Trick or Treat Will Be Determined Next Week

[On Monday], small children don[ned] their halloween costumes and go door-to-door to (hopefully) solicit something good from everyone who opens their doors to be greeted by their admonition: "Trick or treat."

Halloween notwithstanding, no matter what "treats" children of today receive[d], their elder generations have actually left them with a handful of problems that make pandora's box look like a valentine by comparison.

[Less than] one week away from Election Day 2016, the rhetoric between the two major parties has gone about as low as even a very thin veneer of civility permits. With the FBI having delivered an "October surprise" to the Democratic nominee and Republicans alleging the election is in danger of being "stolen" we've not painted the picture of a bright future.

[Six days from now], voters will be headed to the pools for what could be the pivotal election day which decides which of two completely different countries we want the United States of America to be.

If you're at the point where you want to append "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free...send these the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I life my lamp beside the golden shore" with "and in return we'll tax our citizens to death while giving them everything their little hearts desire except an opportunity to work and make something more of themselves than welfare soaks" then you know which lever you'll be pulling.

If you're a wretched, desperate, miserable member of the "basket of deplorables" who has a job, pays taxes, doesn't trust mainstream media "pundits" and believes you can determine your own destiny - if you're willing to work for it, you're probably wondering if it's worth the effort to go through the abuse you'll suffer at the tongues of the enlightened.

After all, you've been told - repeated - by major media and "scientific surveys" that your mean-spirited, intolerant- and futile– gesture is pointless. The outcome, they say, is a decided election. You're destined to lose.

To everyone who's listening to that "it's no use" foolishness, let me say this to you straight-up: you're paying too-much attention to what is pure, unadulerated, fresh from the back of the critter BULL.

Anyone who tells you your vote doesn't count is working to eliminate one important vote in what is still an undecided election: YOURS.

All the polling in the world doesn't mean as much as your single vote.

And, despite what you may have heard, every vote counts, yours, mine and, yes, even Colin Kapernick's.

Every citizen who hasn't done something criminal to disqualify themselves (that's important to remember) has precisely the same amount of clout at the ballot box as Michael Bloomberg, Donald J. Trump, Hillary Rodham Clinton and any other big shot who wants to tell you what's best for everyone- including you.

If you don't vote, you've essentially voted twice. Your absence removes one supporter of your position- and effectively adds it to the other ledger. If you decide to go and vote for someone with no chance at winning, you've removed your voice from the conversation - and effectively added a vote to both majority parties.

Three years ago, I'd had enough of hearing how a single individual didn't matter. That the system was in control and one person couldn't accomplish anything. I message wrapped my Jeep and tiny trailer and hit the road. I spent weeks on the road doing nothing more than telling people I encountered that one person could still change their world. I based that on their doing three simple things:

• standing up
• showing up
• speaking up.

I still believe that. Because I saw how the simple act of driving around the country talking to average people could make a difference.

This election we'd better ALL stand up, show up and speak up - clearly and without any concerns that what we're saying might be understood.

The message in a vote is simple- to both sides of any ideological crossroads. You're telling one group "yes" and the other "no".

There's no answer that is so final. It doesn't beg for amplification, need clarification or drive you toward any different conclusion.

It is as final as the hangman's gallows. With apologies for that mental imagery, the crossroads is where we find ourselves this election day.

If every one of us doesn't vote - we are selling out everyone who shares our viewpoint. And you will move us one vote closer to allowing the few to rule the many. And I use "rule" rather than "govern" because that's what will happen. You won't be part of the process, you'll only be subject to the outcome.

That's why the ballot box is vitally important. There is no other means for resolving differences that doesn't require considerably more sacrifice than the slight inconvenience of adjusting our schedule in order to get to the polls.

It's how our country was designed to work.

Vote - or accept the consequences.

Republished from The Outdoor Wire.