Vote

It’s election day.

What should you do? You should go out and vote.

Besides that, I can’t tell you for who. I could go on and on about campaign finance reports, about PACs, players, and past performances. I can tell you who I like and who I don’t like, but really, it’s just about everyone of us voting. Whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican. Vote.

It’s our right. It’s one of the most sacred rights we have as Americans–to vote. Majority rules.

It’s the essence of being a democracy. Democracy is a strange word yet at the same time so seemingly familiar. We hear the word democracy, and as Americans we nod and say, yes, we are a democracy. We have choice. We vote. We choose. We the People.

But what’s it mean…We the People?

Considering the situation the City of Harrisburg is in,  it’s a curious term and one which carries both implied and explicit meanings. Who is We? And what is meant by the People?

Important things for people of a distressed place to ponder.

Today when you vote, citizens of Harrisburg, keep these questions in your mind. Think about “democracy” and majority rules. Think about who We is and who the People are. Think about what our options are. The City (and the region for that matter) needs strong advocates who understand acutely the complex situation of the City and who have insightful vision of what the capital city of Pennsylvania can be and should be.  The City needs as many choices as it can get considering several choices have been taken away. Some we’re more aware of missing than others.

And that’s the point—too often citizens of the City have tended to do the same things and allowed the same things to happen. We the People. Numbed by expensively glossy campaign mailers stuffed in our mail slots and laid on stoops and porches left to blow around our streets.  Faces frozen grinning imploringly for power.

Exercise your right today, People, and think carefully, thoughtfully, and purposefully about the We being established. Use your options.

Vote.

Polling locations in the City of Harrisburg: here

List of Candidates, local representative seats & Pennsylvania statewide offices:

• PA Senate 15th–Rob Teplitz (D), John McNally (R), write-in Alvin Q. Taylor(D),
• PA House 103rd–Patty Kim (D)
• U.S. Congress 11th–(R) Gene Stilp (D), Lou Barletta [actually only Shipoke & Hall Manor vote on this one]
• U.S. Congress 4th–  Harry Perkinson (D), Scott Perry (R)
• U.S. Senator for PA– Bob Casey (D), Tom Smith (R)
• PA Treasurer–Rob McCord (D), Diane Irey Vaugh (R)
• PA Auditor General–Eugene DePasquale (D), John Maher (R)
• PA Attorney General–Kathleen Kane (D), David Freed (R)