I was told in my childhood years by my parents, that the act of voting, was a "civil duty" as an American. The first election I got to participate in to vote was the year of 1980, Reagon versus Carter. I stood in line for three hours to vote, proudly and with duty in mind as an American patriot. To this day, I've voted in all of the main elections and subsequently, mid-terms in the last couple of decades as I've found myself just as dedicated.

The last few years, however, many of us have felt the change in the winds in terms of censorship, narrative based news rather then "just the news", and an overall very serious division among American's on policy, ideology, socialism vs. capitalism, and the challenges of every day life survival with inflation. The designers of America, as written in the constitution, realized that an "unchecked" government power can become a government that is no longer for the people and by the people. To keep government in check, we vote. Voting is the only way, no violence, just peaceful voting. Take the time to study your local, state and federal candidates. Read about where each candidate stands on issues and make the decision best for you and your family. Keep in mind, each political party has widely different ideologies, take time to study those too. There are people that are single issue voters, voting by one issue alone determines how they will vote. There are people that vote "for the policy and not the personality", which at times, you may vote that way, because the policy of the candidate that you support overrides what you don't like about them too much. Then there are also people that vote by policy and may vote for different people in different parties in one election. In other words, they may vote Republican, Democrat, Independent or Libertarian depending on the candidates policy. It really doesn't matter how you vote, what matters is you know what's best for you.

My daughter and I voted yesterday. It was a rainy stormy day, and for that main reason we decided we would go as the building might not be as busy. It was pouring rain when we left. As we approached our local city hall, the rain slowed, the clouds started to part. We got out of the car, the rain had stopped, by the time we walked across the parking lot to the building, the sun came out gleaming across the wet parking lot and pasture nearby. We voted, left the building, and the clouds arrived again, and by the time we got in the car, a little bit of mist started to form on my windows. Just an observance, nothing more, but how great is that experience?

This Tuesday, November 8, 2022, are the United States mid-term elections. These elections have been normally not viewed as important as the Presidential elections. I'd argue, that the mid-term elections (mid-term meaning the mid-term of a presidents 4 year term; Biden in office now 2 years) are just as important if not more then important. For example, if you have a president with policies that are harming the country and economy, voting at the mid-terms gives voters the opportunity to vote in/out some of the legislators or governors during this voting season. When these changes are made, sometimes politicians that remain can start working with each other better or challenging the current president on policy. Most of the time, if there's a shellacking of one party at the mid-terms, the following two years during the remaining two years of a presidents term can become a "lame-duck" session, meaning that the likelihood of legislation being past, signed and ratified are unlikely because parties fail to compromise on policy.

What our legislators do in office (congress and senate/local and state) make a difference in many facets of your life, including regulation, taxation, and new or amended laws on city, state and federal levels.

America is now on the day-after from the mid-term elections. A lot of election winners have been called and some states are still working on it.

I'm already reading opinions on the outcome. It's being reported that the republicans under-performed. I've always said, the democrats are always clear on their messaging, there's no wavering and everyone is on the same page. For the republican's, I believe they missed a main pulverizing issue in the Roe vs. Wade change.