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It’s Fall Y’all

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As the leaves begin to turn into a cornucopia of color, I make my last round in the yard with my lawnmower. I have prepped and planted my winter garden hoping for the best crop of turnip greens ever seen.

The branch pile at the street becomes almost as tall as me. It’s cold enough at night to start a fire for the heat but warm enough in the day for air conditioning. The scenes around me begin to be filled pumpkins and scarecrows decorating our light posts and porches.

I have always loved this time of year. However, like many, I dread what I really loved in my youth – the cooler weather. For so many of us, as the years pass, the aches and pains from the abuses our body has received through our times on earth, hurt with these changes.

In my part of the world, this time of year also turns our thoughts to the mountains. We head there to see the beauty of the leaves, to enjoy the fall festivals, and to experience small town America. This year however, many of our favorite spots in Appalachia are suffering due to Hurricane Helene and its aftermath. I encourage everyone who can reach out to Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina and other affected areas with your financial assistance and include them in your prayers. There will be ongoing needs for months and months. Now, in the immediacy, they need things to help them keep warm. But I want to remind you all that many of our favorite mountain destinations in both states are open for business. Their leaves will be filled with colors, their towns will be decorated, their fall festivals will occur. Many of these towns are banding together to advertise they are OK and ready to welcome tourists. Don’t forget them. If you are going to travel. These regions have already been devastated by the Hurricane, they need their brother and sister towns to succeed and keep the tax base that will help rebuild from bottoming out. I am sure also you will find efforts to help their neighbors in all these communities.

Another aspect of fall coming on are the blooming of signs on corners and in yards reminding us that its time to go to the polls and place your vote for local, state and national political candidates. In many areas, early voting has already begun. Our neighbors are sitting there anxiously awaiting your arrival to cast a ballot. A right that each of us adult American citizens have due to the forethought of our founders and the blood, sweat and tears shed by thousands of people who have served in the military to defend all our rights across generations.

So, get in the car, drive to polling place, if close enough, enjoy a pleasant walk in the fall sun, cast your ballot either early or on the day of the election and let your voices be heard about your wishes for the future of your town, your county, your state and our country. While you are at it, thank every veteran you come across for their service! I plan to vote on election day. I look forward to spending some time with my neighbors hearing about their lives as we wait on line.

It’s a privilege to vote for the future. Don’t miss your chance to be part of the solution rather than the problem. Most of us want to run our own lives. However, we are all like the children riding in the back seat of the station wagon. We are not holding the steering wheel, our foot is not hovering over the gas or brake pedals. However, unlike childhood, when we could not choose our parents and their driving habits, we can decide who is driving the car in our respective towns, counties, states and our country.

So, as you get ready to get in the back seat to ride along for the next four years: which candidates will make you feel safe, content in your life and opportunities, happy with the direction they are taking us,

ever ready to hit the brakes and steer a different direction, or prepared to hit the gas to get us towards an amazing destination when they see an opening for successful forward momentum.

At every level, these people we elect impact our lives, take it seriously. Vote for the future of your lives, your families, your pocketbooks and wallets, your opportunities in business and employment and the generations ahead of all of us.

Vote for the success of us all, your hometown, your state and our country.

Just vote. Make a difference. Put on the sticker, wear it proudly, thank a veteran and enjoy fall, y’all!

The Sign Jumping Contest

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I drove up on the mountain and when I arrived, I found that the sign I had carefully placed had jumped out of the ground and was lying on its side. It had jumped out of the ground the day before that and I had received a call the night before letting me know it was down. Once again the same lady called to let me know it was down again, it only made it about three hours.

When I arrived back the day before from putting it up, there were three others along my route which had also jumped up out of the ground and laid down on the ground.

Well, one of my cousins once wrote a short story about “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

His story was amazingly entertaining, I am afraid this one will not be.

I am not quite sure yet whether the worms in our neck of the woods are rebelling against us, frustrated by the addition of so many metal sign posts being pushed down into the ground.

Of course, it might be a joint effort of the gophers, chipmunks and the ground hogs. They could have formed an army and are slowly and strategically digging beneath the ground finding each and everyone and pushing them up until they jump out of the ground and land a few feet away.

There might have been a geological shift in the hydrology of our community and water could be forcing them up. Although no new springs are found.

Maybe Mark’s jumping frogs from Calaveras have moved to my county and are hiring out to push the signs up out of the ground.

God has blessed me with knowing many great people in my life, some were friends, some were relatives, some were encouragers, some were up lifters, some were acquaintances, and some were just folks I have met.

While I know there are bad people in the world with ill intentions and a desire to hurt others, I have only had limited encounters with their type. When I started in reporting on politics, and eventually running in local elections that continued to be true until just a few years ago. Then a new breed of folks began entering the fray and with them they brought along the school yard approach to attacking their opponents.

