Choose your leaders

I woke this morning, the day after election day, to a shock.

No, not that my candidate won or lost. What made me exclaim in alarm was the number of people who got out of the house yesterday to help choose the city’s next mayor.

I shouldn’t have been surprised. I know voter turnout is often abysmal in non-presidential elections and lower than it should be even in hotly contested, headline-splashing races. Still, it saddened and worried me to see that a mere 12% of Jackson residents ― 3,761 voters in a city of 31,000 ― cared enough about who governs their city to cast a ballot.

The candidate who claimed the mayoral seat, the incumbent, won by 279 votes.  Had 300 more people, not even 1% of the city’s population, made it to the polls, the race could have gone the other way

I don’t have a dog in this fight, as they say. I voted, and I have an opinion about who I think was the better candidate, but had you disagreed with me and cast your ballot the other direction, I would still have heartily cheered you on, because you took three minutes to fill in some ovals to have your say in the future direction of the city we share, the city we all want to see prosper, the city where we all want to be safe and have a chance to live the best lives possible.

I’ve been in a non-voter’s shoes. I’ve stood on the sidelines in many an election, declaring I didn’t know enough about either candidate for my voice to matter and choosing to let other people, people I assumed were wiser and more informed than me, decide who should be in charge.

That was before I started work as a reporter a few years back. Covering city government and school board meetings, reporting on organizations vying for a piece of a city’s financial pie, watching leaders who are also humans squabble and bicker, and sitting in court rooms and police stations and residents’ kitchens, seeing up close the impact of the decisions made by a community’s leaders, opened my eyes to the impact of every ballot.

Who we choose to put in charge matters. And it’s up to us to accept the responsibility of making that choice.

I hope I’ll never miss another chance to vote.

I do, however, regularly miss other opportunities to decide who controls my life.

While political leaders wield significant control over our communities, other masters have even greater say in the big and little moments of each day. Those masters reside not in City Hall but inside our heads.

When it comes to casting a vote for how I will approach a problem, treat my neighbor, or make each day count ― gosh, I have not always handled those elections well.

Too often, I start a day determined to stay positive, to work hard, to maintain control, only to give way to distractions, cower in the face of challenges, and leave emotional messes all over the place.

How easy it is to cede control of our days to fear, anger, self-doubt, laziness, those clever tyrants that sneak in and claim authority we have not granted them.

And how shocking it is that we willingly follow, forgetting we have a vote in how we live our days.

We can’t always control all our circumstances. The people we put in charge ― or let others put in charge ― shape the world in which we move, and sometimes that world strikes wicked blows and erects insurmountable roadblocks. But we — not they, not circumstances, not anyone but you and me — get to choose how we respond.

Day not going well? You can choose to keep going. Discouraged? You can choose to believe in yourself. Angry? You can choose to be nice. Sad, disappointed, worried? You can choose to cling to hope with every bit of strength you’ve got. 

I know, I know. Easier said than done. I talk a good game, but I know good and well that within the hour I will have broken my own rule numerous times. But I think I’m going to stick my “I Voted” sticker on my desk, a much-needed reminder that I, that we, have a say. That we get to choose to live generously, to love recklessly, and to fight fiercely for what we believe matters most.

Vote, friends. Vote for your leaders, and vote for what rules your days and your hearts. You have more power than you know. 

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Although this post mentions elections, I’d appreciate it if you would NOT share political opinions in the comments below. The internet offers lots of appropriate spaces for that; this is not one of them. If anyone has exciting news to share about voter turnout in their local elections, please do share, and I’d love to hear how you took charge of your day today.

As for me, I need to post this and go back to working on my book proposal. It scares the daylights out of me, to be honest. But I get to decide whether to listen to the taunting voice of Goliath or to keep going, slingshot in hand.

I choose the slingshot.