Get Out And Vote!

 

Here are my answers to the top ten reasons why people don’t vote.

 

10. “I can’t get to the polling location on Election Day”

“[T]he vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.” - Lyndon B. Johnson

You can walk, run, or crawl there. You can get a Lyft or an Uber. You can phone a friend or take a bus or charter a plane (okay probably not that last one).

If you have work that day (like most of us) you can make a plan to go before work or after. Polls in PA are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Or in PA  you can request either a no-excuse mail-in ballot or an absentee ballot. Any registered voter may apply to vote by mail. You do not have to provide a reason for why you want to vote by mail ballot. OR If you will be out of your municipality on Election Day or if you have a disability or illness that prevents you from going to your polling place on Election Day, you can request an absentee ballot.

“Pops added," You know, they say if you don't vote, you get the government you deserve." -E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

 

9. “I’m not registered to vote”

“Don’t be afraid-if you don’t exercise your rights, you will lose them.” Maria Ressa,  Nobel Peace Prize laureate and journalist

Well October 19^th was the last day to register to vote in the November election.

BUT you can get registered to vote in the 2027 election TODAY!

So don’t put it off and miss out again next year.

“American youth attributes much more importance to arriving at driver's license age than at voting age.” -Marshall McLuhan

 

8. “I’m just uninformed about what’s on the ballot”

“Politicians are a lot like diapers, they should be changed frequently, and for the same reasons. Keep that in mind the next time you vote.” Robin Williams in “Man of the Year”

Sure, I understand wanting to largely tune out that noise. I know by election day I just want to stop seeing all those political ads on TV.

But it literally only takes a few minutes to go to a website like ballotpedia.org or ballotready.org to be informed when you’re voting.

And I never know about all the races, there is always one or two where I just pick the candidate that lives closest to me or matches the party I’m most aligned with. 

"All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong."- Henry David Thoreau

 

7. “My vote doesn’t matter”

"Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be." - Sydney J. Harris

This just isn’t true as anyone that tries to watch TV somewhere in the month or two before an election will see that your vote must be important since politicians spend so much money trying to convince you to vote for them or in some cases against their opponents.

This is not a presidential election year, but there is no denying that PA is an important swing state. PA has picked the winner in the last five consecutive presidential elections (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024), sharing this streak with only Michigan and Wisconsin.

“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”- Plato

 

6. “Corporations buy elections anyway”

"Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting booth, their vote has as much weight as that of any CEO, any member of Congress or any President."- Barbara Boxer

There is no denying there is a lot of money in politics these days. But no matter how much money people spend they can’t buy votes. They spend money and try to convince people to vote for them. But sometimes all the money in the world doesn’t convince people to change their vote. 

In the end, no matter how big your megaphone is, you are only effective if the ideas you are shouting make sense to the majority of the voters.

Anyone who thinks he's too small to make a difference has never been bit by a mosquito", I'd tell people.”- Jeannette Walls, Half Broke Horses

 

5. “I don’t care about politics”

"A man without a vote is a man without protection." - Lyndon B. Johnson

You may think you don’t care about politics but that’s probably because the endless news cycles can make your head hurt or bore you to tears. But you know what you do care about. Having a good job, having food on your table for you and your family, saving money, buying that house, being able to afford a doctor when you get sick, whether your son or daughter can pay for college. And even though sometimes it just seems like it’s all scandals and mudslinging. Politics are also about issues like that that are important to everyone.

“Democracy requires individual courage, integrity, discipline, and watchful citizens who value dignity and equality”- Eleanor Roosevelt

 

4. Politicians are all the same anyway, I don’t want to vote for either of them”

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that you vote is never lost."- John Quincy Adams

It may seem sometimes like one politician is the same as every other but things change over time.

Do you like your 5-day work week? That didn’t just happen President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938, which initially capped the workweek at 44 hours and later stepped it down to a maximum of 40 hours nationwide starting on October 24, 1940.

Do you plan on retiring some day? Or do you want to work until the day you die? FDR also created The United States Social Security program was signed into law on August 14, 1935.

"Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters." - Abraham Lincoln

 

3. “It seems like the candidates I do like never have any chance of winning”

“If you don’t vote, you lose the right to complain,” George Carlin

This is understandable especially if you don’t feel like the “mainstream” candidates Republican or Democrat are in line with the way you feel about the issues. After all 45% of the US is Independent so are our main parties really even the mainstream?

But I’m not here to tell people who to vote for. I’m here to tell people to vote.

If you feel aligned with a 3^rd party candidate vote for them. The worst that can happen is they lose, but the best that can happen is they win!

In this year’s election in Nebraska Dan Osborn, an Independent, is neck and neck in the polls with the Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts.

So, Independents can win even in bigger elections if they have a strong message and people that believe in it.

