November 8, 2016

This week's Tuesday Timeline entry is going to play out a little differently than it has in previous months.  You'll see why as I progress through it.  It's part history in the making, and part opinion piece.  But don't worry...I promise in this piece, I won't be attacking anybody.  Just making a few observations.

Let's go ahead with what events took place on the 8th of November throughout history.

1837 - The Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (which would later become Mount Holyoke College) is founded by Mary Lyon

1861 - The "Trent Affair" occurs during the American Civil War which causes a crisis of diplomacy between America and the United Kingdom

1887 - John Henry "Doc" Holliday dies at the age of 36

1889 - Montana becomes the forty-first state to join the United States of America

1892 - The New Orleans General Strike begins

1895 - Wilhelm Rontgen discovers X-ray technology

1920 - Actress Esther Rolle (d. 1998) is born in Pompano Beach, Florida

1923 - Adolf Hitler leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful effort to overthrow the German government in an event known as the Beer Hall Putsch

1927 - Singer Patti Page (d. 2013) is born in Claremore, Oklahoma

1931 - Journalist Morley Safer (d. 2016) is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

1933 - The Civil Works Administration is unveiled by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression

1947 - Singer Minnie Riperton (d. 1979) is born in Chicago, Illinois

1957 - Pan Am Flight 7 disappears en route between San Francisco and Honolulu; bodies and pieces of the plane are discovered a week later

1960 - John F. Kennedy wins the American Presidential Election, making him the 35th elected President of the United States

1965 - The death penalty is abolished in the United Kingdom

1966 - The National Football League merges with the American Football League as a direct result of an antitrust exemption signed by President Johnson

1972 - HBO makes its network debut

1973 - The severed ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to the offices of a newspaper, complete with a ransom note demanding almost three million dollars cash in exchange for John Paul's life

2011 - Asteroid 2005 YU55 passes by Earth within a distance of just 201,700 miles - the closest that an asteroid has ever gotten to the Earth's surface; also on this date, cartoonist Bil Keane and rapper Heavy D pass away

And celebrating a birthday today are the following celebrities; Richard Stoker, Nerys Hughes, Bonnie Bramlett, Bonnie Raitt, Mary Hart, Christie Hefner, Alfre Woodard, Rickie Lee Jones, Patricia Barber, Richard Curtis, Gordon Ramsay, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Parker Posey, Diana King, Gretchen Mol, Tara Reid, Colin Strause, Jully Black, Bucky Covington, Dania Ramirez, Laura Jane Grace, Holly Walsh, Ted DiBiase Jr., Steven Webb, Magda Apanowicz, Jessica Lowndes, and Lauren Alaina.

Okay...now it's time to look at the date we'll be going back in time to.  Hope you're ready because this time we're going all the way back to...

...wait a minute.  November 8, 2016?  That's TODAY'S date!  Have I made a mistake?

Actually, no.  I haven't.  I've decided that today is a great day to stop the Tuesday Timeline express because we are on the cusp of what could be considered one of the most important elections that the United States of America has ever seen.  An election that has not just Americans talking, but the entire world.  As someone who lives just a few kilometres away from the New York state border, I sort of have a bird's eye view of the circus that this election has spawned.

And believe you and me...it is a circus of epic proportions.  Maybe not quite as scandalous as Britney Spears' song of the same name, but close to it.  It almost makes me glad that in my own nation of Canada, our elections were nowhere near as crazy!

So, today is election day for over 300 million Americans.  And one by one at polling stations from Spokane, Washington to Baltimore, Maryland will be busy with men and women, Republicans and Democrats, and people of all backgrounds will be casting a vote to determine who the next President will be.  By the end of today, either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be packing up their belongings and moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for at least the next four years. 

Well, okay...I suppose Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are running too, but unless something happens that cancels out every vote in the lower 48 states, I doubt either one of those two will win.

Regardless of who ends up winning, I encourage any and all Americans out there to make their voices heard.  I've seen a few people who have made the claim that their vote doesn't matter, but I don't believe that to be true for a second.  Every single person in the United States has their right to throw their support towards a candidate, and every person who is registered to vote has the chance to make history by casting a vote for the next President of the United States, just as we Canadians made history by voting in the Canadian elections last October.

So, I guess the message I'm sending is - vote, vote, vote!  And make sure you are as informed as you can possibly be about each candidate before you pull the lever or put a check mark in that box or shoot a blue or red paintball at a target or however you Americans cast a vote these days.  And what I mean by informed voting is making sure you know everything that a candidate promises and making a decision based on fact and not fiction.

And, yeah...don't trust any opinions on CNN, MSNBC, FOX or any other news source.  When it comes to politics, no media source is 100% fair and balanced, no matter how much they may proclaim that they are.  We are often our own best judges of our character and our choices, so go with what you feel is the right choice.  I certainly won't judge you on who you vote for.

For that matter, I don't think ANYONE should judge anyone based on who they vote for.  Well, unless you're one of Donald Trump's kids and you vote for Hillary.  But that's not likely to happen.

I've seen so many cases of people verbally abusing others based on their support for a candidate that they don't like.  I've seen photos and videos of people vandalizing other people's homes because they have a Trump or Clinton sign on their front lawn.  I've seen people who have been friends for twenty or more years fall out because of the election.  It's just getting extremely ugly, and honestly I am really looking forward to today being over as a result of it.  There's no need for anger and hatred.  As far as I'm concerned, no matter who wins the election, all of you Americans are in this together.

Well, unless you all start another Civil War - which I DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU DO.

What I'm saying is that this election is probably one of the most important ones that many of you in America will see for a while.  It's also one of the most controversial, as many of you believe that you deserve better choices than the ones you got.  Frankly, I agree with that statement - but I also remind you that you all CHOSE these nominees through the various state primary elections.  You could have had the chance to change things back then, but many of you sat it out - all the more reason for everyone to exercise their right to vote.

After all, prior to the 1920s, only half the population of the country was eligible to vote as women didn't win the right to vote until 1919. 

We're in the home stretch now.  By the end of today, America will have a new President.  Hopefully Americans will make the choice that is best for them - but more importantly, I hope they make the choice that will ultimately be best for their country.  After all, the person you choose will have four years to build a case and prove themselves.