Winter Cold, Take 1

Mark the calendar – Nov 6th is officially my first sick day of the winter (and it’s not even “officially” winter yet). It dumped snow this week and there are three storms on the way over the next seven days. Kill me now! Snowbird fires up its ski lifts tomorrow, exciting and depressing.

Who knows if my cold is due to a week of not sleeping while my boss traversed the Middle East two weeks ago, if I’ve been infected with whatever germs he brought back, if I have the crud that has half of out IT department out (convenient that my new MacBook Pro is in the hands of the person that may have gifted this disease to me), or if I contracted something after bowling til the wee hours last night and didn't wash my hands afterward.

Who really cares? One upside is that I have coughed for the last 18 hours and have managed a killer abdominal workout. The other upside is that I’m bored out of my gourd and decided to whip up a post.

In any case, I write this entry under mild medicinal intoxication. I hate medicine and never, repeat NEVER, take it. The only thing I hate more than medicine is being sick so one obviously trumps the other (I guess my definition of "never" is more flexible than it might be for others). Dayquil gives me a hazy hangover that has been ever present with me today. As if I don’t have enough trouble forming complete sentences or typing, this is risky business people. Please disregard my poor grammar or unforgivable typos (I just typed unfrogivable, thank you autocorrect).

So in case you didn’t realize it, this week was election week. I voted a week early on campus and only had to wait in line 15 minutes or so. November 4th in Utah started with a nasty storm that brought rain, snow, and blustery winds. I can’t imagine having to wait in lines outside in weather like that BUT I still would have done it in order to cast my vote.

As I watched the returns come in Tuesday night I tried to take in the significance of what was happening. My doubts and misgivings about the readiness of our country evaporated as the news stations started to declare our new President-Elect Obama. The rallies of people that had gathered in hopes that their voices would be heard erupted with cheers and tears. Why reiterate the historical significance of whoever could have taken office here on my blog – my memory will revolve around the fact that I sat in my living room glued to the TV, iPhone in hand texting away, with the overwhelming sense that the country had made it choice clear. The Supreme Court would not be deciding this election, a collective relief.

WARNING: Ranting will commence from here on out...

Some of those that are close to me and have turned out to be apathetic due to many excuses: I just don’t know about politics, it’s Utah – my vote doesn’t really count, I don’t like either candidate, etc. I try to be understanding with those that are part of my daily life that would rather watch reality TV and get their politics in 30 second sound bites than search for answers. It’s hard to have meaningful conversations with people that can spout off random sports statistics but couldn’t verbalize what socialism is. Don’t take offense, I’m not asking that you have a degree in political science to comment on an election. My concern is that with how critical this election is – most people in my immediate circles are disappointing in their election acumen (click on the word for the definition, I can wait).

I know too many people that live and die by SportsCenter, The Office, Gossip Girl, or {insert your show of the moment here} but when you can’t take 15 minutes a day in an election year to familiarize yourself with the issues and candidates I have diminished respect for you. Even more appalling is when you try to have a half-assed discussion about a candidate with nothing more than information from a local news station that can barley package a 7-11 robbery correctly. I am not announcing myself as a politico or a pundit but the only thing worse than apathy is ignorance. Sirs and Madams, check yourself before you wreck yourself (and our country).

All things aside, I don’t care how you voted. I do care that you voted with some level of competence, that you can explain why you decided one way or the other, and how you plan to get involved. Please don’t put critical issues on the back-burner until January 2009 or indefinitely. Don’t let apathy or victorious confidence result in passing responsibility to “those” who are heavily involved in politics. It’s time now to take inventory and get involved. Our country/state/county/city cannot solve problems without the assistance and input of its citizens. Make it a point to attend a town hall meeting with a group of friends, make time to go to an academic lecture, write your representative (for hells sake find out who your representatives are!), engage your community in some fashion, read (yes READ) more than one newspaper/magazine/website as information sources and stop forwarding emails from your uncle/sister-in-law/coworker/listserv/etc unless you are completely aligned with its contents (and for the love, stop with the bad Photoshop jobs of candidates and images stolen from Google).

Now that I have slighted my non-political friends I won’t go further and drop Prop 8 on you. Just know that I have strong feelings on the issue and I have tried to understand both sides of the issue and its ramifications. As a Californian by birth and having been raised in an active Mormon family I have struggled with how the proposition has been handled and spun. I will leave it at that and can only hope that politics do not turn up at the Thanksgiving Day dinner table. It won’t be pretty and I am not afraid to sling the mash potatoes across the table, blind a sibling with the cranberries, or even sacrifice the stuffing up a parent’s nostril. Game on!

So who’s in for dinner this year? I promise to post photos of the eminent food fight.