Wanzology

The Election

 Welcome! Welcome to your Wednesday! Welcome! Welcome, here we are! How you doing? Did you survive election day 2024? I know I did. Hopefully, uh, by the time you're hearing this, uh, things will have been relatively decidedly decided. And you know, the country hasn't exploded into a big ball of flame. And most of all, I hope that you're doing okay.

I know that a lot of people have been stressed out, man. Last weekend was just crazy. People didn't want to go out anywhere. They didn't want to watch television. They want to listen to radio, it was like, uh!! But I still want to talk about what we've been through. Now, I'm going to try to stay as nonpartisan as possible. Because my, uh, my particular affiliation is with people. I don't really care who you vote for. I, I really don't care what you believe. Uh, we all have to get along. That's the point. We have discussion in this country. Sometimes we have discourse in this country. I think over the last 10 years, an element of unstable energy has been infecting the body politic.

I'll try hard not to mention any names, but we all know who I'm talking about. I, for one, have been against almost everything that he's proposed from day one, because it never really involved people like me. What I observed was people who could possibly be like me would be agitated and somewhat pissed off about stuff that really didn't affect them. They just didn't think it was right, which I can understand, but that's no reason to like, villainize other people. Just because you think things should be one way and someone else thinks things should be another way, that's no reason to start hating on somebody. We all get to drive our own boat. We all get to make our own decisions, and if you can't respect my decision, why in the world would I want to try to respect yours? That's the hard part. Personal respect.

Now, everybody, every single human being you run into has been through something. Their circumstances are definitely unique to them, even if you have common circumstances, these are different people we're talking about. They don't think like you do, they don't act like you do, even though, they can think like you, and they can act like you. Humans are similar all over the world. But when one human won't accept the reasons for another human's behavior as being just as legit as their own, yeah that, that, that to me becomes a problem.

Actually, it's not a problem as much as it is a question. I always try to ask, why would you feel that way? Why would you feel that way about a fellow human being? Why would you want to destroy another human being's beliefs? Why would you want to disregard, ignore, demean, or downgrade someone else's experience, especially when you want them to respect your own? I mean that, that doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make any sense at all. We all know respect is earned not given, so if you don't respect someone why in the world are they going to respect you? You wouldn't do that. If I just walked upon you on the street and then started talking about your mama, and you didn't know me from a can of paint, how would I, or why would I expect you to respect me? It's a fair question. When I say respect is earned, I mean it. We give each other the right of way at intersections and open the doors for each other, and we can be polite and cordial and all that other good stuff, but what it boils down to those things are actions that are based on respect, and people really don't like to be disrespected. I don't know anyone who's like cool with being disrespected. I've seen people who thought they were being disrespected, but that's only two or three questions I gotta ask them, usually having to do with their behavior. And, you know, either they cop to it or not, and if not, I'm usually out of there. I'm usually gone. Because I got no time for that. If you're not gonna give me the respect that I may see something in you that you don't see because I'm looking at you from the outside, well..you just carry on with that one, my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest, but don't you cry no more. Just carry on.

Now comes the really interesting part in this election cycle, because I'm not really sure that things have been decided. If the last cycle was any indication, it's going to take a while. It's going to take a couple of days before there's a definitive, demonstrative, solid results. My question to you is what are both sides going to do? I can't tell the future, so I really don't know, and you'll probably be listening to this after the fact, but I still think it's very interesting what happens while we're all waiting for the results. Does the world get more tense? Loose? How about lackadaisical? What happens? I mean, what's the tenor? What's the, what's the vibe, man? What's the vibe? If history repeats itself, one person's gonna say, “I won!”, but we'll have no way of proving that they won because all the votes haven't been counted. Another person will probably say, “Let's see what happens.” Now, if past is prologue, I'll be nervous, if one of those people is talking about they've already won and all the votes have not been counted. I mean, have you no respect for the process? Have you no respect for the way that things work? At the time of this recording, I'm already hearing chatter about computers are supposed to be faster, but they're usually not. We don't understand why it takes so long. We should be using paper and I'm sitting there looking at the TV going, what are you talking about? Show me somewhere a vote is not in some way, shape or form based on paper. Mail in ballots what are they mailing? Paper, putting them in drop boxes, what are they putting in there? Paper. “I just think it's ripe with fraud”. I was asking this four years ago. How do they know who to send the fricking ballot to? You have to register, and when you register, you have to have identification and that has to be verified in order for you to get a ballot. Now, that may be complicated for some, but for me, it's pretty bloody easy.

