Tomorrow is election day here in the United States. Political adds and phone calls have been never ending. But as bad as they have been, the political signs are getting out of hand as well. Private citizens posting 18" x 24" signs in their front yards is fine. But this year, I've seen people putting 48" x 96" signs in their yards this year. I feel that's a bit excessive, but at the end of the day I'm fine with people and businesses displaying who they support so long as it's on their own property. The biggest problem I've seen has been signs at busy intersections and on state land. In the past few days, some candidates have been blanketing areas with their signs. This morning I came across a stretch that was about a mile of busy highway. One candidate had placed signs approaching each intersection at a spacing of about every ten or so feet. All told, there had to be at least one hundred signs in that one mile stretch. Then there are the busiest corners that are filled with every manner of political sign imaginable. Not only does it look like a sign farm, but it makes the area look like a mess and can often cause visibility problems for motorists. I'm all for people advertising who they are voting for, but I feel it should be confined to your own property or business. I wish that the states would disallow posting these sings along the road on state property, and would just remove all these signs no matter who they are for. It would certainly make the roadways look a whole lot nicer during election season.
Another thing I can't stand is when people that you get along with year round, suddenly turn on you due to a differing of political opinion. This happened to me just the other day. There is someone I'm close to that I get along with all the time. But I knew that we wouldn't see eye-to-eye on some of the issues, so I've been avoiding politics in general when I spoke with them. Well, yesterday we spoke and they kept pressing and asking about politics. I had no choice but to tell them my stance on the issues. The main issues we ended up talking about were questions 4, 6, and 7 of the Maryland state ballot. On question 4, they thought that one small aspect of the law was the whole law since literature provided by one candidate only talked about that one part of the proposition. After a while we finally got that one sorted and moved on to question 7. I talked about that one previously. They claimed that there is no proof the money would go to education and said it would be going to 'pet projects'. I mentioned that there was no proof that the money would go to education, but that there was also no proof to back up the claim that it would go to these mysterious 'pet projects' either. More money in the state budget is a good thing, and it means education should be able to keep their money (which would act like a budget increase), as well as fund other areas. The big one we got into was question 6. To anyone who read my series of posts on 'gay marriage' will have read every tired , empty and false argument that was issued in our exchange. I tried to set the record straight (when I could get a word in), and in the end the only reasons they were left offering were "because" and "it's not right". Obviously very compelling and well thought out arguments... The sad part is that I know that this person is smarter than this, yet they get caught up in the partisan politics that have become far too common. The get a list in the mail telling them how to vote, and they do. It's sad really, and I wish more did like me, and looked at all the issues and came to a conclusion that truly reflected who we are and what we think. I fear it will be a while, but I hope to see a day when people cast political loyalties aside and vote on the issues and nothing but the issues.
-BH
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