“After the elections are over, your neighbors will still be your neighbors. Trump won’t be there to ring up your groceries; your neighbors will. Biden won’t be there to fix your car or help with yardwork; your neighbors will. Both Trump and Biden will still be in their wealthy political world, and the rest of us will be in ours. They’ll both be doing their thing, while you and I live together, work together, learn together, shop together, eat together, worship together, and pump our gas next to one another. We the people are what makes a country great. We are the ones who choose to be decent, loving, caring, and compassionate human beings. Vote for whomever, but always choose kindness.” (Source unknown; from a friend’s Facebook status.)
(By the way, choosing kindness doesn’t mean we let racism or other bad stuff pass unchallenged. We have to call out wrongdoing, and do what we can to correct it. Kindness isn’t kindness if it actually means “Let’s not ever be confrontational or talk about anything difficult.”)
And, from Charles Marohn at StrongTowns.org: “… everything you are passionate about at the national level has a local analog that needs your attention. And not only does it need your attention, your passion and energy is game-changing. The time and effort you put into making your place stronger and more prosperous will make a huge difference in the lives of others. The result of those efforts won’t be ambiguous — show your place love and it will love you back. I promise.
Voting is important, but … it is one of the least impactful things we should be doing over the coming months and years.” Go here to read the rest of Chuck’s article, “It’s All Local Now.”
Like Chuck, I have been a “localist” for a while now. Yes I vote in national elections and yes I care about the results. But at the end of the day, what happens on the local and regional level has more of an impact on our day-to-day lives. I always tell people the neighborhood and the household are the real units of power.