This year as I am running in my local election cycle, they are having a ball encouraging the signs from jumping out of the ground. Of course, I am only seeing this primarily with mine and others are left standing within sight of them.

Perhaps I need to check in with my sign company, perhaps it is the metal sign stakes, maybe it’s something in the metal. I want the think the best of everyone, but the evidence seems to continue to pile up against my keeping a positive opinion on some.

Waiting for judgement

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As I place these words to paper, the outcome of the 2022 mid-term elections is yet to be decided.
I would like to join the throngs of those saying the rhetoric has made this a terrible election season.
I know as a student of history, many before were worse.
When the votes are in and tallied and the winners are declared, it is time for our country to come together and heal from the political turmoil.
Whoever are the victors, whoever are the losers; ultimately what is important is we are Americans. We are all Americans and as that we should rise to a higher standard and treat one another with the respect that our forefathers and mothers would expect.
Generations struggled, fought and died so that we may enjoy the fruits of their labor and sacrifice and build upon their shoulders. We owe them and ourselves the effort of reaching for the stars and walking a path to make our country a place where we see each other through the eyes of understanding.
We should be able no matter where our hometown is, to walk down our streets safely, enjoy the opportunities to pursue our dreams, whether that means, raising a family, working a job, or running a business, possibly providing jobs for others.
We are Americans, in the wake of this election that is what we are first, no political ideology should have precedence over whom we are because that one element is what has provided the strength that has allowed our country to prevail throughout our history.
If we spend our time fighting amongst ourselves, we will never notice the threats aimed at our republic from outside or within. We will miss those individuals on the inside with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar wishing to do harm at home.
Assuming as I write, that there are no post-election revelations that upturn our elections, I encourage you to pray for our country, pray for our new leaders, but most of all pray for the healing of our country and its people.
We are better than what is seen on television, in newspapers and on the internet. So, remember what America is and will be is up to us. Don’t disappoint, start by loving your neighbor as yourself. One person at a time, that will be a legacy, we should build upon.

Candidates around the cracker barrel

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It is the time of year when towns across America find political signs for local campaigns filling the right-of-ways and yards as fundraising barbeques and door-to-door canvassing is in full swing.
For many years, I have had the pleasure of living in small town America, in a community that up until this decade enjoyed amiable competition on occasion for the available council seats. You had men or women give their vision of what they wanted to do and then the voters came out at the polls and picked the vision they preferred.
Our little town was even less competitive than Mayberry in the episodes where “The Andy Griffith Show” centered around the council and sheriff’s races. I remember years ago as a newspaper reporter gathering three council candidates with bottles of Coca-Cola in or near their hands as two faced each other off in a game of checkers on an old cracker barrel while the other one watched. All laughing and joking throughout. That is the way it was for decades of our history.
Sadly, the advent of social media and those that use it has transformed many uplifting positive communities into a sea of dissatisfaction fueled by the egging on of candidates who are seeking any opportunity to gain a bit of attention for their campaign. Negativity, slights, one-up-man-ship seem to now be the approach of this decade’s group of candidates.
There was a time in our community, if a candidate went around bad-mouthing their opponent, that was a sure loss in the making for the bad mouther. Our great folks were just not going to stand for it and did not wish to be led by those who would do it.
Now though I am seeing candidates who make a sport of trying to destroy or hurt others through social media or other means who are applauded for their efforts. They are given pats on the back for the evil done. While this is certainly a norm in national and even some state elections, our small towns do not need this type of behavior among our leaders.
We should be the beacons of civility, the populace of principles, the sages of political strategy, by allowing only the best to serve us. Small town offices often are little more than volunteer positions that require hours of dedication, training, reading, creating relationships all to benefit our communities. Other leaders want to partner with leaders they can depend upon to follow through with regional and state led efforts at the local level. That takes character and solid leadership.
I have heard said “Well. it’s just campaign rhetoric,” but it seeps into governing as well.
As the elections are in full swing, and you pick the candidates you want to lead, look beyond the nice family photos, the slick election mailers, and look to the actions and the heart of the candidate not as they portray their actions in social media and commercials but as they conduct themselves in real life.
I long for the day of three men or women who state their visions and let us decide without running the other candidate down.
I lived it before not so long ago. I miss it. If I could trade this social media world for that again, I would flip the switch in a heartbeat.
Maybe we all can flip the switch ourselves in our respective towns by earnestly choosing the candidates that are not trying to win a social media popularity contest but will actually do the job to serve. When we go in our voting booth and cast our ballot for good decent civil people who have our interests at heart, maybe in our little way, that will be taking us all to a better small-town experience, no matter the size of our community.