Please vote wisely and other please from your editor

As someone who sits in the commission meetings for our county week after week, I need to say something very important to my fellow Marion County folks. Unless you have witnessed a few meetings, you have no idea how much everyone needs to pay attention and find out what our commissioners are doing.

We are already in early voting and soon it will be election day (Aug 4). We need change and in order for that to happen, people need to learn what is going on and what changes are needed.

I honestly believe that if most voters would have to sit through one or more of those Monday meetings, we would have record-breaking voting numbers. Some of the things said and done at those meetings are not only shocking, they are completely embarrassing to us as a county.

I have already personally and professionally struggled through these meetings pre-mask debates, but once the masks became a topic, I lost even more respect for some of our commissioners. To be in the middle of a pandemic and not have a single commissioner stand up for masks blows me away. Not one of them. They wouldn’t even “strongly” recommend mask wearing. (I will say that I had a lengthy conversation with one and while I disagree with the decision they made, I did respect the reasons they had for not voting for mask mandates.)

As a mother of children with respiratory issues or even a mother in general, I am so angry about this. A lot of things this commission has said and voted for has upset me, but none made me angry like this. Not only did they ignore the advice of their health department administrator but also their medical officer. And on more than one occasion, there was simply silence from the commissioners after their experts pleaded for a mask mandate or even a strongly recommend.

Please learn more about your commissioner for your district. Start watching the weekly meetings every Monday starting at 9 a.m. From your computer, tablet or smartphone go to https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/639484901. You can also dial in using your phone (toll-free): 1-866-899-4679; Access Code: 639-484-901#

And go back and check out some of the meetings on YouTube. Every meeting is recorded so you can watch anytime.

Every vote counts!

Also, if you have not yet seen Hamilton—you should. Not only is it entertaining with great music (and this from a non musical loving girl because it is weird to sing an entire movie), but you will learn so much about American history. It’s also hilarious.

I think we all should watch any time, but this time of so much unrest with the pandemic and the important BLM movement is perfect to be reminded of the dreams that the founding forefathers had and how they wanted a better country for their families.

Isn’t that what we all want? As the author/composer/director/actor Lin-Manual Miranda says in his many interviews about the show, not much has changed. There are always these topics that both sides are so passionate about, but really we all want the same thing. We want a country that is always improving and growing, a place that is better for our kids than it was for us.

Hamilton is basically amazing and I am obsessed with it. Just ask my poor family.

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