Skip to main content

Preaching to the Choir

Evangelism can be an uncomfortable business if you don't come from an evangelical tradition. As an Episcopalian, I often heard people joke that while we were in the Decade of Evangelism, no one knew, because it was just too unseemly to toot our own horn.

In Howard County there is a narrow swath of people who read blogs regularly. And of those, a narrower swath read my blog regularly. But of that select group, I am guessing that a majority are regular and faithful voters.

You are, right? You know about the League of Women Voters, yes? You are probably even fabulously up-to-date with the new social media voter tool from Jessie Newburn at HoCoBlogs.

Have you voted yet? I am voting tomorrow with my daughter, the one who just bought the house in Stevens Forest. In fact, I may bring my younger daughter as well. You can't start too young.

I admit that writing yet again about voting very likely constitutes one more go-around at preaching to the choir. But this time, it is about evangelism.

Yes, that uncomfortable word. I want you to reach out to people around you and encourage them to vote: family, friends, coworkers, members of your church, neighbors. I want you to be the crucial connection between the people and their most precious right.

If not you, who?

This primary will be deciding so many important things locally and at the state level. And in particular, it is crucial that as we narrow the field for the Board of Education, that the candidates who make it through to the November elections are ones who understand their responsibility to voters.

We get to decide. But only if we choose to decide.

It seems as though I am always asking you to write letters in aid of something. Today I am not. Today I am reminding you that friends don't let friends sit out the election. Be an evangelist for community involvement.

Share the love.

 

 

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...