Without suggesting any malice or intent, it looks like the Franklin County Ohio Board of Elections really screwed up the electronic voting machines this time around. I used to be a polling official for Franklin County, and there was some nonsense that went on, and some that I never wrote about involving election observers who were acting as election officials, etc.
A friend of mine who still does the type of work I did in Franklin County forwarded me the following email laying out what a disaster last week’s election was. One has to wonder not necessarily about whether the county-wide mistake was intentional but a) did anyone have an opportunity to take advantage of it and b) how much worse was it, really? I know from working at a major university when an electronic theft of personal information happened that the official story isn’t even close to what actually happened.
From: Precinct Election Officials <PEO@xxx.franklincountyohio.gov>
Subject: Election Night Results Tapes
To: “xxxxx@xxx.xxx”
Date: Friday, November 11, 2011, 9:20 AM
While our soldiers come home too often unseen, you are the ones waiting at the airport for your husband, the kids for dad, that no one notices. You’ve gone to bed so many lonely nights you wish you could lose count, praying and crying alone to God the phone doesn’t ring, that there will be no knock at the door tonight.
For a months, often a year or more, life at home has kept moving. There are still carpools for school, soccer games, ballet lessons, birthdays, bedtimes, bike rides, bandaids, broken bones, and more.
You manage to keep the house running as a single parent. You hear the little ones say, “I miss dad, when’s he coming home?” and your heart breaks just a little each time. You miss him too but have to be strong and brave for him, for them.
Like your solider man, you volunteered for this assignment. You knew what you were getting into, but no one ever remembers you. No one ever says “thank you.” You’d be grateful if they just remembered him every now and again. For your family, the yellow ribbon isn’t just a magnet – it is your husband, the father of your children, your best friend.
You have the hardest job in the world. You are a military wife and mom.
We’re constantly subjected to the debasing of our culture. Somehow, it seems to me that things are in fact getting worse. The other night I tried to watch a new show called ‘Broke Girls’. The promos made it look funny, what could it hurt? Within the first 5 minutes there were several blatant sexual anatomical references by one of the female leads. I turned it off. If you really need this to make your show popular, maybe you should hire better writers.
Unfortunately, this isn’t isolated. My TiVo recorded a suggestion, and I put it on because I was bored. Again, within the first 5 minutes one of the secondary characters broke into to gross, anatomically descriptive sexual humor while talking to his daughter-in-law. There was no innuendo here – it was in your face. Again, I was turned off and turned the show off.
Are the writers really so poor, the pool of new show ideas so shallow this is what TV has turned into? An adults-only stand-up comedy act? I won’t go see stage comics or improv shows because I don’t need to hear 90 minutes of material written merely for the shock value.
At some point, men have to stand up and be men. We have to say “enough.” Enough swearing and other disrespectful language, enough of the locker room humor in mixed company. We owe the women in our lives more respect and more class than that, guys. I have failed, and am guilty of using language I should not have. I will be apologizing for my mouth, and then I’m changing the channel.
