A PLEDGE OF VIGILANCE

OUR ELECTION CRUCIBLE

Can anyone else remember when we entered an election not caring what other nations thought about the results? We never considered whether they preferred Clinton or Bush, Bush or Gore, Obama or McCain.

What happened to us and our election process? Social media has made a difference. It opened Pandora's phone book and gave mouths and ears to those endless names streaming down the thin paper pages.

It also gave global access to all of those minds, mouths and tapping fingers. Now we're paying a heavy price for the luxury of reaching far-off listeners and hearing distant voices.

This moment, as I write this message to no one in particular, I forfeit the privacy of my intentions for the virtual access social media give to me and billions like me. It's a cost I'm willing to bear for the greater good of acknowledging and promoting shared interests.

Yet being more closely connected to one another has no value if we fail to think critically before we discuss what we read and hear.

In 2016, America was riding a wave of prosperity and paranoia. (That odd couple is often seen together.) We were deluged by distractions and too many failed to see the core consequences of that election.

Now we find ourselves in a pit of virulent disease, rampant penury and delinquent government and we no longer have the luxury of playing with our votes.

We must be mindful of what means most to us and be resolved to hold—or recover it.

Before we cast this crucial ballot, let us follow our experience and good sense and reject everything that bypasses them by making garish appeals to our imagination.

Let this election be our crucible. Let us not gorge ourselves on every meme, gif and sleazy smear like gourmands at a wedding buffet.

Rather, let us discriminate between information and dross, and repel the lunacy and scuttlebutt that elections breed like mosquitoes in standing water.

If we, the people, can think twice and keep top of mind what is most important to us, we will prevail and our democracy will continue, with significant repair.