I love voting. I get giddy about it. This past week, the presidential candidates finally started running television ads and making campaign stops in Pennsylvania. It was exciting!
Lately, a lot of people have told me they're not "into" politics. I don't understand that. How can you not be "into" something that affects everyone's lives? I love researching the candidates and watching the debates. It not only makes me an informed voter, but I learn about things I never heard of before. Often I will watch an interview or debate and something will come up that I know nothing about... so I Google it. After I know what it is, sometimes I will think to myself, "Okay, well why should I care about that?" I have to think and ruminate and then realize, OH, this is why this is important! And even if the issue doesn't affect my life, it may affect other people's lives. Does that make sense? What I am basically saying is I like to learn.
This election cycle, I have also committed myself to trying to understand why people feel a certain way on hot button issues and not just judge. (I can be quite judgmental when it comes to certain things.) I feel like understanding is more productive than judging. I will be honest, I do judge people who support, say, Donald Trump. But at least I am trying to understand as well. Does that make sense?
So yeah, YAY VOTING!!!!
Selfishly, another reason I like election day is because our school is a polling station, so we have an in-service day with no students. Usually, election day lines up juuuuuust before my concert season begins, so I can really finish up a lot of behind the scenes stuff for my school concerts. I am looking forward to an extremely productive day!
In-service days also mean I get a 60 minute lunch and can pee whenever I want to! Wow! On these special days I feel like I have a grown up job!
Happy Primary Day! Go out there and make your voice heard!
Do you get excited to vote?
Is there something you are willing to admit you are judgmental about?
What about your job makes you feel like a grown up?
I love to vote and wanted to participate in the caucus for Colorado this year but I had a major conflict the night it happened. It's so important to vote, I think. I get super excited to go to the polls so I never do a mail it ballot. That would spoil all the fun.
ReplyDeleteLOL I agree a mail in ballot WOULD spoil the fun! The caucus system really confuses me.
DeleteI do like to vote. I have to be honest, I can't watch or listen to a debate--I will read the transcripts online after, or listen to news summaries (NPR junkie, here)--I get so angry with All the politicians indirect answers, and in particular during this cycle the juvenile turn the "debates" have taken--it's more like school yard antics.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is hard not to be judgmental about Trump--I had to stop saying we would move to Canada if he was elected because my youngest was getting upset (about moving, not the latter).
Enjoy your inservice day!
I can definitely understand being angry while listening to the debates. If I am watching on TV, sometimes I scream at the TV! If I am listening to it in podcast form on a run, sometimes I scream out loud. My neighbors probably think I am insane. I can't tell you how many times I have screamed, "THAT'S A LIE!!!" while listening to a Ted Cruz town hall.
DeleteI totally get the "going to the bathroom whenever you want". Thank goodness I have a restroom right outside my door and my kids are well enough on their own if I "had" to step out for aa minute!
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way you do about politics. I watch the debates an am really into it. I struggle though this time because there are things about each candidate that I don't agree with (or support).
I have a bathroom really close to my room too! It has saved me many a times.
DeleteThere are things about each candidate I don't agree with too. I don't think there is EVER going to be a candidate that completely aligns. In a way, it is always choosing the lesser of the evils. And I am not insinuating all candidates are evil. I am just using the expression. It's not secret I am a democrat, and I don't agree with all the voting history Hillary has had and I don't agree with all the voting history Bernie has. But I have to remind myself that they have both been involved in politics and helping America longer than I have been alive, so obviously if I were to go back and pick and choose and look at every single senate vote Bernie made or Hillary made, there are going to be things I don't agree with. So I need to look at the bigger picture.
I enjoy voting as well, but even if I didn't it's an important right to exercise and when people don't take advantage of it I find that infuriating. We have the right so please use it! I judge people who think it's okay to not vote ... I also judge people who vote against their own interests although it's something I'm trying to better understand as well. I read an article the other day that explained it, dating back to the days when rich white Americans encouraged their poor white (formerly) indentured servants to vote with them to keep the newly freed African Americans from achieving anything worth having.
ReplyDeleteThis election cycle has put a strain on me already because my father told me he supports Trump. It's not good.
" I also judge people who vote against their own interests although it's something I'm trying to better understand as well." <------- I saw a hilarious meme that perfectly sums up the whole people voting against their interests thing and I am going to FIND IT and pm it to you!!!
DeleteI also judge people who don't vote.
Oh no. Your father supports Trump? Did he say why? That would be very hard for me to swallow.
Ohhh can't wait to see it!
DeleteI'll PM you thoughts about my dad as well. I don't want to put him on blast in public! hah.
You are such a good daughter.
