Politics, Local and Otherwise.

This is a column I wrote in 2016, before I knew the results of the Presidential election. I'm not a fan of the President, but he's got the job, so, here we are. I am running for office, locally. Because I believe it's important to show up. My father taught me this, he was wise, he was kind and he was everything a father and man should be. I so wish he could see me now.

“Just because you do not take an interest in politics does not mean that politics won’t take an interest in you.”

— Pericles

By the time this is printed, we will have a new president. Whoever it is will have made history. It’s been quite something this time around. No matter where you stood on the issues or whose sign was on your lawn, this election probably caused some stress, anxiety and maybe even fights with friends and family. There were new lows in some of the campaigning and definitely some high points too. Everyone could likely agree on that even if no agreement could be reached on who was best for the job.

Early voting was a thing this year, and while a quick check of Google tells me it’s not really new and that some states like Texas and Oregon have had it for awhile, it still seems both new and old at the same time. I am used to voting in the gym at the Rec and Park building, but early voters went to Abbot Hall. It’s definitely hometown bias and pride, but is there any place more historic, more American and more suited to this crucial part of democracy than a building that houses a famous painting of the very beginnings of our republic? Still, I decided to hold out and vote on Election Day because growing up, even for small races, it was a very big deal. There was an energy to it that just doesn’t happen, for me at least, until the actual day.

My father entered politics early and often, having been elected to some imaginary office by his classmates on the school bus at the beginning of his freshman year of high school. From then on if there was an office to be held, chances were good that he would throw his hat in the ring. School committee was by far his favorite and where he spent most of his “political” career. Whenever town elections were held, I knew that a large part of the day would find him holding a sign on the sidewalk and the night would be spent waiting around town hall, the smell of paper ballots and cigarettes in the air. A chalkboard was the 1960s version of an electoral map, and a long table with a few telephones on it was the communications center. On this night only, I was allowed to stay up late and wait for the votes to be counted. Some years it took almost an hour in the little town of Nahant to count all the votes. That was politics back in the day, and as much as I love social media and advanced technology, there’s something to be said for going old school.

What hasn’t changed in politics, however, is the concept of being part of the process. Not everyone wants to run for office, and, certainly, not everyone should. That isn’t the only way to take part, however. Did you vote this week? For anyone who didn’t, it’s now time for you to sit down and keep quiet. Early voting went on for 11 days here in town with a total of 89 hours of availability. Then, on Nov. 8, polls were open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., offering another 13 hours. Absentee ballots were available for those who might have been out of town. There was plenty of time to get out and vote. Perhaps some people just chose not to vote. Honestly, it’s easier for me to comprehend the Periodic Table of Elements than it is to understand the choice not to vote, and that is saying something since I flunked high school chemistry.

My father gave me many things, from red hair and green eyes to a wicked attitude and a love of car rides to nowhere, but the most important of them has to be the belief that voting in elections, at every level, is vital to all of our lives. He believed in the process; he believed it was a citizen’s sacred duty to cast a ballot whenever one was offered. And he believed it started at home, in our own communities. For him, it was about standing up and showing up. Here’s to moving on, to another four years, to new laws and old battles and to the never-ending cycle of determining who we are and how we will run our towns, our states and our country.

What’s next?

A Not So Brave New World?

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”

----Seneca

Yes, it’s the holidays and we are all busy with a thousand things that need to get done so perhaps it’s not the time for deep thoughts and philosophy? Too bad, I’m going with it anyway. When one year is ending and another is beginning we tend to turn our thoughts to what is going away and what is coming along.

Arguably, no matter which candidate got your vote, the presidential election is a perfect example of this. The eight years of President Obama are over, that was a given, the election results were not going to change that. As it should be. The law says no one gets to stay longer than eight years in the White House, so a new family will now enter those hallowed halls. Ahem…it’s safe to say we ain’t seen nothing yet, right? I won’t get into politics exactly except to say that if anyone needs me I will be snuggling in the corner with my pug puppy for a little while until my head calms down a little.

Change doesn’t usually bother me, but it seems as if our country is on the precipice of something that no one has ever seen before and I can’t be the only one that’s a little freaked out. Retreating to my favorite vice, after Penny pug, I was binge-watching some Netflix and two documentaries caught my eye. One was about the assassination of President Kennedy and the other was about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Both of those happened at this time of year, in the midst of the holidays and both ushered in a new era of change. Oh, and violence, death, re-birth, and eventual victory. Think about how people had to feel on that random Friday when one minute the President is waving and smiling and the next minute he’s dead. Two days later the man accused of killing him is also shot, and it’s all on live on television when television was barely beginning. People were pretty freaked out then too, how could they not have been?

It was much the same way in 1941, when WW II hit home, literally. A lazy Sunday morning and the next thing it’s almost Armageddon. There was no instant news in those days. It was hours before the first reports of it were reaching the mainland. A cable from Washington DC advising the command in Hawaii of the breakdown of negotiations wasn’t seen by officials there for close to 8 hours. Meanwhile, almost two hundred planes were descending on Pearl Harbor and just like that we were at war. A day later the President is on the radio, trying to be reassuring, and it was an historic effort and while many look back on it with warmth and nostalgia over what would become “The Greatest Generation” you have to know there were more than a few people sitting curled up with a friend, a spouse or a dog and thinking, “What fresh hell is this?”

Those two events were turning points in our history, just as I suspect this most recent election will be seen as. These events signaled the end of much of what we had come to know as familiar and safe. I can’t even imagine how the addition of social media would have added to those tense times. My sense of it though is that while the Internet, Facebook, online news, texting and Twitter have given us many advantages, they are a huge distraction, and yes, Mr. President-Elect, I am talking to you. Look around at what’s happening. This is not a time for Tweet-storms and Facebook fights. We got sh…um…work… to do. That’s what happened after the President was shot, and it’s what happened after Pearl Harbor. People got to work. Rosie the Riveter and Rosa Parks come to mind. I believe women are going to accomplish great things in the next few years, which is typical of us, if I do say so myself. Not just women of course, but we are going to be especially unstoppable I think. Not to be sexist but we have some real skin in the game.

Some really good parts of what we have all come to know are ending, but there will be new beginnings as well. The words of one amazing woman I know are echoing in my head. She watched in horror when JFK was taken from us. Her husband had worked for him; she knew what we were losing. When I was a new mother, the first Gulf War was starting and everything around me was swirling in a sleep-deprived fugue she simply said, “Hang on, darling.” You got it Mary. I’m hanging on no matter what comes.