After The Election

After The Election

9" x 12"

pencil

It's a sad, dark time in our history.

Despite all the ridiculous amount of money thrown away on campaigning, voter turnout in our area was much lower than in the past. Early voting was higher, but the day of the election , and the total was disappointing. Maybe the results would have been different if more people had gone out to vote.

Probably not, as it was sewed up from the outset. They could have saved all that time and money and just gone on and proclaimed the "king" and "savior".

There are millions of us who have not fallen under the spell.

Those who just heard "change" and didn't care what it is, are going to be really upset when they find out how much worse things are going to be. Too bad that we all have to be dragged down along with it.

I really think that we have a great country, and don't want to see it destroyed. Some things could be improved, of course, but you don't have to destroy something that is perfectly good just because you want to go along with the crowd or want something shiney and new.

I know people who didn't bother to vote. "I don't vote, " they said in the same tone as they would tell you that they don't smoke or drink. But they have their hands out, waiting on that little, teeny check that we have been promised. (Whatever happened to those stimulous checks? We didn't get a dime.)

I know others who felt like there was no use in voting. Their vote probably wouldn't count.

It sure looked that way with all the superdelegates, tv news and electoral college that announced a winner before the polls were even closed. And what about all those military votes that they say will be counted, but have not come in, not to mention the tv broadcasting number of votes based only on exit polls, and then announcing a winner early. They didn't even take exit polls here, so I guess our votes really didn't matter.

That needs to be fixed. One legal voter-one vote, and that's it. I doubt that we will ever get that chance again.

It's all very discouraging and sad to see. It looks like any way that "we the people" can be gypped, the powers that be are going to do it.

Well, that's how it is, through my eyes.

On Election Day, we went to the school as a family to vote. Something that we do proudly. The workers were smiling and helpful. I always have to ask for a little help, in case I can't see the instructions or buttons. So far, I've been able to manage, but it takes me a little while to focus and adjust my eyes to read the directions and names.

I did hear them say that turnout had been lower than expected, and that, in some elections, no one had come out. There are thousands of people in this area, but, a sign on the door gave numbers and only 145 people had voted as of late afternoon.

One person came out and said that they didn't want to take the time to read all that, and wondered how the machine knew what names to select for them. They should have had someone go over instructions with each person, as they did with me! This person said that they just put in their number and the machine stopped on the top section. They didn't want to have to read, so they just pushed vote in order to hurry up and get out of there.

I asked them if they knew what they had voted for. They said they didn't. The machine did it for them, they thought. Democrat was at the top, so they had actually voted a straight Democratic ticket. They didn't know what they had done. Just thought it was nice that the machine voted for them and they didn't have to be bothered. And they laughed, thinking that was funny.

The teachers in high schools teach the students how to use the voting machines, and about government and history. But, after they are out of school, will they bother to use what they have learned? Or just take the easy way, not learning or thinking for themselves, or just cave in to whatever someone tells them or tempts them with. Will they ever have the opportunity to be counted, again?

Thankfully, our state can be proud that we voted for McCain/Palin. Congratulations to McCain for staying with the campaign and promoting our country. And for all his service to our nation. And to that fantastic Sarah Palin for her energy, enthusiasm, strength, and just being such a tremendous all-around great American woman. Cindy McCain was outstanding, too. What a beautiful, graceful, and strong American woman she is. My best to them all, and I certainly hope that Sarah Palin will decide to run for president in the next election. She is truly, as they say, a breath of fresh air. Wish I had just a hint of her energy and abilities.

Some people criticized John McCain for addressing people as "My friends." Anybody remember LBJ? He drove me crazy with his constant, "My friends, and you all are my friends, ....." Now, he was from Texas. It should have been "y'all" instead of "you all".

At least he didn't stutter, shift rhythmically from side to side, read from a telepromter what some kid wrote for him, and isn't able to look interviewers in the eye, avoids questions, and so many other things. I know I won't be watching any presidential speeches for the next few years. And I won't watch any of the biased news media on tv that added to this disaster .