DeleteI have never voted. I am a person that is so fact based that when I first started considering voting I became so obsessed with knowing everything I absolutely could I spent most of my time researching new information. So for me, its better to just stay away from it. I don't complain about the turn outs either. I feel I don't have a right to complain if I don't put in my vote to try and make things different. I also do not in any way talk politics with people. I haven't earned it, yes, I still have opinions but they are kept between me and Kevin. :)
ReplyDeleteMy lunch is an hour, I love it, however most of the time I spend it at my desk as I try to bring lunch to work. I do sometimes shut my office door in a 'do not disturb' fashion.
It's a shame you don't vote because it sounds like if you did you would be very informed and that's what this country needs!
DeleteThat is nice you get an hour for lunch and can not be disturbed if you're in the mood to be alone!
The number one thing that I judge people for is people who have home-births. I think it's selfish for people to put their comfort first before the safety of their baby. There. I said it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that! I feel like my opinion on that is not valid since I'm not a mom.
Deletecompletely agree
DeleteI judge people who support Trump. I got into an argument with a woman at work, who told me that the things that Trump says make sense... OmG! I wanted to rip her head off! She had the nerve to tell me, a Mexican woman, that "some Mexicans ARE rapist and criminals" and gave me the "oh, but not you!" line. She kept saying that the media exaggerated everything the Trump was doing... and I just walked away from her. No point on trying to talk to somebody who is that closed off.
ReplyDeleteI was listening to NPR a while back, and it had a woman talking about how she is a liberal, but would often make appearances to defend her views on Fox news. The reporter asked her if this was stressful to her, and how she deal with the stress. And she said that she had come to realize that we all have fears, and that some of us act on them more than others, but that behind those fears, we are still humans, moms, sisters, dads, brothers, friends. And that she learned to accept that fears are real for those people and that instead of judging them, she would try to understand their fears.
Now, I'm not at that point of not judging yet, but found her insight very interesting.
I only get 30 minutes for lunch, it sucks. I have to eat so quickly!
I feel like a grown up when if I'm not at work, and when I return everybody is freaking out and telling me how much they needed me here! I have been here for 10 years, and it doesn't get old.
Oh my gosh I would have been enraged talking to that woman. Since we're discriminating against an entire group of people because some of them are rapists and murderers, why don't we discriminate against the group of people in our country that by far have the most rapists and murderers- WHITE MALES! Okay, now obviously I am being ridiculous with that comment, but I'm trying to make a point, and I know you get my point. :)
DeleteOh and the media doesn't exaggerate Trump. All they do is play videos of his horrible rally speeches. He is like a living breathing cartoon of himself at this point.
I am trying to be more like that woman on NPR- no judging, just understanding. But it is hard when educated people with access to information support a candidate like Trump.
I am super judgey about politics and pseudo-science... and the two go hand in hand often. I hate it when I hear republicans talk about climate change as if they know more than someone who holds a PhD in the subject. It's absolutely insane. I super judge people when I hear they are voting for Trump (or any republican for that matter). I guess that's why I have close to no republican friends... also because I'm a dirty hippie and they wouldn't want to hang out with me. :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL I would love to hang out with a dirty hippy!
DeletePseudo science.... SMH. I'm with ya on that one.
How about republican men (cough Kasich) who think they hold a gynocological degree?
Happy voting and enjoy your in-service day. The primary here was awhile ago and you'd better believe I voted!
ReplyDeleteI wish the US would make voting a bank holiday so people didn't have work. Then more people would vote.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE voting. I know my vote really doesn't count and the way elections are rigged is total bullshit, but I love it anyway. I also know that trying to understand the opposition will make it easier for me to change their minds, but I just am so blocked by how WRONG WRONG WRONG they are that I can't. I'm terribly intolerant about certain things lol!
I do like to vote because I know that I'm at least somewhat responsible for the future I choose. I hate being judgmental, but unfortunately I do lol! I'm working on it though :D
ReplyDeleteShould You Run With Or Without Music? https://candiesandcrunches.com/2016/04/25/should-you-run-with-or-without-music/
I do vote and this election has me so uneasy talking about politics. Living in Arizona is odd. It's a Republican state, yet there are a lot of minorities, me included. This whole Trump Mexican thing has made being Hispanic very uncomfortable here. I can't speak Spanish in public with people giving me a look as if I don't belong here. I hate everything he's done throughout this election. It's causes so much division.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as anyone says to me that they're a Trump supporter, I cringe. I totally judge.
And I HATE that you have to deal with that, Helly. It is COMPLETELY wrong and like you said, divides us. What is wrong with people being different???? Do we all have to speak English all the time? Do we all need to have light skin, blonde hair and blue eyes? Seriously.
DeleteAnd it is super ironic because you are bilingual and all the people who judge you prob only speak one language. Idiots.
I live in a repub *area* of PA, but overall PA always votes blue.