Schools require 70% on report cards to pass.
We expect medical professionals and mechanics to perform at a 100% level of care when it comes to our bodies and our vehicles.
Think 10% of your salary would pay the bills? I guarantee if you only put in 10% effort into your job, you would be fired.
The March 5 primary elections are now completed. According to the Texas Secretary of State archives, the 2020 March primaries had little over 9% of the voting age population participate in both Democratic and Republican voting booths. In 2016, Texas turnout was slightly higher at 14% because it was an open presidential race (no incumbent running). With that historic trend, chances are 10% to 12% is a fair prediction for this week’s voter response in our state.
“I voted today” stickers given to us at the polls are equivalent to saying “I do” at the altar. Just as healthy marriages begin long before vows are exchanged at the front of the church, so is our relationship with the United States of America. The unions between couples and the very Union we want to preserve work best when we, as elected officials and as constituents, give well beyond 10% before and after the honeymoon or the ballot box.
Democracy will fail if we cheat her by giving less, either by voting ill-informed and most certainly by not showing up at all.
In the months ahead, this old teacher will share ways to study for November’s test. I want you to come to class. I want you to come prepared.
Snyder, Texas, native Sue Jane Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher whose thought-provoking commentary appears occasionally in several West Texas newspapers, including The Texas Spur and others published by Paragraph Ranch LLC.
