Saturday, November 12, 2011

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week #46 Politics

This weeks challenge:

Week #46 – Politics

Week 46. Politics. What are your childhood memories of politics? Were your parents active in politics? What political events and elections do you remember from your youth?

As a very young child, I don't recall alot about politics. So, it was something real evident in our home. I do remember when I was old enough to think about the President and asking who the President was at the time [John F. Kennedy]. And I remember asking who the President was when I was born [Dwight Eisenhower].

I knew that my parents both went to vote at every election. And if Daddy wasn't at home and was going to be at sea, he'd vote an absentee ballot.

It wasn't until 1972 that I became actually involved in the election process. My civics class held debates and a mock election. For those of you who are too young to know who ran that year, Richard M. Nixon, and George McGovern faced off.

We plastered the local school campus with the posters, signs and placards that we picked up at the local election headquarters. Oddly enough, Nixon's headquarters and McGovern's shared the same downtown office building in Norfolk, Virginia that year. One door apart!

We were assigned our party in the classroom, and we all worked together to get our candidate elected on campus.

I was assigned to Nixon's campaign. And I was given the daunting task of writing his speeches for the campaign trail [which included the football stadium, the cafeteria, and the auditorium]. My old buddy James was our mock candidate.

What pressure!!!

But a full week before our national election, our mock election was held and our results were pretty near the same as the actual event. Nixon won.

My parents always stressed the point that we should be politically active. "If you don't vote, then you don't have a right to criticize whoever gets in office!" [Don't you just despise those people who put down our president, or other representatives, and they've never voted in their life?] If you want the country ran the way you'd like to see it, then vote!!

I've voted in every election since I became of voting age.

How about you???

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