It's been a little while since I've participated with Carole and the others and posted for Three on Thursday, so I have decided today will be the day. Mine are not related, but each one pleases me, so here we go.
1. Today I'm getting my hair cut. This makes me happy, because it's just at the point where it's starting to look shaggy and my weird cowlick is becoming uncontrollable. Whenever I leave the salon after a hair cut, I always feel like things will be OK.
2. Today and tomorrow (if necessary) I am certain I will finish the shawlette I am knitting for my niece Amanda. That pleases me because a) all of my gift knitting will be finished, and b) I can return to any wips or new projects I want to start without any worries about finishing gifts in time to mail them.
3. You may or may not have heard the expression that "Pennsylvania is Pittsburgh on one end, Philadelphia on the other end, and Alabama in the middle." Or, you may have heard reference to "Pennsyltucky," meaning virtually the same thing. Though most people don't think about it one way or the other, the state is largely small towns, many of them rural. So there's always the push-and-pull between the cities and the "country" parts of the state during elections, and mostly in the state legislature. So I was hoping against hope that somehow PA voters would elect Josh Shapiro for Governor and John Fetterman for U.S. Senator. I have to say that I was really worried it wouldn't happen, because so many of the political ads were definitely full of fear-mongering and race-baiting, and frankly in a lot of the state that plays well (i.e., Philadelphia is always a dangerous, crime-filled place, mainly because of so many black people).
But the best thing happened - Shapiro and Fetterman won the election!! Yes, millions of people still voted for their opponents who shall henceforth never be mentioned again, but the numbers worked the way I wanted them to and I feel so relieved! I'm also happy that the predicted "Red Wave" didn't materialize in the country at large, and I feel that if we can all keep working hard, we will be able to keep our democracy in place.
The other best part about the election is that there are no more ads - though I did like one that was against a certain person who lives in NJ but was running for office in PA. It showed a version of the painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, with that person as Washington, and everyone in the boat wearing MAGA hats. The tag line was, "Keep Pennsylvania free from New Jersey." That actually made me laugh out loud.
So at least for today, things are going well. I'm happy to take it one day and one victory at a time.
7 comments:
My state has a similar makeup to yours where big cities have more control than the rural parts of the state. I am lucky that Illinois has been a Blue state and it continued that way this election.
I am just glad it's over for now and agree with you that I surely won't miss those horrible political ads!
I was so proud of Pennsylvania! We have family there and I know what you mean by Alabama in the middle. We have the same thing here in MD. Most counties are red but the big three in the middle are blue and that's were most of the people live that vote thank goodness. I am so proud of my state too. Historic wins AND legal weed! What a great night!!! And the best thing....the big billboard with Trump on it endorsing the R candidate for gov disappeared quietly overnight. I love it.
Pennsylvania sounds a lot like Ontario. Whenever you look at an election results map, it's almost always Liberal/NDP (more or less equivalent to your democrats) from Toronto to Niagara in a little crescent around Lake Ontario. There's a usually a blob of Lib/NDP around Ottawa. But the rest of the province is almost entirely Conservative (similar to Republican... but in Canada a little... less crazy...). By area something like 80 of the province is small/town rural. But 80% of the population lives in cities, which make up that 20% of area.
COVID really helped feed the divide. I have some Conservative values, and some Liberal values.... but I don't really feel like either party works for me any more. Their are either hard right or hard left... where is that middle ground anymore?
Maybe one day sanity will prevail...
I was so thrilled to see that Fetterman won! I didn't know about the governor, which is even better. Our democrat Governor candidate also held off a very strong republican contender so yay for our states!
I was more worried about Pennsylvania than here. Pumped a fist or two, even.
I can tell you that Michigan has much the same make-up (major urban areas "downstate" and remote rural communities "up north"), so always a bit of a cultural clash in all things here. Anyway, I'm thrilled with the way things sorted out here in Michigan on Tuesday. And for Pennsylvania, too. It gives me hope that people really DO care about preserving democracy. XO
I am BASKING in the ad-free zone. Such bliss!
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