Cooperative Living October 2016 - 4

Viewpoint | by Richard G. Johnstone Jr., Executive Editor
Vol. 70, No. 10
ISSN 1529-4579
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Editor
BILL SHERROD
Editor
LAURA EMERY
Field Editor
JANET BAILEY
Production Manager
LAURIE MILLS,
Apple Eye Studio, LLC
Graphic Designer
AMANDA S. CUNNINGHAM
Advertising Sales
MARY HOWELL
Classified Ads
To contact magazine:
9 a.m.-5 p.m. M-F
Phone: (804) 346-3344
Or at any time:
Fax: (804) 346-3448
Email: bsherrod@vmdaec.com
Web: www.co-opliving.com
Published by the VA, MD & DE Association
of Electric Cooperatives
LARRY C. HOWDYSHELL
Chairman
JAMES E. HUFFMAN
Vice Chairman
HERBERT R. PATRICK
Secretary
FLETCHER B. JONES
Treasurer
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
President & CEO
Board of Directors: R. Wayne Browning, Belvin Williamson, Jr.,
A&N; C. Michael Sandridge, Michael J. Keyser, BARC; George N.
Goin, Gary E. Wood, Central Virginia; Robert E. Arnold, Michael
I. Wheatley, Choptank; Jeannette S. Everett, Steven A. Harmon,
Community; James E. Huffman, Shawn C. Hildebrand, CraigBotetourt;
Patricia S. Dorey, J. William Andrew, Delaware;
Fletcher B. Jones, John C. Lee, Jr., Mecklenburg; Russell G.
Brown, Greg W. White, Northern Neck; J. Manley Garber, Stan C.
Feuerberg, Northern Virginia; Dale McNiel, Randell W. Meyers,
Powell Valley; Herbert R. Patrick, Micheal E. Malandro, Prince
George; Richard C. Oliver, Kent D. Farmer, Rappahannock; Larry
C. Howdyshell, Michael W. Hastings, Shenandoah Valley; Frank
W. Bacon, Jeffrey S. Edwards, Southside.
To advertise in Cooperative Living, contact:
Amanda Cunningham (804) 346-3344
National Advertising Representative: NCM,
611 South Congress Ave., Suite 504,
Austin, Texas 78704 * 800-626-1181
Member of the NCM network of
publications, reaching more than
8 million homes and businesses.
PRESSRUN . . . . . . . . . 516,906
COOPERATIVE LIVING (USPS 473-300) is
published 10 times a year, monthly except for
combined March/April and November/ December
issues, by the Va., Md. & Del. Association of Electric
Cooperatives. POSTMASTER, address changes
should be sent to: Cooperative Living, 4201
Dominion Boulevard, Suite 101, Glen Allen, VA
23060, (804) 346-3344. Periodicals Postage paid at
Glen Allen, VA, and additional mailing offices.
Subscription: $4.90 per year for members of
subscribing co-ops; $10 per year for all others.
ADVERTISING published is accepted on the
premise that the merchandise and services offered
are accurately described and willingly sold to
customers at the advertised price. Neither this
magazine nor the electric cooperatives in Virginia,
Maryland, and Delaware endorses any products or
services advertised herein. If any readers encounter
non-compliance with these standards, they are
asked to inform the Editor.
On Election Day, Vote ...
... your principles, your pocketbook, your politics or your passion.
Vote for the better candidate, whether you think the field is
desirable, or leaves a lot to be desired. In this and every election
season, no matter the reason, it's crucial that citizens exercise
this hard-won right.
O
n Nov. 8, Virginians will elect 11
individuals to represent us in the U.S.
House of Representatives, vote on two
constitutional amendments, pick the winning
candidates vying for various municipal offices
... and, oh-by-the-way, yes, also elect a
president and vice president.
We very much hope that you will exercise your
right to help determine these outcomes.
It's a right that a majority of the world's
residents can only dream about or hope for,
many of them reduced to " voting " in sham
elections in one-party states.
However, thanks to Providence, the Founding
Fathers, and millions of courageous men and
women since - all willing to stand up to protect
it - we possess this most-precious of all rights:
self-determination.
Peril awaits and loss inevitably follows, though,
for any human possession that's not tended and
defended. No external enemy is as formidable as
internal apathy.
Yet sadly, even in presidential elections,
the right to vote is usually exercised by just
slightly more than half of us, our absence often
explained by inclement weather, white-hot anger
at petty political partisanship, weary resignation
over an assumed outcome ... or cynicism as
to the relevance of any outcome.
Please, though, don't let anger or apathy be your
guiding light. Let your involvement honor a
remarkable process put in place almost 230 years
ago, a process whose success hinges on average
people like us electing representatives who will
convert good ideas into sound public policy.
At a minimum, we should vote as a meager
token of thanks to those who in the 1770s pledged
their lives, their liberty and their honor to make
this right possible, and to those subsequent
generations who've preserved it over and over
again by putting life and limb at risk.
So, if you're satisfied with one of the choices,
vote. If you're not satisfied with any of them, make
a difficult decision and vote.
Vote your conscience; vote your values; vote
your interests. But as citizens, the important thing,
the crucial thing, the imperative thing for each of
us is to participate in the process. To express our
views through the ballot. To vote.
2
The media and the politicos influence, but
don't determine, who runs our nation. We do.
Whether you're confident about the prospects
of your preferred candidate, merely hopeful, or
even resigned to disappointment, remember: The
only " wasted " vote is the one you never exercise.
So, please, on Nov. 8, be sure to exercise
this right so hard-won by our forebears. And
in the meantime, we share with you some
choice quotes about voting, gleaned from great
thinkers across the political spectrum, the globe,
and the centuries.
" Government is too big and important to be left to
the politicians. "
- Chester Bowles, 20th-century American
business leader and diplomat.
" People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are
made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is
not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those
who make themselves heard and who vote - a very
different thing. "
- Walter H. Judd, 20th-century American missionary,
congressman, editor and radio commentator.
" Every government degenerates when trusted to the
rulers of the people alone. The people themselves,
therefore, are its only safe depositories. "
- Thomas Jefferson, Virginian, 3rd U.S. president,
statesman, philosopher, inventor, architect and
founder of The University of Virginia.
" Of the many things we have done to democracy in
the past, the worst has been the indignity of taking it
for granted. "
- Max Lerner, 20th-century American author
and newspaper columnist.
" Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long,
has been concerned with right or left instead of right
or wrong. "
- Richard Armour, 20th-century literary scholar and
writer of popular light verse.
" Mankind will never see an end of trouble until ...
lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the
holders of power ... become lovers of wisdom. "
- Plato, ancient Greek philosopher and founder
of the first institution of higher learning
in the Western World. I
www.co-opliving.com
http://www.co-opliving.com http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living October 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living October 2016
