Posts

It’s Fall Y’all

/in /by

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!

Passion and politics

/in /by

The election is nearing and we will soon go to polls and choose a vision for the future of our country.

Whenever such an opportunity is at hand, I reflect back on family stories centered around elections.

In the early days of our country, people actually had a passion about the right to vote and exercising thereof. I guess since there were still those who could remember living without that right whether here or in their home country or whose parents’ described the experience of having no such right to them.

By the mid-1800s, the rights were extended beyond property owners, and by 1870s eliminating prohibition on voting due to race, color or previous servitude. But for many the right was still out of reach and that passion re-emerged during the suffrage movement for women and then again insuring the rights already promised were delivered during the civil rights movement for African Americans.

My grandmother joined in the passion of the suffrage movement anxiously wanting to place her vote when the opportunity came after the passage of the 19th amendment, she could not wait for her chance to pull the curtain. After finishing making breakfast for the family, she headed off on foot to her poll where she proudly cast her ballot. It was years later, she told me that part of the joy of that moment was voting for a different candidate than my grandfather wanted to win thus cancelling out his vote. She finally was able to have her choice and not just have to go along.

Today, many treat voting as a nuisance, something that you only do if it convenient, or if you happen to like one of the candidates.

I hope I am not mixing up my stories but as I recall in one branch of our family, one section of the family was so passionate about the candidate running for president in the late 1800s, that when news that another cousin might vote for his opposition, they kidnapped the cousin to keep him from voting. This resulted in his closer kin retaliating to get him back resulting in some passionate exchange of gunfire until the matter was settled. I don’t remember if there were any deaths in this enthusiasm.

However, in another polling place disagreement, a battle erupted between adversary kin outside a local polling place, once again over political philosophies, resulting in, as best I recall, the final deaths in a family feud that spanned two centuries.

Passion and politics have long walked hand in hand. We have seen much passion exhibited during this season. I hope if nothing else occurs in the next few weeks, something that you hear, something you see, moves you not to take this right we have for granted. Exercise it. Be like my grandmother who walked miles to vote. Vote for whomever you feel will lead our country, your community, in the direction you desire us to go.

Men and women fought, marched, and died to give us this right. Don’t let all those sacrifices be for naught.