Posted by
Katy Grimes on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 4:58:44 PM
I stayed up late enough to watch the local news and results of the election. The coverage was embarrassingly "local." When the tree branch fell on the patio at the Heather Fargo party, the drama was unsurpassed. And embarrassing. A tree branch fell. No fireworks went off as was originally claimed by the news guy.
By 10:35 pm, I went to bed disgusted. Sam Shane on Channel 13 should not be allowed to speak without a cue card. The nonsensical and irrelevant comments he makes should be played back at him endlessly until he bags for more education.
This morning, I read that only 50,000 people in the City of Sacramento voted. We are a city of 475,000 residents.
Why don't people vote? I asked several people leading up to the election. The two standard answers were: "I am too busy," and "I am only one vote, and one vote doesn't count."
Only 10 days ago, I received a phone call from my son who was preparing to fill out his absentee voter ballot. He resides across the country at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. We walked through the issues, he voted and mailed his ballot. this morning I received a phone call from him inquiring about the election results. He is a 19-year old who voted absentee and called mom to find out the results from 3,000 miles away. So how is it that locals can't get themselves to the polling place or sign up for an absentee ballot?
People have become complacent and lazy in their prosperity. They also are not learning or caring about history and why every vote matters. Voting is a privilege, and honor. And unless we vote in every election, we don't deserve to whine about the way things are. And that is why Sacramento was stuck with heather Fargo for so many years, and why she nearly became Mayor for a third inadequate, term.