Think about your driver's license. You couldn't just walk in and request one. You had to prove who you were and then they took your picture. Now they send you a little card that has your picture on it. So what's the difference if they don't send you a little card with your picture on it, but they keep you on file and when you vote, your name is on the ballot? Your signature has to match what they already have, relatively. So, what's all this talk about, oh, you gotta present ID when you vote? I remember when I had to actually go to a polling location. They had to look up my name, and they found my name, and they verified it with another form of identification, who I was, and then I could vote. Well, people are like, that's the way it should be. Oh, yeah, that's the way it should be. Okay. Obviously, you don't have much recollection of what life was like before microwave ovens. When heating up last night's dinner was a little less convenient without a microwave oven. Progress doesn't wait. It do what it say it do, it PROGRESS! So, here's the rub for me, people are saying, some people, not all, but a lot of people have said, you've got to prove who you are before you can vote. And I still am waiting for the answer to the question: if they mail you a ballot because you've already registered and you had to present ID to register, what's the problem? If you're not who you say you are, does that mean you're really good at forgery, and you can match somebody else's signature if you're not the person that is actually on the ballot? Is it some kind of ring? Some kind of forgery ring where people, like, match signatures so they can, by the thousands, go out and take ballots and then match all the signatures based on people they've never met, just so when they submit them, they'll match whatever is on record. Come on, man! Come on! You didn't have to watch Columbo to figure out how dumb that idea is, come on! I mean, I don't understand. I really, really don't understand.

Anyway, as I was saying, one side is probably going to claim that they are the winner, and the other side is probably going to claim, well, let's just wait and see what the results really are. What's wrong with that? Besides, no one can tell the future, meaning that if all the ballots haven't been correctly tabulated and verified, how does someone know, how does someone who is not part of the tabulating and verification process how do they know they've won? I mean, it should be easy to verify. Everybody knows when it's daytime because it's light outside. I'm talking that level of realization. Does this side know that it won? Like we know that gravity sucks, or are they just talking out the side of their neck? These are the things that you have to ask, why is it that because when you get to ask questions and you're not really sure of the answer, you're guessing at the answer. How does that feel? I mean, I don't like to guess an answer. If I don't know the answer, I'll find the answer, but it's not because someone said so. Remember the phrase? I was born at night, just not last night. One side is going to try, and try, to dispute what will be a factual conclusion, and I ask you to beware. Because usually, people who dispute a factual conclusion Aren't doing it for anyone else, but themselves. They don't want to be wrong. God knows, being wrong is bad, right? How do you think you learn, people? You learn from being wrong. You gotta be wrong before you can figure out how to be right. No one's right all the time, everyone makes mistakes, but hopefully we learn from them.

There's a certain amount of humility and honesty that has to happen. I'll leave you with this, either you can be that person with a high level of humility and honesty, or not. But I don't think you would be wise to trust anyone who doesn't have a level of honesty that matches your own. The saying goes, cheaters never prosper. Maybe temporarily they do, but in the long run, the truth will always find you. Even if you don't like it, it’s still the truth. Water's wet, sky is blue. One of the best lines from The Last Boy Scout with Bruce Willis, “Certain things are always true. Water's wet, the sky is blue.”

Those things change, please, don't keep it to yourself, let me know. Reach out to me on Instagram! You can find WANZOLOGY, just type in W-A-N-Z-ology when you're searching and you'll find WANZOLOGY on Instagram. Let me know what's going on with you. Let me know what you think. Maybe even propose a good topic for me to do an episode on.

Keep swimming, just like Dory, keeeeeeeep swimming! Be alert, because the world needs more ‘lerts’!

See you next week!