SOME WOMENS VOTE To vote an informed vote, one has to be sufficiently informed to own responsibly the opportunities of the

present moment. Currently, We, as an organic whole, are not prepared for what we must do/be. That is, we must comprehend our role in our local edge/corner of the great cosmic interplay we must act as if this is our best and final hour on a stage that has the rest of humanity as a part of the cast. There is an existential totality that presents and it can only offer that which is actually and potentially already here, there, and anywhere. It must be connected to some preexisting reality of possibility. And it cannot be merely of my own making, even though I can create some possibility that surges from my imagination. This is because I fathom some vortex of space/time from which I draw an actual or some potential, a thing or idea that I cause to come into being, somehow related and yet nuanced in some different way. Nothing is done in isolation. I am a part of something much bigger, much grander, than me alone. One wonders, if this is the case, why so many single, or young women would vote overwhelmingly for someone who possess so little understanding of our current state of affairs, a person without leadership qualities, very little experience in anything really, and totally inept at his current post. Actually this mirrors all adolescent behavior; they attempt to escape from societal responsibilities for as long as they can. The inherent danger in having a president who, as a immature ideologue, is that in his fumbling attempts to be all to all is lying and therefore stealing the ability to own creatively the essential attribute of personal and communal freedom, a freedom that is essential to a healthy personal and communal development. Could it be, with the young and single women demographics, that what we saw in this last election was a resentment vote, a vote that spoke to the annuals of history, the tortuous road that women, as a whole, have had to endure throughout the course of most of human history? Think about this for a moment: I am I, a woman, a complementary presence in the great human epic. I have suffered immeasurably throughout most of human history. I have been put upon by my own, by others of every stripe, the yawing infamous gender gap. And now it is that I have an opportunity to express my feelings, long pent up, about this historical circumstance, now is the time for me to remonstrate in a present the agony of my fellow sisters throughout the ages, now is the time for me to cast a vote for an angry adolescent, someone who arrogantly has achieved a measure of prominence from his compromised circumstances, someone with no leadership qualities and some talent with rhetoric, someone that I feel can understand my circumstance and maybe even help me a bit, a kindred spirit, so to speak. All adolescents tend to find in their own group those that they think/feel will side with them in the confrontational moments when reality presents and we refuse, or are unable to understand responsibilities and consequences. When we become aware of our relational circumstance and we choose to self empower and to see and relate to the big picture. As the stages of human growth play out from childhood, to adolescent, from maturing young adult to maturing adult, we have witnessed, really lived through ourselves, these various phases

of maturation and we know that when we enter the adolescent stage of our development we tend to think we possess enough wisdom to make a go of it (life and all that life has to offer) when indeed most of us dont have much of a clue, especially in a culture that has made an art of delaying maturation while pretending that it can happen when we are too young to fathom the ramifications and subsequent responsibilities of our developing lives. The skewed preponderance of the single/young feminine vote of a given demographic presents much food for thought. Perhaps we have shortchanged our children and have set them on the pathway of life with insufficient knowledge about the seasons of life, seasons that will demand a certain maturation and the assumption of responsibility that comes with age. Expectations are one thing; the facts of the matter, as our world view expands and experience presents, are many times something all together different. We may ask, Did Title 9 help? You bet it did. Did it solve all of the problems or meet our expectations? Obviously it did not. That we might have expected it to was a sign of stupidity. The road has been long and equal pay for equal work is still debated and demonstrated by the facts at hand. What we have, in addition to cultures ugly lassitude* is an ignorance** that runs very deep, an ignorance that can provoke, when we have for the first time a plethora of information that is available to almost everyone. Women now know (as if they werent already well informed from their mothers and grandmothers, and great grandmothers, etc., history itself) that they (women) have been sorely mistreated throughout history. Now, ostensibly, they have an underdog, someone with whom they can identify, want something from, someone that will help them, make them feel good, they (the young and the single) chose to make a statement, that while expressing some knowledge of historys long road, has a fundamental flaw connected to it. Human history is always the story of one with another. This circumstance has lead to subjugation and to love, to slavery and to freedom. And here lies my point: What does that word freedom really mean? In the great bio-dance of nature there manifests a certain reciprocity that changes over time; it changes from dependent to independent and back to some measure of dependence, a new dependence that manifests as a complementary contribution to the wellbeing of the presence of the whole of humankind, indeed of all life. I think this is where a mistake was made when so many chose to cast their lot with someone who did not measure up, someone they projected their pent up aggression on and thought they had a sincere partner, another put upon adolescent with whom to commiserate, from whom they could expect some measure of self fulfillment, some assistance. In this false expectation we see the failure of parenting and the abject failure of an educational system in presenting a progressive and ascendant understanding of human growth and development. Expectations are one thing, personal responsibility is another. Dreams are essential and yet when a certain level of maturation is achieved they are tempered with the realities of life. Does this mean we should not dream? Obviously it does not; dreams are an essential aspect of the human moment. What it

does mean, however, is that we assume a measure of responsibility for our own dreams. We eventually become Santa Clause for others and for ourselves only to the degree that we are able. It is not for us to expect that others will dance to our tune, (most adolescent do and this culture has been remiss in its acceptance of adolescent and prolonged adolescent behavior) it is the ability to sing our own song, dance our own dance, and become a positive contributor to society and the needs of others, especially those less able, less fortunate. In other words, we must become a mature adult who fully understands that nothing is free***, and that there is a concomitant relationship between freedom and responsibility. The task at hand, for any capable adult, is to recognize the gift of one, the self, and assume all of the attributes of a freedom seeking adult with all of the accompanying responsibilities. The skewed number of those who expected (but will not receive nor be fulfilled in their expectations) to be taken care of are part of a quasi-permanent cadre of adolescents, demonstrating a fundamental lack of understanding of the process of human life. This vote, at least in part, was an indictment of a culture, as well as those who knew better and responded in an immature in-kind way, a way that has failed to respond to the necessities of a democratic republic, a republic that cannot function without an informed maturing citizenry that understands the miraculous creation of a Bill of Rights and a Constitution that speaks to the necessity of complementing circumstances with a literate and participatory population that possesses a deeply inculcated spiritual and humane morality that complements a freedom loving, freedom possessing participative citizenry of a democratic republic. As time has worn on, we have failed in or attentive commitment to maintain an enlightened participatory involvement in the health of the nation. We get what we deserve when we are not honest with the facts at hand and do not possess an in-depth understanding of the human condition. Bon apptit! Don Davison *See Perpetrators in Always Extolling: A Collection. ** Ignorance and Ignorance Again! will be in Pebbles on the Shore: A Collection ***See Nothing is Free! in Sign Posts Vol. IV.