{"id":1677,"date":"2009-09-15T09:56:58","date_gmt":"2009-09-15T14:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1677"},"modified":"2009-09-15T20:45:09","modified_gmt":"2009-09-16T01:45:09","slug":"cant-vote-or-dont-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/09\/cant-vote-or-dont-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t Vote or Don’t Vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, bored with NPR and between audio books, I had the radio scan for AM talk radio and ended up at KURM-AM<\/a>, 790. Despite being a Rogers station, longtime host Kermit Womack kept getting calls about today’s Fayetteville school millage election.<\/p>\n

It’s not a vote on building a new high school, because that is not mentioned on the ballot<\/a>. Replacing Fayetteville High School is what officials say it’s about.<\/p>\n

On the radio, one ol’ boy came on to say that though he lives in Rogers, he owns property in Fayetteville. It’s “taxation without representation,” he said, because he’d vote “no” if he could but he can’t.<\/p>\n

A second ol’ boy called in to say he was in the same predicament, and what’s happened to America.<\/p>\n

Kermit handled these calls impressively. He did not challenge their opinions but did not encourage them, either. I wouldn’t have the patience for that so admire those who do.<\/p>\n

This representation business has been part of the call-in scene since last summer, the presidential campaigns and now national health reform. It sounds like a cause, unless you think about it. In today’s case, people vote at the precinct where their primary residence lies. When everyone votes just in the city of their main home, it evens out — property tax, sales tax, state reps, lottery referenda — more or less.<\/p>\n

The two ol’ boys I heard acted country but were well enough off to own more than one parcel of property.<\/p>\n

It might be embarrassing for me or people I know to vote alongside people like that, but a lot will, and for different reasons. Other people I like and respect support the Fayetteville millage proposal<\/a>. There’s strong feelings, and I haven’t felt so out-of-sorts since McCain-Obama. People today will vote opposite their friends, and that’s uncomfortable. It’s also no excuse. Common sense is at stake.<\/p>\n

No one’s going to tolerate whining about today’s election from folks who don’t vote. After today, “did you vote” will be the first question when the talk turns to what should’ve been.<\/p>\n

The sport will come in the other questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, bored with NPR and between audio books, I had the radio scan for AM talk radio and ended up at KURM-AM, 790. Despite being a Rogers station, longtime host Kermit Womack kept getting calls about today’s Fayetteville school millage election. It’s not a vote on building a new high school, because that is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1575,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/09\/school-tax-tables\/","url_meta":{"origin":1677,"position":0},"title":"School Tax Tables","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No More Foolin' for Schoolin' Brick by current policy does not give political endorsements. Now that the Fayetteville School District's high school plan is set for a public vote, in about 10 days, all I should do is create a nice neutral analysis. Yawn. Better: Just lay out some facts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":430,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/hog-in-a-poke\/","url_meta":{"origin":1677,"position":1},"title":"Hog in a Poke","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- \"So Crystal, you were there in Morrilton this morning? \"Looking for a good price on Petit Jean ham, but all I could find were University of Arkansas trustees. Saw them going for the poke as well as the pig.\" \"That may have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chronicles of Crystal Britches"","block_context":{"text":"Chronicles of Crystal Britches","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/chronicles-of-crystal-britches\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":180,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/04\/vote-doesnt-make-book\/","url_meta":{"origin":1677,"position":2},"title":"Vote doesn’t make book","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Allow me to offer a library post-mortem: Nyah, nyah, nyah. (This is so wrong of me. I've always loved libraries and our Blair Library is spectacular. But, to continue:) My wife and I -- though little special elections like this require lots of effort to remember when speeding past our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/09\/no-pox-on-this-tax\/","url_meta":{"origin":1677,"position":3},"title":"No Pox on This Tax","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A pox of this tax, or a tax of this pox, (twist of Falstaff's line of Act 1, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 2) We should, as these editorials all attest, vote \"yes\" to all four of Fayetteville's tiny tax increases. Northwest Arkansas Times, and the Demzette. Should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":373,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/11\/high-school-musical-chairs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1677,"position":4},"title":"High School Musical Chairs","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday night, according to each of the area newspapers, the Fayetteville School Board met in workshop formation and apparently informally agreed with the recommendation of Superintendent Bobby New about the best solution for the ever-more-crowded Fayetteville High School. He favors building on to the current facility. He said a second\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education, Coarsely"","block_context":{"text":"Education, Coarsely","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/education-coarsely\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/07\/three-school-monte\/","url_meta":{"origin":1677,"position":5},"title":"Three School Monte","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY -- With a maneuver some describe as canny, the Greenland School District annexed Fayetteville Public Schools, officials with both announced Wednesday morning. The new body will be called the Greater Greenland School District and will use the facilities and personnel of both. Thus,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chronicles of Crystal Britches"","block_context":{"text":"Chronicles of Crystal Britches","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/chronicles-of-crystal-britches\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions\/1686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}