We are reminded of a passage from David Bradley’s 1981 novel, “The Chaneysville Incident,” as we look ahead to next week’s election.
The passage involves a father telling his son about the four things a man needs to live; the sun, water, earth and fire. Fire, the father says, is the most important to a man because its destructive power gives him some authority, a final authority; a “say,” in Bradley’s vernacular.
If someone wants to take your house, the father says, you can burn it down. You can destroy your crops. You can destroy his. True, then you won’t have it, but at least the other guy won’t have it either.
“Now that ain’t much say,” said the father. “An’ it ain’t the best kinda say, but its bettern’ havin’ no say at all.”
The next time we meet on these pages we should know who our next president is going to be. We hope to, anyway.
At the time of this writing, all indications are this presidential election is going right down to the wire. Based on the polls at press time this week, a repeat of the 2000 Florida fiasco isn’t out of the question.
Whatever the outcome next week, our office has heard from plenty of people on both sides of the equation, who seemingly share a profound pessimism that, assuming their preferred candidate does not win, the country’s doom is all but assured.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Make no mistake, given all that’s at stake, next week’s election is a pivotal make-or- break point for the country, and half the country is all but guaranteed to be bitterly disappointed next Wednesday.
We can’t control that. Individually, none of us can. What we can do, individually, is make it to the polls next Tuesday, those of us who haven’t already done so, and vote.
Vote your conscience. Make your best educated guess, throw your ballot into the mix because the chips are going to fall where they may and since they are, they should fall with your input added into the mix.
One vote, by itself, may not be much but as we learned in 2000 every vote counts and enough votes shape the course of history.
It’s a say, its your say; a say that Americans going all the way back to the Revolutionary War, bought and paid for in blood.
We owe it to them, to everyone who has served this country from day one to now, to do our part. Whatever happens after that is going to happen, but you won’t have a say in it if you don’t vote.