Politics matters.

Who you vote for matters.

My old friend Frank Schaeffer (see early entries) has written a new book “Crazy for God, How I helped Found the Religious Right and Ruin America.”

(Note: that was the original subtitle, not the one the publisher eventually went with, but it’s the one I like. Please see Mr. Schaeffer’s website for the correct, official subtitle.)

The book talks about many things, including a first hand account of how the Religious Right came about and why it is so powerful. But it also talks about the negative impact that can come about when people only pay attention to the emotional and visceral aspects of politics and don’t think through the potential consequences.

(Mr. Schaeffer is doing a reading of “Crazy for God” at 7 pm, on Thursday, November 8, 2007, at the Bookrack at the Tannery, in Newburyport, MA. C-SPAN will be covering the reading (you may get to be on TV if you go), and Mr. Schaeffer is always entertaining. This is a vast understatement.)

That principal not only applies on the national level, but it also applies on the local level as well.

Who you vote for matters.

In 2 earlier entries I’ve broken down some of the candidates into (fairly simplistic) categories. (Please scroll down the Newburyport Blog to see the 2 entries.) Those categories indicate how candidates would most probably handle your life–your city government, which impacts your life in all sorts of ways.

So when you vote this week on, Tuesday, November 6, 2007, remember, your vote matters.

A neighbor of mine said, “I vote so that I have the right to complain.” Hopefully, if you vote, the issues that matter to you, would have a chance of being addressed, and you may not want to complain quite as much as you might want to otherwise.

Tuesday night I will probably go down to City Hall around 8:00 PM when the polls close, and would most likely put up the results of the Newburyport election 2007, on the Newburyport Blog.

And Tom Salemi on his blog, Newburyport Posts, gives you a chance to practice voting. He also has a great break-down of the candidates and what they are running for.

Also, it’s really fun.

Please press here to check it out.

Tom also has a great idea for the most official version of who is running for what, and that is the information from the Newburyport City Clerk’s office (PDF Version).

Mary Eaton
Newburyport