For the past several months we have already been inundated with political announcements, ads etc.  Once the primary season ended here, the ads let up a bit.  Well – it is about to heat up again as we get closer to the fall elections.  Our County Fair (a very small fair by any standard) had the usual political booths – one for the Dems and one for the Republicans (is there a nickname for them?).  We have an interesting race shaping up for County Attorney though.  The two candidates both had a booth and did their best to convince county citizens they were the best one for the job.  The next group to start campaigning are those running for school board and for city council positions.  It has occurred to me on more than one occasion, how fortunate we are to have anyone who wants to run for these positions.  Generally these position are pretty much non-political.  Politics comes into play when someone is running for a state or national office.

These days it does not take too long to figure out where one’s political “bent” lies.  What is a challenge is to have a nice, political, respectful discourse with anyone who does not agree with you.  Usually, if I sense they do not believe as I do, I keep my mouth shut and just listen.  To do otherwise is inviting trouble.  How did we get to this place?  How did we get to this point where disagreement means “bad”?  To serve in government used to be something awesome and that young people aspired to – where and when did that change so drastically?  I’m not sure I would want to run for even the Dog Catcher position anymore (it doesn’t exist in our town so I am safe in saying that)!

What do you think?  Have we “lost it” as a society already?  I sure hope not – for the sake of our grandchildren and their children.

Tikki