Leadership is About Making Choices

Leadership is about making choices.

The choices we make in the United States today will decide who will lead and represent us in the near future.

Today is a big day for choices. We will elect the President and Vice President for the next four years, the members of the House of Representatives for the next two years, and one-third of the Senators for six-year terms. Many of us will also elect state executive officials and legislators, and some judges. Some of us will elect local officials, as well. In addition, many of us will decide state and local referenda that will determine how much we will pay in taxes and how the governments that most directly affect us, including public schools, will function.

The first time I voted as an adult was in the election of a supreme court justice in Wisconsin, a few months after I turned 18 years old. I voted by marking a box on a piece of paper with a pencil. I have voted for president, and all those other officials, in four different states. I have voted by punching holes in ballots, moving levers on mechanical voting machines, pushing buttons on electronic voting machines, and making ink dots on ballots that are scanned. I have voted absentee, and voted for write-in candidates.

The choices I make do not always win elections. Sometimes I change my mind in hindsight, and sometimes my choices are confirmed.

I have used many different methods to make my votes known, but the way I decide has been consistent. I tend to get as much information as I can, and discount the advertising that is designed to persuade me. I am a registered nonpartisan voter.

I, of course, see myself as a fairly reasonable decision maker.

How will you make your choices today?

What effects in the long run will the choices you make today have?

[Image by hang_in_there]