Notes From Hunter Creek

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment was passed in just under 4 months in 1971, quicker than any other Amendment, including the Twenty-First Amendment, which repealed the 18th (Prohibition) Amendment.  

 Why did the Twenty-Sixth Amendment demand such quick action? It prohibited the denial of voting Rights in any federal election to anyone 18 years or older. Soon thereafter, all states followed the federal lead.  

In 1971, the Vietnam War was in its full glory. A common cry went out, something like this: “if they are old enough to fight, they’re old enough to vote”.    

Yeah, that makes sense to me. I remember my first Presidential election vote, when I turned age 21. Then, 60 days later, Uncle Sam said I was very necessary, as I was drafted in the first Draft Lottery (No.39 out of 365). 

There was also some hope that including young people age 18-20 as new voters, would boost overall voter participation. So far, this has not materialized with the possible exception of the fall 2020 election.   

Unfortunately, in the past, the youth vote (age 18 thru age 25) has averaged around 10%. Not much of a boost, huh?    

We will just have to wait and see. By the way, voters 65 and older tend to show up and vote at 4 times as the rate of the “youth” vote.  

In my lifetime, I have somehow successfully entertained 5 contested elections. I remember one time, way back then, when a young voter told me that they sure wanted to pull the lever for me on election day.        

The only problem, I told Joe, was that he was a little bit tardy; “the election had already taken place on Tuesday” . Oops!        

Note: Nov. 6

Wow, daylight is fastly vanishing, isn’t it? 

That usually means that the Ozarks will have a glorious 2 month period of nice weather stretching from mid-September to  at least Thanksgiving. 

Luckily, I already have my 3 cords of firewood ready for winter warmth. However, the wood, of course, is quite a ways from my front porch where I will, sooner or later, stack this year’s firewood. 

I miss the days when I had boys and we “shared” all of these firewood duties. The question from my children was always “why us”? I could have said “because you like to be warm during the winter”, but my stock sexist reply was always, “that’s why I had boys and not a bunch of girls”.

A quick footnote on the amazing 2020 Presidential election!  In my ultimate wisdom, I have figured out how Biden has apparently pulled off an historic upset. By the way, unlike my good neighbor and friend, Tom Vinson who is a true patriot and a dutiful former Skyline School Board member, I have never voted for Trump, or Biden or Clinton. I can tell you that this irritates a lot of my close friends whom supported the President.

But you see. I had nothing to do with Biden’s victory. It was actually decided in early March the Wednesday night prior to the South Carolina red state Democratic Primary election occurring on the following Tuesday.

Here is what happened. The respected Democratic Whip of the House, Jim Klyburn, from South Carolina, a week prior  to the Tuesday election endorsed Joe Biden, an old white guy whom had run 3 times for President and had never won a primary election in his lifetime. In fact, in 2020, Biden  had a dismal track record, scoring 4th in Iowa and 5th in New Hampshire. I like most of America said “put a fork in Biden, he was toast.”

But on that fateful Wednesday evening in March proceeding the election when a bunch of the Lord’s servants, gathered for  services, at some point, they must have considered Congressman Klyburn’s recommendation. While I figured that Biden was toast, these skillful amateur  politicians, these very smart black women figured that of the still 9 Democratic remaining candidates running that Biden was the only one who could whip Trump.

And they turned out to be miracle workers and were very correct, and very astute. Of course, the eventual winner may have had some invisible help from the President. He had been urging his people not to trust early voting by mail. And unfortunately for him, they followed his advice in the biggest voter turnout in 110 years.

Of course, I consider myself an amateur historian, and an even bigger amateur politician.  Just when you think that you know something about politics, you find out that you don’t know squat. 

Now, get up and go enjoy our beautiful Ozarks outdoors!