Reflecting on Our Election
Today, perhaps like many Americans, I am feeling unwilling to open the newspaper and hear more platitudes and misdirection.  Some cultures impose moratoriums on campaign ads during the final thirty days before an election...to allow citizens a chance to clear their heads of the noise and just reflect.  I am feeling like that would be a good thing, though we seem addicted to watching talking heads scream at each other, insisting that their side is so obviously correct and righteous, that unless there is a black out reflection seems like just about the last thing in the cards.

 
There is storm brewing.  More than one.  The Northeast is about to be hit hard, with many being evacuated.  The entire nation is about to be hit harder, as we harvest what we have planted these past ten years: a dysfunctional political communication system crippling our capacity to come together and solve problems, paralyzing social mobility and replacing the American Dream of e pluribus unum with every man for himself. 

I wonder if someday in the future, historians with the distance to be more detached will conclude that, if things turn out well, it will have been rooted in the decency of the average everyday Ohio voter, saving the American Dream from elite-led polarization run amuck. 

At any rate, I am going to try to unplug the noise and reflect on our election, our challenges, our leadership.  Rather than feel my stomach twist as another ad distorts and distracts, I choose to walk in the woods with my girlfriend and our dog.  It is time to listen to real people in my life if they want to talk about the election and if asked to share my thoughts face2face, without malice.  Focusing on the listening and connecting part might remind me that every conversation sacred, not commodified.  So many advertisers and PR executives have wormed their way into my head...time to reflect, because our nation depends on the decency of Ohio voters today more than ever.