Why your vote matters

Ahhh, election season.

The time of year when the leaves turn, the smell of wood burning fires fills the air, and our "respectable" politicians make schoolyard bullying seem like playful teasing.

It's enough to make any sane American despondent, disgusted, and disenfranchised - and you see that's kind of the point.

"They" don't want you to vote.
"They" want you to feel like none of it makes any difference.
"They" know that you're too busy living your own life to pay any more attention than 30 seconds during Survivor to the politics of our country.

But "They" have to be wrong.

I know, just like the leaves, the fires, and the prep for the holiday season, most of the attention is fleeting. Eventually the leaves are raked up or covered with the first snowfall, the fires move inside, and the holidays pass by. But the decisions you make, or choose NOT to make, on election day follow us forever.

It's easy to spout the platitudes like "If you don't vote, you can't complain" but it's not those who would actually listen to that statement that need to be reached. The disenfranchised, disgusted voter is not going to be moved by your personal feeling of civic pride in 7 words. You need to pass along why you are so passionate about your vote.

So here's mine:
I choose to vote because it's the loudest my voice can get. I don't buy into the whole "if you don't vote, you can't complain" because you CAN complain. You can write letters to the editor, post your opinions on blogs, call your Senators or Congressman and complain. But your voice is never louder than on the first Tuesday in November. That's the day you can stand up and say to your fellow citizens "This is the person who I feel will best represent me and my district, state, or country to my fellow man."

That's a pretty powerful statement to make. To stand up, point to one person and tell the rest of the world that THIS is who I am most like, who believes in (most) of the same things I do, and speaks on my behalf while I'm running the kids to soccer practice, working on that presentation, or grocery shopping, or just trying to get through just one more day.

I choose to vote because I'm willing to sacrifice my personal interests for the greater good. That's right, I'll vote AGAINST myself if I feel that it's better for my community as a whole. It can be as small as a tax levy that will strain my wallet, or for a candidate that while I may personally despise has a plan that will help move my community forward.

And as much as I'm willing to sacrifice my personal interest for the greater good, I do so because I truly believe in my heart that Today, Election Day, is the one day that truly makes me... makes US... American Citizens. To not vote would be to waste everything that was done for me before I was even here. The sacrifices of our soldiers, the hardships of growing pains and depressions of the past, all led to this moment.

This one perfect moment where I get to take control of our country's future and make my voice heard.
To not vote would shine a light on everything that I complain about, only this time I allowed it to happen because I was too despondent, disgusted, and disenfranchised to care any more.

And I can't let them do that to the country I love.

You didn't get mad...

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President
You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed
You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us
You didn't get mad we spent over 600 billion (and counting) on said illegal war
You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq
You didn't get mad wen you saw the Abu Grahib photos
You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people
You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans
You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden
You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed
You didn't get mad when we let a major US city drown
You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark

You finally got mad when.. when.. wait for it... when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick.   Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all ok with you but helping other Americans... well fuck that.  That about right?  You know it is.

You people have all lost your fucking minds.  You are selfish, greedy, obnoxious, narcissistic, and frankly... stupid.  Your pathetic little misspelled protest signs are embarrassing.  Maybe you ought to find the smart person in your midst and let them make up all the signs, cause man, you look like a bunch of idiots.

Pirate Burgers

Inspired by some show (don't remember) I watched today on the Food Network:

1 1/2 lbs Ground Chuck
1 Dry Onion Soup Mix
Approximately 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 to 1/3 cup of dry bread crumbs
2 tbsp (approx) of beef stock
6-8 slices of THICK bacon (I prefer applewood)
Fresh sliced mozzarella cheese

Bake the bacon in the oven on 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until nice and crispy

Mix the chuck, soup, worcestershire sauce, bread crumbs, and beef stock in a large mixing bowl.
After the bacon is done, crumble it up and mix in with the rest of the mix.

Pull approximately 2 ounces of the mix out and flatten out in patty form.  Put a slice of the mozzarella in the center, then top with another 2 ounces of mix.

