Not Subtraction, Addition without Permission

I've heard a lot of talk on the news these days, living in a "battle state" as they say. . . Ohio. . . about folks stealing political signs from the yards of their neighbors. Or maybe not their neighbors, who knows?

Today I ran into the reverse. Today, mid-morning, an older man who looked like someone's grandpa who should know better and who probably assumed no one was home, climbed up the steps to my small within-the-city-limits front yard and inserted a Lupher for Commissioner sign in my front yard. I never asked for the sign. No one else in my home asked for the sign. I have a presidential election sign in my front yard and the sign-sneaker placed his right next to it, wrongfully assuming that more is, well, okay by me. It's not.

While my property is so small as to barely be visible from the top of Mt. Pleasant, let alone an airplane, a jet, or outer space, it is my little piece of the earth (well, mine and the mortgage company's) and I get to choose what signs go on it (well, within the confines of the zoning department).

I'm ready for this election to be over. I have listened to CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, John Stewart, Larry King, the White House spokesman, Karen Hughes, the debates, the Kerry campaign chairman, the Guardian letter-writers and today bin Laden, from whom I narrowly escaped harm on Sept. 11, 2001, had to put in his two cents. I subscribed to the Columbus Dispatch, read the local Lancaster Eagle Gazette, and get Time, Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, and Bird Talk. Not to mention Publishers Weekly, Writers Digest, National Geographic and The Sun. I'm on information overload, or, more precisely, superficial information overload.

I don't understand the Middle East, Alan Greenspan's economic policies, how to save Social Security, or how outsourcing can be good for America. I'm tired of calling Dell and other companies and talking to someone whose speech I cannot understand regarding technical terms that I already find difficult.

But, let's hear it for our system. In our system, an informed citizen, or uninformed citizen can vote for president. That vote will, hopefully be counted. If not on Nov. 2, then ten days later when the provisional ballots are accepted. And, hopefully then, unless the electoral votes go the other way. And unless one votes absentee ballots and they are lost in the mail. If all that doesn't mess up, then the one vote counts.

My vote is actually cancelled out by my mother's vote. I feel badly about voting the opposite of my mother as I've found she usually turns out to be right about most things.

It's disconcerting to know that the MRDD folk I visit weekly in a nursing home here in Southern Ohio are casting their ballots, with no permission by their guardians needed. Folks not allowed on the elevator, folks who cannot read, are casting their vote. If Advertising Age wants to know the most effective ad in this presidential election among twenty-something males with mental challenges, I can tell them it is the one where Kerry says everyone deserves healthcare. That's the one that they point to as being the reason to vote for Kerry. But, as one resident stated, "It doesn't really matter who gets elected; I mean they don't come here and tell me what to do."

We've got some other important issues on the ballot, like controversial Issue 1. No, I'm not saying what I think about that, but like the sign-switching situation (say that nine times fast) I found it disappointing that one of the nursing home residents knew what he thought about the Issue, but couldn't read the ballot. He asked a staff person or poll worker which way to mark the ballot consistent with his beliefs. When he told me the direction he was given and upon which he acted, I realized they had directed him to do the opposite of the outcome he wanted...

Thinking of all the people in nursing homes who are not mentally competent; all the people who are considered mentally competent but probably shouldn't be; all the folks who just don't care; or folks like me who know a bit about quite a few things but don't really have a deep understanding of many things... it's really amazing our country continues on as well as it does. Politicians, for all their faults, must deserve some credit. Yep, they have to advertise. They have to hire consultants and bow to their party's wishes. But, I don't think the pay is all that great, the traveling must get old, there are family separation issues, and the career path isn't that well respected. But, I say, thank you to those willing to run for public office. It is admirable. It is commendable. I couldn't do it; wouldn't do it; so I salute you and may the best candidate win!