Transcript
Hello. Welcome to another DailyJim It is Tuesday august 2nd 2022 here in michigan it is an election day and that's actually what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the election day and how I wish we would celebrate it more. So I voted by absentee ballot, I voted early and so I dropped those off. I drop mine off rather a couple days ago. I went with my parents and they dropped theirs off as well and I almost forgot today was Election day. And now it's not a quote unquote big election because it's not the final one for many things. It's more of a primary election although I think it's final for the judge that we voted on. Um but it's still I think in general it doesn't feel like a big day in our culture. We talk about how much we value elections and we value democracy, we value voting and yet it's a Tuesday and it's not a holiday. Most people may not get time off for it. And then that's just giving the freedom for people to more devote more easily. But I wish it were actually a celebration if we truly like democracy as much as we say we do. Why can't it be a celebration? Why can't there be some type of festival? Why can't there be? Um I don't know how this would work but free food like people coming together and celebrating the fact that we have an election more u unity, on a deeper level than who won who lost but celebrating not necessarily the winners of the election or, railing against the losers or, you know, commiserating the losers, but rather also having kind of a joint celebration of that. We do live in a democracy, Democratic Republic, if you want to be more specific.
And so I just think that for something that we say we value so highly. We sure don't celebrate it enough and maybe we celebrated in conversations or on fourth of july or on Memorial Day or Labor Day in a way. But veterans Day and some of these other days where we pay homage to our country and we're very proud of the country. But those tend to feel more about being proud of the country and celebrating the country. Whereas I don't know if we really have a day that celebrates voting. Maybe there was a day for um women's suffrage.
I don't know if there's a I don't think there are any really big holidays by big meaning that everyone celebrates that there's parties in the street and then we're hanging out and we're really just appreciating our neighbors. And so I wonder what that could look like. Not just here, but maybe in other countries do other countries do this, do other cities or regions have something like this where there is a celebration of the idea that we as the people have the ability to choose who we want in office. And also I would say more importantly, the ability to choose who we no longer want in office and do it through a very diplomatic process and a very non violent process because when we don't have things like voting, if we want somebody out of office. Unfortunately that often involves violence removing somebody by force, but what I like so much about this idea of, voting and electing people is we're often electing people that we don't want there anymore, electing against those people. And there's a peaceful transition of power.
So I just wonder instead of being so afraid of democracy disappearing or so angry that, people are stealing democracy from us, what would it look like if we started to really appreciate it in a physical, in a visceral, tangible way, getting out and dancing and celebrating and smiling and meeting other people, meeting strangers. And just for one day reflecting and appreciating and associating more joy with the concept of voting instead of just the fear and the anger. Um joy, pride, gratitude.
Some of these other emotions not just the ones that are trying to scare us that democracy is going away, but the ones that may help us appreciate it a little more so that we feel more connected to it. So on that note, uh I hope everyone goes out and votes if they want to. I hope I hope they want to and yeah, well I'll talk to you tomorrow.
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