Voting Today: It’s an American Duty and an American Right

I hope that all of us, standing in long lines to cast our vote for the President of the United States, can temper our impatience at the lines with remembering that for much of the world this privilege to vote for the country’s leader does not exist. And even in many countries that supposedly have “free” elections, the single choice of officially sanctioned candidate doesn’t truly provide choice.

Of course, I was afraid that I was going to be stoned by the people in my own long line when a poll worker walked down the line asking for people assigned to the pink table. It turned out my address was in the pink table area. Thus at that particular moment I got to enter the polling place ahead of all the people in line in front of me.

Later today I’m invited to the home of a couple in which each spouse is voting for a different presidential candidate. The couple is calling the event a “victory party” because, no matter who wins, one-half of the couple will be happy.

And I also tweeted on Twitter that I had voted by entering #ivoted on an update. Now I can rely on the Twhirl application of Twitter to give me political news updates while I work at my computer. What a brave new world we live in!

Presidential Election Thoughts: Our Goal Should Be to Think of Others

Presidential politics are something I don’t discuss – either in writing or in person. But yesterday, in a Yom Kippur sermon, I heard something about the Presidential election that does not come under the category of taking sides. And I want to share this thought with you:

The speaker, a well-known academic, said that in the coming year we need to look outside ourselves; we need to consider the effect of things on others. He urged us that our decision who to choose for President should also be based on the needs and concerns of others and not only on our own needs and concerns.

While he didn’t give examples, I could clearly see what he meant. For example, one candidate’s proposed tax policy might be great for us but not very good for the country as a whole. Given the times, the speaker warned us that we must think of what is often called “the big picture” rather than our miniscule part of that picture.

And there’s something else I’d like to say about the current U.S. economic situation: One of the most important things I learned in my MBA program at Wharton was how perception can actually make things happen. In other words, every time a newspaper headline blares “recession,” that headline adds to the possibility of an actual recession because people act in reaction to that headline.

While I realize that there’s very little chance of stemming the newspaper headlines screaming “recession” and therefore adding to the possibilities of a recession, I do hope that all of us can be careful about what we say in connection with the current U.S. economic situation. We should remember that perception can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. Let’s try not to add fuel to the fire by what we say – or do.

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Do-Gooder Scrooge, U.S. economic situation, Presidential election, Wharton