October's End

It's an election year, in case you haven't noticed. Here in western Massachusetts, an ultra-liberal section of a liberal state, there isn't as much local vitriol as there is in other places, I'm sure. I met someone from rural Pennsylvania a few weeks ago and he described the divide in his town and how it manifests itself: the municipal waste removal workers have been known to treat rather shabbily the garbage cans at houses with lawn signs in support of candidates they don't approve of.

I find myself wondering how my experience in this election would have been different if Trump supporters were more than mere curiosities and instead were a more prominent part of my day-to-day existence.

I find myself thinking back to something that my father told me when I was a teenager. We were watching a documentary on World War II and Hitler, and he said to me, "Don't ever think that something like that can never happen here." I didn't believe him at the time, of course, but he's gotten a lot smarter as I've gotten older, so I now see the wisdom in what he's saying.

Massachusetts has early voting now. I'm trying to decide whether to vote early or not. On the one hand, it might be nice to get it over with. On the other hand, I like the feeling of civic pride I get when I go to the polls with everyone else.