If you don’t vote, don’t bitch.
I attribute this pearl of wisdom to my mother. I seem to remember my grandfather being infamous for griping about politicians - they were all greedy crooks as far as he was concerned. My mother finally got tired of listening to his endless tirades. She asked him a magical question - “Did you vote?” His answer - “No.” Her retort - “Then don’t bitch.” Utter, simple brilliance.
I was reminded of this when I attended the Collin County Association of Realtors Annual Membership Meeting this morning. Our association boasts a membership of 4000+ Realtors in Collin County. To conduct our Annual Membership Meeting, our bylaws state that we needed to have at least 152 members in attendance (our definition of a “quorum”). That’s less than 4% of our membership! And, we barely managed that with 154 in attendance including the stragglers, who apparently adhere to RST (Realtor Standard Time), that wandered in 15 minutes late while the presiding officer tap danced (which is a pretty funny image since he’s a rather rotund gentleman) waiting for us to reach a quorum.
The business that was conducted was informative if not earth shattering, but I’m pretty convinced that the turnout wouldn’t have any different even if there had been any issues of consequence on the agenda. All I can say is that I really hope I don’t hear any grumbling about the revisions to the bylaws that were made (the only real bit of business) or complaints that they don’t really know what the association is doing for us (since we were given a very comprehensive update of the actions and activities of the association). I’m very likely to twist off if the person doing the grumbling was absent without a very compelling excuse. If you don’t vote (or attend, in this case), don’t bitch!
The other reason this is such a timely thought is that today is the last day to register to vote in Texas for the November elections. Not registered to vote? It’s not too late! Go here to take care of it. (The registration needs to be postmarked today!) Did you even know that we have an election on November 6th? No this election isn’t as entertaining as the upcoming 08 elections promise to be, but none-the-less, there are issues being addressed that we should all care about … care about at least enough to bother to vote, or … you guessed it, don’t bitch!
Statewide Constitutional Amendments - http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/index.shtml
There are 16 separate constitutional amendments to vote on. I specifically have strong feelings in favor of Proposition 6. Read more about it here: http://www.voteforprop6.org/
County Elections - Most counties have election information posted such as sample ballots and along with early voting and election day polling locations.
Collin County - There are 3 major bonds that are up for approval by Collin County residents. I support all 3. Read more about them here: http://www.collincountybonds.org/.
Dallas County
Denton County
I think I can safely step off my soap box now. You get the idea. But, I’ll leave you with this final thought - If you don’t vote, don’t bitch! :-)
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