Blogging to Save My Sanity

Friday is poetry day at B's Ramblings. Here's the latest of my poems entitled Autumn Takes Me Home.

cool and crisp
red apples hanging low from the branch
a canopy of yellowish orange and brownish red
cozy contentment wrapped in a sweater

u-rah-rah
cheering on padded and sweaty young men
marching to the boom-boom of the bass drum
and the rat-a-tat-tat of the snare

giving thanks
drooling over smells of turkey and stuffing
eating too much and still wanting more
like a piece of homemade pumpkin pie

memories
rush in with the smells and sounds
closing my eyes and taking a deep breath
autumn comes and takes me home

Did you see the Whoopi show this week? (The one where Bush stops to use her bathroom.) Does it frighten anyone else besides me that a whole race of people can be counted on to vote a certain way in an election? That candidates don't have to work to prove themselves and earn their votes? This show should be a prompting to review our own selection processes. What is the selection process you use at election time to choose a candidate to support? Has that candidate given you a lot of reasons, or any reason, to vote for him or her? Does your vote represent your opinion, or is it the propagation of a legacy of how your family/friends/community have always voted?

When I was in college, I supported a democratic candidate for president. Given the environment at college, I am surprised that any students would have voted otherwise. Our English teacher gave us an assignment to write a report that would be presented orally about a presidential candidate and reasons to support him or her. The student population at the school varied racially to a greater extent than the general population, and to no one's surprise, the majority of the reports were about the top democratic candidate. I was just going with the flow, and liked receiving praise from our teacher for my choice. (The teacher happened to be black.)

I think back to those times and am disappointed with myself for not giving all the candidates a closer look.

I should have been more informed of the issues. I read the major newspaper, not knowing that I should refer to alternate news sources to get the complete picture.

I should have evaluated where I stood first. I was so impressionable and naive that I let others mold my view to match theirs. I should have formed my own opinions before listening to and evaluating theirs.

Review where your moral compass is pointing. Know the direction the candidate and his party are going. Consider this before you vote.