You have probably heard this before *. With tomorrow being the day to elect city council members in all four Henry cities, and to accept or reject extension of the SPLOST program, these words seem appropriate to share at this time.

This country is populated by far too many people who cannot exist at anything other than a basic level without someone else stepping forward to take care of them. They’re adult children. They look to government as their Mommy and Daddy.

I share Neal’s state of alarm at election time. The people we elect, policies we accept and long term impact of each election will affect our lives – and our children’s lives.

Boortz says this so eloquently:

I think it’s safe to say that a good portion of the voters who will manage to find their way to a polling place [tomorrow] do so with one thought in mind: Which one of the people on this ballot can I count on to take the most money away from people I don’t particularly like, and spend that money on me – or give it to me outright

Think of the one candidate seeking re-election, and others of his ilk, in Stockbridge. The folks most concerned about maintaining the status quo are members of the Redevelopment Cronies or city staff. Or in McDonough we can be sure that Smith's and Brown's business partners and butterfly-lovers are campaigning hard to return incumbents to office.

Think about SPLOST running for another six years. We certainly got some road work completed in the last five years, but major projects like Eagles Landing, East Lake, Rock Quarry and Bill Gardner Pkwy are dependent on extending the tax. And we got some great park improvements and a few buildings constructed… with higher costs nobody could have expected back in 2002.

Citizens must go to the polls to vote for the future of our cities and county. Far too few are expected to show up – maybe 5 to 10 percent of the county’s 107,000 registered voters. By Friday afternoon 1,070 citizens had cast their ballots at the McDonough office since Monday. An additional 730 voters participated in early voting in countywide balloting. Early voting ended Friday with about one percent turnout. If that is an indicator, we may see our city councils and tax programs decided by a very small minority of citizens.

On the other hand, there are people who will show up to make sure they voice a desire for a senior center, soccer complex or maybe to support a business plan that depends on specific council members or the SPLOST tax in general. I will steal one more line from Boortz:

These are the people I would like to see locked in their homes on Election Day. These people need to be kept away from ballot boxes before they screw everything up for the rest of us.

There is no Constitutional right to vote. Voting is a privilege we must take seriously. Let us pray for a large turnout of educated, concerned voters with a clue about government and taxation.

* Somebody's Gotta Say It, Neal Boortz, 2007