Firmly pat them out in patty shape.

Toss on a preheated grill for approximately 5-7 minutes per side, toast the buns, plate and enjoy.

My message to Jean Schmidt

As your constituent, I'm writing to tell you why I'm such a strong supporter of health reform.

My wife, an otherwise healthy 33 year old woman, suffered a stroke suddenly 18 months ago while we were at a Thomas the Train event in Lebanon, Ohio.  While we were fortunate enough to have health care coverage at the time to help us in our time of crisis, I can't help but be concerned about future coverage and protection.

You see she now has a "pre-existing condition."  The doctors were never able to identify what caused the stroke, and while she's made an amazing recovery we don't know what to work on to be sure we've eliminated the possibility of another stroke.

If I, just a normal voter from your district, have figured out that we can't guarantee she won't have another stroke, it shouldn't be that hard for an insurance company looking only to maximize it's profitability to identify her as a high risk to their bottom line and decline us future coverage.  Then what?

I've seen, read, and heard all of the rhetoric from the Republicans.  I'm sure somewhere in the viciousness there is probably a few valid statements of concern, but none of them have told me what your plan is for my wife to have coverage in the future.

I'm formally requesting as a registered, active voter in your district that you reconsider your stance on the pending health care vote.  Provide my family, my friends, my children, and my country with a health safety net so they don't have to face the same concerns in the future.

Please see my message to you, along with the stories and photos of other Americans from your district and across the nation, at http://my.barackobama.com/HereFor

Respectfully,
Robert Bennett

Cincinnati, is it really as bad as I think it is?

So Vanity Fair wrote an article about Cincinnati, or more specifically the Creationism Museum and attributing all the stupidity it stands for to the entire region.

It resulted in quite the uproar on my twitter feed and a couple of blog postings from one of my favorite local bloggers, Kate.

I read the article and honestly learned more about the museum than I knew before (which was basically just that it physically exists) but otherwise wasn't all that impressed.  It wasn't awe inspiring journalism and it wasn't written to inform, but rather seemed to be a piece written to take up a few columns in between ads for products that aren't meant and aren't marketed for me.  It was what I would call a masturbatory piece.  It's there for the edification of the author and those who dismiss all those who aren't "You" to prove just how much better "You" are than "Them."  More sophisticated, more educated, more everything I'm not.

OK, I'll give you pretty much all of that, you probably are.

But what the subsequent conversation about the article really made me do was rethink my opinion of Cincinnati.

I moved to the Queen City in the summer of 1993.  After my last class at Ohio University, we drove from Athens to Cincinnati where I spent the first several months of my tenure living in a pop up camper in Lebanon while working 80+ hours a week at Kings Island.  (For the record I was only in the camper because my parents hadn't finalized the move down here so there was no house for me to move into yet).

A series of extraordinarily poor decisions on my part led to my lack of return to Athens and probably tainted my overall impression of Cincinnati as a place that I have never been happy in.

I always felt the place was too conservative, too boring, too reclusive, too... not what I wanted.  As a sedentary person by nature, I never set out to prove my first impressions wrong.  I accepted them as fact, carved out my own little niche of friends and even managed to find a woman willing to tolerate me enough to marry me.

But always the opinions remained.  Nothing to do, noone to talk to, and let's face it - living in Jean Schmidt's district isn't doing wonders for my opinions on the local politics.

Then I started following some local people on Twitter.  Starting with my friend Heather I branched out to other local foodies such as Julie, the aforementioned Kate, the always opinionated Thadd, and the man who helped me become the first to monetize Twitter in a non-spammy way by buying Girl Scout Cookies via Twitter, Bob.  These are but a small but vocal segment of the "Bigger Cincinnati World" that was out there.

They are advocates for the region.  They look deeper than I do and find the gems hidden in plain site.  They share what they find.  They enjoy their lives and present it in a way that invites you to join in the fun.

But most importantly they've taken this lazy fat man and made him wonder about maybe giving Cincinnati another shot.