Oliver Pig and Politics

Oliver Pig for our granddaughter, Hallie

Super Tuesday has come and gone. We voted a few days early to avoid lines and were glad we did when the day turned out to be miserable weather, cold drizzly rain.

I've never voted on Super Tuesday, never cared enough to bother. But this year I'm reading The Everything American Government Book by Nick Ragone and it's instilled in me a much more keen awareness of my right and obligation to show up and vote.

Whether I like any of the choices or not.

I hate the process of a presidential election, all the negative ads and mud slinging, and our country's entire obsession with it. Can we all just enjoy the Olympics this year and skip the whole thing?

Oh right, the Olympics are in Tokyo this year, which is another source of drama in light of the Corona Virus.

When did life get so complicated? Or was it always, but I was unaware?

If I could go back and ask my mother-in-law, who lived to age 95, she would likely tell me it was plenty complicated during her lifetime. When I met her in 1980, her family still had a party line. And that party line had nothing to do with political parties, but rather you shared a phone line with another family, and listened to the ring to determine if the call was for your house or not.

If you picked up the phone - THE phone, as in only one in a house, and connected to a cord coming out of the wall - and someone was talking, you hung up and came back later to see if the line was available.

She was born in 1912, the year the Titanic sank, and died in 2007 at the age of 95. What she lived through was amazing.

But maybe they didn't hear about it all, all the time?

I decided in January of this year to be a much more informed citizen when I go to vote this coming November. I will understand better the entire process, and the issues we're voting over. It's like a living classroom to read about how each party nominates their candidate, while I'm watching it play out day by day.

I find myself wondering what my high school history / government / civics teachers would have to say about me voluntarily reading a book on U S Government. Wonders never cease!

Last night I learned all about the office of President and Vice President, and how each has evolved over our country's history. It never, ever occurred to me to wonder where the VP lives. Since 1976 they have lived at the U S Naval Academy, and each VP has made changes to the home, including swimming pools, etc. to better suit their needs. Who knew? Not me.

I learned last night that Presidents choose VP's based on what they will bring to their campaign, and often they don't even like each other. Bet that makes for a fun four years.

At this point I'm wondering why anyone, anyone would even be willing to be President, or go into politics at all.

Did anyone else know Ronald Reagan had surgery for colon cancer while in office? Or that Lyndon Johnson's administration fabricated an incident as a pretext to the Vietnam War?

Overall it's not cheery reading, but it is enlightening, and I'll feel better about voting this November, whether I feel better about my choices of who to vote for or not.

To balance all the dismal news and ads going on, and my nightly reading, I supplement it with a cheery bit of knitting.

Oliver Pig goes a long way to brighten the day. He reminds me that this world will go on, in the hands of our children, and grandchildren, and their children. No matter who ends up our next President and Vice President, we have Someone Higher to look to, and He doesn't have term limits.

Knitting on.