voting

November 3, 2026

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Several years ago, I gained a new friend, Joan. I refer to her as my ‘fair-weather’ friend because she winters in Phoenix and spends her summers in Pennsylvania. Joan is eighty-five years old; yes, believe it or not she’s older than me. But she’s an active, vibrant substitute on our trivia team. In fact, she astounded our team one night when she knew every answer in the liquor category.

Now, she usually doesn’t come to Phoenix until Thanksgiving to celebrate the holidays with her daughter’s family, but a health issue provoked her to come last week. Thus, in celebration of her early arrival, some of us went out to dinner with her on Saturday night.

“Joanie, I’m so delighted you’re back early,” commented G. “I have tickets to the opera on October 31, and Sue absolutely refuses to go. She went once; she’s one and done!”

Joan laughed and fiddled with her cell phone. “Let me check my calendar.” She scrolled and shook her head. “G, I’m really a fan of opera, but I can’t go. I won’t be here.”

“Here? Meaning Phoenix?” I asked.

“Yep, back to PA,” she replied.

“Yuck! It can snow there on Halloween! Not a trip I’d take.”

“Sue, you’re lying! I know you, and you absolutely would make the trip. I’m so worried about the November election, and what might happen that I was afraid to request an absentee ballot. I mean who knows what that crazy man on Pennsylvania Avenue might do? I’m going to my home polling place on November 3rd and voting.”

In the midst of a noisy Saturday night restaurant, silence swept our table. “Our ancestors were jailed and beaten for demanding our right to vote. It is my duty and my right to honor their legacy, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let some lunatic deny my vote. If it means a one-way, four-hour plane ride to cast my ballot, then so be it.”

The rest of us didn’t know if we should applaud or cheer. “You got that right! Go do it!”

Hmm. If an eighty-five year-old woman can travel over 2,000 miles to vote, can’t we all go to our local polling places on November 3?

(BTW, this is not AI–generated. Some names were changed, but if you’d like to congratulate Joanie, message me.)

Validating Student Voice

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Supreme Court Ruling: “Students do not shed constitutional rights of freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Tinker v. Des Moines, February 24, 1969.  (Unless their acts of expression are disruptive to the educational process.)

Many of the key participants in the Revolutionary War were surprisingly young:

  • Marquis de Lafayette, 18
  • James Monroe, 18
  • Gilbert Stuart, 20
  • Aaron Burr, 20
  • Alexander Hamilton, 21
  • Betsy Ross, 24
  • James Madison, 25

Young people, like the students in our schools and universities.  However, unlike the founding fathers our informational world has shrunk.  Students today are much more aware of global affairs and have key-stroke access to myriads of up-to-the-minute information.  They are socially conscious, they are articulate, creative thinkers, and they don’t want to be murdered in their schools.

In 2012, when 26 were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, we gasped in horror.  Even POTUS wept as he met with loved ones of those lost. Yet, school shootings continued.  The recent heinous act in Parkland, Florida, awakened teens across the country.  When I was in Houston earlier this week, my high school teacher/coach niece said her students were suddenly aware.  “Mrs. Cook, Parkland is so similar to us.  It could happen here at TJHS!”

With this new realization, students have held walkouts–all peaceful, most of them where they stood silently for 17 minutes in remembrance of the 17 lost in Parkland.  Thankfully, most school leaders worked with students to ensure their safety by opening their football fields, gymnasiums, or auditoriums to allow the kids to gather for 17 minutes.  Of course, there are a handful of schools who chose to suspend student participants–stupid. A teachable moment lost.

Many of the these high schoolers will vote in 2018.  They will outlive you and me.  We should guide and applaud their activism in hope our world will be a safer, kinder, and more inclusive place than it is now.

Who wants to go dump some tea in Boston Harbor?

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