it’s simple: either you pick your leaders or someone else will for you. I’m probably coming across as offensive or wrong on this subject, but I do think it is an issue as much as a young Japanese person’s head in Iraq is.
( November 12th, 2004 at 3:03 pm )
I see what you are saying; it is important, and if we don’t vote, someone else will. I don’t object to voting; on the contrary, I support it. My original text was referring to the fact on how much publicity it was garnishing/getting, and how all the focus was on voting and all the other important issues had been neglected or put on the back burner. Now that the voting is over, we have more crisis on our hands [I am not implying it is because of elections]. However, for me, may be at least or personally, a young person’s "head" as you say it, no matter where they are from, is more important than any election, whether or not the election results would affect any chances of him coming out safe & sound [the case in question was is/not related directly to the elections].
This comment is becoming a mini essay, but I also see the clear point you have that we should take care of things in front of us, instead of focusing more on things that are out of our reach; I completely agree. However, it would be nice, again for me at-least/personally, to be able to do something for some issues that are far away, issues that if they were here in front of us, they would gain more attention from us than the other priorities most of us have.
Good point though.
( November 13th, 2004 at 2:51 pm )
No, I didn’t mean that we should ignore the Japanese person in Iraq. I was only stating that the way to help these people is to vote now for people who can help. I can’t help, and unless you plan to hop on a plane with a machete and do some damage yourself, there’s nothing you can do either. I wasn’t disregarding the Japanese person, I was only stating the path to help them. I’ve been called stoic b/c I do not get too emotional when I talk about touchy subjects like death. To me, however, the "head" is the issue. That’s exactly my reason for voting—issues like that. I understand you support voting. To be honest, I’m about to be really politically incorrect and say I don’t believe all men are born equal, and I don’t believe all people should vote. Some people are idiots (or rather, uninformed), some people are born retarded (not the same as an idiot—just not possessing all of their faculties), and then there are others who do not care about the result. I really don’t know where I was going with this since another personal issue came up halfway through me writing this, but I’ll talk to you later about it online. Bye! (btw, I’m not mad)