4 Years Ago

 

I can't say on this day four years ago, because it wasn't this exact date.  I couldn't remember the date (I went back in my calendar to find it: Nov 8), but I DO remember the day quite well.  I even wrote this:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/i-hope-you-vote.html.  (See even back then I was encouraging people to vote.)  I wasn't happy with either candidate (or party).  At that time I was still affiliated with a party that no longer meshed with my views and opinions.  However, it wouldn't be until the following year that I officially became UNAFFLIATED because NEITHER party appealed to me.  (They still don't).  At that time, I was determined to vote with my conscious and heart.  To this day, I will not allow a party to define who I am or how I will vote.

I remember the day quite well NOT because it was Election Day, but because it was the beginning of a 2 day conference/meeting for the company I had just started working for several months prior.  (I still work for them; sort of...it's a long story of corporate purchases and such, but nutshell I still am in the same position with many of the same people today as I was then.)  It was my first chance to meet people that I had only talked to over the phone.  It was held at a hotel/conference center not far from the office building where we worked (where I would still be working if not for Covid-19 and https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/farewell-cube.html) The meeting was to start at 8:30, but I was helping to set up so I needed to be there by 7:30, which meant leaving the house a little before 7.

It might have been a problem if I weren't an early voter.  As you may know from my numerous posts, when life was "normal" I would be one of the first at my polling place.  I wasn't always first in line (if there was a line), but I was always in and out without the first fifteen minutes of the polls opening.  That was no different in 2016.

I cast my vote as usual and gave it no other thought.  My focus was so much more on the meeting and everything that went along with it.  The only thought I had that day was how inconvenient this would have been for the sales team that came in.  I wondered if any of them had thought to get an absentee ballot as most them arrived from out of state the night before the election.  I know that voting was important to me (even when I wasn't casting a ballot for the President), but was it to them?

It was a long day for us all.  The room that we were in was (specifically) cold.  I had been warned and wore warm clothing, but not warm enough.  I was happy to meet most of the team face to face for the first time.  We may have glanced at the tv which was on in the lobby during our lunch break.  (Which was held in the hall/lobby of the hotel.)  It didn't seem that important.

When it was over, we all went out to (a previously arranged) dinner.  Again, the focus was not on national events, but on food.  We were in our own room, so there was no news blaring anywhere.  It was a "normal" evening.

When I got home, I don't think I even bothered to turn into the news.  I don't remember watching the news (as I usually do) the next morning as I hurried back for the 2nd day of the conference.  That day, I DO remember the group taking a break and watching the news as it came on and Hillary Clinton conceded.  I don't recall what the mood was in the group; I know I was not happy, but I wasn't terribly upset.  Later, I even blogged this:  https://bfthsboringblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/its-over.html.  Call me naive.  I'd like to say I held hope in my heart.  (I still try to.)  I also, honestly, believed (and still want to) that we, as a nation, are good people.

Here we are four years later.  I look back to that time and election and am sad.  Sad that what I believed and hoped was torn to pieces.  Distraught at what we have become as a nation.  Disgusted at the rhetoric of politics.  Praying that my country, OUR country, does not implode.  Hoping that there is still a chance to show that we ARE "good" people. While the focus may be on the President; it is more than just that.  This is about ALL our representatives; how do WE want to be represented?

So with that, if you haven't already, go out and vote.  

I already have.  I voted because our country needs help, not hype.  We need leadership, not lies.  We true patriotism; not partisanship.  We need faith, not folly.  We need to end the ugly and act in unity.  We need to be America and act as Americans.  We need to be "the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity."