Today is the South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary

Good Morning Myrtle Beach! 

Guess what today is?

It's the Republican Presidential Primary!

Time to get your Saturday Go-To-Votin' Clothes on!

Let's Vote It Up Myrtle Beach!

To All Democrats within the sound of my voice:

Don't worry...

the fact that you will not be voting today does not mean that South Carolina has it out for you or that you're in the process of being disenfranchised or that the Democratic Party has been outlawed. (she fantasizes for a moment)

You will not be required to cast a ballot because...guess what?  

Obama is your man...whether you like it or not as he's the only one on the ballot.

For more information on how your County Conventions will be handled, check out SCVotes.org

If you're a Republican and you're wondering if you Registered to vote in time for today's Primary or if you're not sure where to go to vote...then check out the SCVotes.org site as well and you'll find links in the right sidebar of the Home Page.

As a young girl growing up in the 60s and early 70s...whenever I asked my mom and dad how they voted during an Election...the answer I got was always the same...

"How I voted is a private matter.  I can't tell you".

You see; it wasn't about persuading other people around you to make what you believed was the right choice for our Country.

It was more about trooping down to the Polling Place and performing your Civic Duty.

And more than that...people voted then as people do now...

it's more a part of a family or social affiliation heritage.

In our neighborhood, if you broke from the Catholic Church...you were considered a heretic and a religious whore and some labels so awful I can't mention them here.

In our neighborhood, if you broke from voting the "right way"...then you were also considered to be a betrayer of your "people".

It's an ignorant and totally outdated way of thinking...but that way of conducting social affairs is still ingrained in our Customs and Culture.

The fact that it still exists at all and on any level is troublesome.

I'd like to see people think for themselves, but the thinking was done for most of us and hammered into our heads from an early age by our:

parents, teachers, peers, co-workers, bosses, favorite TV shows and movies and of course...our family priest or pastor.

Our Society, when it comes to voting, is by and large...(in my eyes)... nothing more than programmed robots who drive to the polls in a trance-like stupor...voting for people who will do everything in their power to rob that individual of their hopes and dreams and money and future and land and self-worth.

And they would know this...if they only took the time to do a little bit of research themselves.

They would also know this...if they would not rely on the Mass Media at all...and in fact...they should vote the opposite of whichever candidates  their local newscasters are pedaling.
Those people live in a bubble.   They behave as if there is nothing outside of the "news" they feed us everyday.
There is nothing else to know besides what they deem important for us to know.
We have the Internet for crying out loud and we can point and click and find things out all on our very own...independent of "The Group"

I remember my first time voting.  I had actually really looked forward to that moment and I felt like a proud American after I pulled all the levers and emerged from behind the curtain.

The older gentleman manning the booth extended a warm, broad smile and a firm handshake.

He made me feel like I had joined the ranks of an elite group of people who mattered and were important to the upkeep and survival of our Republic.

Seriously; I really thought that way.

I miss those big old metal booths with the huge drawn curtain.

It was sort of like entering the Holy of Holies.

Very solemn.

Very serious.

2012 finds me quite a bit older than I was when I cast my first vote in 1980, and I'd like to think it finds me quite a bit wiser.  

(The jury is still in deliberation on that one!!!)

I've lived at Home and Abroad and I've seen what works and doesn't work at both the Federal, State and Local levels.

I no longer hold to the same ideal as my parents did when I was very young and so I do not conceal my voting preferences.

Of course, later on my mom and dad became involved in politics and party affiliation alone kind of narrowed down how they very likely voted.  

Their choices were no longer shrouded in mystery.

The first time I walked into a polling place when I lived in Washington State in 1992 after returning from my stint with the Air Force in Asia... and I was directed to a semi-private table...the whole event took on the ambiance of filling out paperwork at the DMV.

Though I knew it wasn't the manner in which we vote, but the vote itself which counts...I don't know...there was something very uninspiring about it.

It lacked that feeling of being something special.

Something important.

I'll be placing my vote for Ron Paul tomorrow.

Many may feel it's a throwaway vote, but I don't.

Why in the world would I want to vote in more of the same crappy, can't-tell-the-difference-between-one-party-and-the-other candidate?

More of the career politician-ism? 

I wouldn't and I won't.

And, fun fact:  I've included a clause in my Last Will and Testament as to how I'm to vote from the grave and in which States I'd like to cast ballots.

I think this could be the new trend in the "Will" industry.

Fingers crossed that all goes well tomorrow and that people in South Carolina will vote with their brains and not their heritage.