All posts in September 2011
GRIZ Homecoming Festivities
“Hundreds of extra bodies will swarm into Missoula the first weekend in October as out-of-town Griz fans and University of Montana alumni gather for the annual glut of Homecoming Festivities. Hotels are booked up. The Homecoming parade is locked in. Tickets for the football game are going for as much as $61 on eBay. Griz Nation, in other words, is primed for a ….(big) party….” – quote from the local Missoula Independent newspaper.
Yup, our town’s population is about to expand. It is a great time for merchants and it’s a great time to visit with friends coming in from out of town. If you like people watching, then I would guess you can go to Southgate Mall or any of the trails around town, and most definitely all the wonderful restaurants throughout town and you will get to mingle with a lot of people.
Tailgates typically begin at 11:00 am on Saturday all around the perimeter of the stadium and the game itself begins at 1:05.
If you are someone who doesn’t go to the game but instead stays home and either watches it on the TV or maybe chooses to partake in some other activity, are you aware of the game and all the festivities happening? Do the Homecoming festivities affect your weekend? Do you hear the cannon BOOM whenever the GRIZ make a touchdown in the Franklin to the Fort neighborhood?
So what is your excuse for not voting now?
In the fall, we in Missoula get Griz football crazy but I love politics so fall also reminds me of voting. When I ask friends why they don’t vote, I always get one of two answers:
1) “I don’t like either of them.”
2) “My vote doesn’t count anyway.”
I can’t offer much advice on the first objection but, in Missoula, we have seen many elections decided on just a few votes. Trust me on this…YOUR VOTE COUNTS! This year the inconvenience of voting has been further reduced because you don’t even have to drive to a polling place to cast your vote. The general city election will be conducted by mail- in ballot, so make sure you have registered to vote. Missoula County has a voter registration form available online at: http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/election/voterreg.htm. If you are not already registered to vote, get with the program!
According to blogger Brandon Copper – “The people elected to city council do not just approve budget expenditures and zoning issues. Their more important role is to represent the city that elected them. They must be practical and pragmatic facilitators, ready to make the right decisions based on the situation at hand, not on misapplied ideological preferences. They must be moral (however nebulous that term may be) and they must respect the rule of law. They must communicate effectively, not by using national buzzwords that seem to plague so many other elections. They must have a history of wanting to help this community through volunteering. This need not necessarily be through city functions such as volunteer committees, but those are an excellent start. These qualifications don’t just make a good candidate, they make a good person.”
The purpose of this blog is not to get you to vote “my way”. I believe I know who I’ll vote for, unless something else comes to my attention (watching “Jersey Shore” is an automatic disqualifier, for example.) The purpose of this blog is implore you to get involved in this upcoming election, not only through personal research but also through spreading the word about the situation we face as a community. There are big issues like taxes, the skyrocketing cost of local government, creating jobs, economic vitality, and addressing the plight of homeless families.
Vote
I ask of you not just as citizens but also as members of a great community to do your civic duty by looking closely at this city election and by participating by completing your mail in ballot and dropping it in nearest mailbox.