Patriotism 9" x 12" pencil

Fall Store

Fall Store

8.5" x 11"

pencil sketch

Edie inspired this sketch as we discussed old buildings on Main Street in Calvert. She remembered a store that had sugar cane displayed and I remember others that also had sugar cane, pumpkins, and all kinds of fall fare on display. We had talked about the building on the corner by the red light, next door to Brannon's Shoe Shop. The photo that I took recently and had on my blog is fascinating, to me, because of the reflections, the architectural features, and the way that you can see other buildings through the plate glass windows.

I think it would make a nice little art gallery, tea room, etc.

Since today is Edie's birthday, I thought I would post this little unfinished sketch.

Happy Birthday, Edie!

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Tomorrow is the big election day here. Some of us may have an anxiety attack or high blood pressure problems before this is all over! It has been a most unusual time. But, through history, I guess that each election has had its own problems and characteristics. So we shall see how it goes down in history. (No telling how it will be written about. But we will know what it was really like as we are witnesses to history. You might even want to write down your own views and observations for the future. When someone tries to rewrite events, you will have the truth as you know it.) We probably could have done that with past elections and events. Personally, I never thought of that. I left it to newspapers and magazines. But just think of all that has occured in the past 50 - 70 years. All that we could have recorded.

If you are involved, go to GretaWire on Foxnews.com and read and post on her blog.

Also, you might express your opinion on Red Head Ranting at http://redheadranting.blogspot.com/ . She has a poll where you can vote on your choice for president, or you can tell if you aren't voting, etc.

Laura Ingraham also has an interesting blog/newsletter that she sends out. (I practically feel like I know her, since Virginia Vaughan told me that she did a portrait of Laura's dog! Virginia does fantastic pictures of animals. I envy that. My animals all look like cartoons!)

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I didn't intend to get political on my blog. But, with others expressing their opinions, I just had to put in my two cents worth. If you agree with me, great! If you don't, I'm sorry and wish that we did agree. But, we can still be friends.

While I watch tv, sometimes, I do cartoons, especially about events in the news. I haven't done it in a while, though. I did cartoons from the time I was little. In fact, I taught myself to draw by going to the funny papers if I wanted to know how to draw something like a hand or a foot, eye, or nose from the side. I went through a period when I could only draw one leg on my people. I liked to make little stories with my pictures, so I had all these drawings of people with only one leg. I had "The Pirate and the Beautiful Lady", a compostion book filled with one legged characters!

We didn't have art in school. As a result, no matter what I do, that cartoon style comes out when I'm left to my own devices.

At one time, I did a cartoon strip for the "Calvert Tribune" which centered on life in Calvert around my grandfather's dry goods store. I learned a lot from doing that cartoon strip. It was actually hard work, considering that there were no computers to do the lettering, etc. It took me many hours to do each one.

Because of my newspaper experiences, I was given the job of teaching journalism, doing yearbook and the newspaper at school, and turning in articles about the school to the local newspaper. Along with this, we participated in the "Houston Chronicle" Editorial Cartoon contest. (Actually, we usually learned about it too late, but did the project anyway. We researched editorial cartoons, learned to use the materials and practiced techniques, the old way, with india ink and pen!) Later, we learned to add some lettering with the computer.

Ideas still come to me for editorial cartoons as I observe things. I did a few during this campaign and I am going to share some with you.

You may not agree! But, you have to understand that, one purpose of the Editorial Cartoon is to get a reaction from people-good or bad! Make people think and have some reaction. Sometimes, the cartoonist does not agree with what he is depicting, but he just wants to get that reaction or stir things up. Sometimes it works too well! Sometimes the artist does share what he feels. I think that, these days, sometimes, the artist is trying to draw something that he can sell and thinking more along the lines of psychology. Of course, there are some limitations to our freedom of speech today because of threats and political correctness, which is sad to see.

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If you haven't voted, go out and vote tomorrow! (Legally, of course!)

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The Squeaky Wheel

8.5" x 11"

ink

On her blog, Red Head Ranting, she mentions that she has never been called for a poll, and no one she knows has been called, either. I haven't either and no one I know has been called. It's sort of like the ratings for tv shows. No one has ever asked me and I don't have one of those little boxes from Nielson. I guess we should be grateful that we are not bothered, but I feel like a lot of us are being overlooked. I don't think that polls are reliable.