Four Recommendations for Election Day and Week:
This week and the coming days could be quite stressful for many people, including some of us reading this. Over the next few days, I encourage all of us to do the following things:
Vote • Breathe • Verify • Encourage
The first is obvious, perhaps: Vote, and encourage others to do the same.
Despite claims to the contrary, our voting system here in the United States works. The election four years ago was the largest and arguably most secure and verifiable election in US history.
The second recommendation is to Breathe.
Take care of yourself. Get up from the computer or and unplug from the cell phone and go for a walk or a run. Call a friend. Find a way to unplug. Remember, for-profit media companies including both CNN and Fox News want all of us to be glued to our screens since that is how they make money, by selling ads and then presenting them to their viewers. They want to grab and hold onto our attention for as long as possible.
The third recommendation is to Verify.
Be careful of any hot new item or claim that comes over your social media. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter / X are not set up to deliver facts or truth. Rather they are designed to spread opinion and hearsay, that sometimes can be true, or have some kernel of truth. There are groups active at present that plan to use these social media platforms to sow seeds of doubt or to lie outright about this election. If something sound either too good or too outrageous to be true, don’t believe, but verify. Use credible sources for news, and reporting from professional journalists with experience.
My fourth and final recommendation is to Encourage.
Encourage your friends and family and professional networks to do the first three things – to vote, to breathe and to verify. Democracy is hard work and sometimes unruly, but the systems we have in place really work. Beware of those who claim otherwise without any real proof or substantiation. Remember that in the 2020 election none of the seven swing states reported the final tabulated results of their voters until a day or two after the election. In Georgia it took ten days! That is not abnormal. It’s a sign that our democracy is working and continues to work.
Finally, I encourage us all to find ways to reach out to people in our actual community who might think differently than us. American society works best when people with different views can engage with one another honestly, authentically and respectfully, with an awareness that ultimately we are all passengers on the same large boat. We need to see ourselves as on a larger voyage, together. It’s a message that is printed on every U.S. dollar: e pluribus unum.
So there you have it – four recommendations: Vote, Breathe, Verify and Encourage.
I pray that this week will be free of any social unrest or violent conflict. The United States is better than that.