It’s Election Day today. Finally.
America will have voted for a new president. The political ads choking our televisions, mail boxes, and newsfeeds will stop. Twitter will return to normal, filling up again with silly gifs of kittens rolling on dashboards and professional athletes making weird faces.
We can all breathe again and continue with our lives.
The presidential race of 2016 will go down in history as one of the most nasty, vitriolic and interesting of all time. While the two main candidates aren’t the greatest we’ve ever had, they have certainly stirred up interesting conversations around boardrooms, kitchen tables, and social media. A new generation of voters was inspired to head to the polls to cast their vote for the first time, including my daughter who lamented on Facebook, “My first chance to vote for our president, and these are my choices?”
She echoes the collective sentiment from sea to shining sea:
This is the best we got? Really?
Afraid so. Even though I’m not thrilled with the choices either, I am encouraged to see the political activism this presidential race ignited across the country. Apathy didn’t show up the way it has in recent elections. People are pissed on both sides of the aisle, and rightfully so. And they are voicing their frustrations. Loudly.
Incredible economic, social, technological and cultural changes in a short period of time have our heads spinning and fingers pointing. Someone, somewhere, has to be to blame for all our problems, right? I mean, I certainly didn’t ask for Apple to update to IOS 10. My ire has to be someone’s fault! Why not the government’s?
Hopefully, no matter who wins, some of that raw emotion will continue to fuel debates, dialog, and discourse to further meaningful change. Just because November 9th rolls around tomorrow and the election is over doesn’t mean we should stop talking about what we can do to make life better. For ourselves. Our children. Our communities. Our world.
I’m honored I get to cast my vote no matter the outcome. That, in itself, is the biggest win of all in election 2016. I hope that you have joined me in exercising your right to vote today, too, so that together, as American citizens, we can do the work we need to do to see the change we want in the world.