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."- John Quincy Adams

 

2. “I live in a state where my vote doesn’t matter as much”

"If American women would increase their voting turnout by ten percent, I think we would see an end to all of the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children." - Coretta Scott King

Pennsylvania isn’t one of those states but sure there are always races where one candidate is polling so well that it seems like his/her opponent has no chance of winning. But you know what polls can only tell you so much. Polls can’t always tell you who is going to show up at the polls and who doesn’t bother.

In the 2024 presidential election, 73.6% (or 174 million people) of the citizen voting-age population was registered to vote and 65.3% (or 154 million people) voted. That means 35% of people didn’t vote. Meanwhile, the popular vote margin of  that election was about 1.5% to 1.6%.

Sometimes elections come down to who didn’t show up as much as who did show up. So, if the election is important to you make sure you show up no matter what the polls are saying.  

"We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." - Thomas Jefferson

 

1. “I’m just too lazy to vote”

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr

Too lazy to vote!!

If your family has been here for any length of time your fathers and their fathers might have fought in wars to protect this democracy. Or your grandmother still tells stories about food rationing during WWII.  

And you’re too lazy to get off the couch to vote?

Sure, in school we all learn about the America Revolution and how we fought the American Revolution so that we all could vote, but it was only white landowners who got the right to vote in that war.

If you are African American, or a woman, or any other minority your ancestors had to fight for your right to vote. There was the Civil War in the 1860s, the Suffragette movement in the 1910s, and the Civil Rights marches in the 1960s.

The least you can do to thank all the people before you that fought for your rights is to go vote!

Besides the United States is a changing nation we are projected to become a majority-minority country by the middle of the 21st century. Meaning for the first time the Black, Asian, Hispanic and other minorities populations will be larger than the non-Hispanic White population.

We are starting to see this change reflected in our Federal elected officials the current US Congress (119th) is the most racially and ethnically diverse in US history with 26% of voting members identifying as a racial or ethnic minority. 

It’s an exciting time in history and you’re a part of it, so don’t sit this one out!

"What we do here in this country, and what we are, what we want to be, represents really a great experiment in a most difficult kind of self-discipline, and that is the organization and maintenance and development of the progress of free government." John F. Kennedy

 

Thank you to Blueprint and Luc Alvarez for the idea for this article https://southblueprint.com/22586/entertainment/top-10-reasons-people-have-for-not-voting-and-why-theyre-dumb/

 

 

The Iris of Your Eye- Throwing Copper

 

The Iris of Your Eye- Remembering the Alternative music I loved.

I grew up in the 90s. I spent nearly all the money I earned from working at a supermarket in High School on CDs. By the time I went to college (where I had a radio show), and I had two huge travel cases filled with over 500 CDs.

I started college 26 years ago and since that time unfortunately CDs have largely become irrelevant. My once prized cases sit in my closet unused. The death blow was my car no longer having a CD player. Instead of CDs I play music on Sirius XM.

But there is something magical and nostalgic about my collection of music and that is something I miss. Plus, even with all the channels on Sirius XM, it seems like I hear the same songs over and over again after a while.

So, I had an idea. Why not start listening to my albums again, some of which I may not have heard in years and see if I still feel the same way about them. Is the magic still there or have I changed so much that I no longer appreciate them in the same way?

Okay, so the first album I’m looking at is the 1994 album Throwing Copper by Live. It’s only fitting as the title of the project “The Iris of Yor Eye” comes from the song “Iris.” And album is one of the first I remember buying along with Jagged Little Pill, Dookie and Nevermind.

The classic lineup of Live formed in York, Pennsylvania, in 1984 with Ed Kowalczyk (lead vocals, guitars), Patrick Dahlheimer (bass), Chad Gracey (drums), and Chad Taylor (guitars) thought they were originally called Public Affection. Their debut album was 1991's Mental Jewelry but they had greater success with their second album Throwing Copper.

The album starts with "The Dam at Otter Creek" and I remember back in the day I would just skip this one because it’s too slow in the beginning and I just want to get to the good parts.

When I heard “Selling the Drama” I immediately started singing along and I felt the same way about “Iris,” “Top,” and “All Over You.” Though the line “Oh, Hitler, in a robe of truth” in “Top” has always confused me. I used to pretend the lyric was “Oh, Hitler in a Robuck chair.” I also used to pretend the lyric in “All Over You” was “I love you like Walter.”

I hear "Selling the Drama," “I Alone,” and “Lightning Crashes” all the time on Sirius XM’s alternative and grunge station Lithium, but they are still great songs.

The video for “I Alone” was really memorable (And probably what first got me to buy the album) with the band rocking out to the track. But it always made me laugh that the drummer (Chad Gracey) didn’t have his drums and was just wandering around.

“Lightning Crashes” is more ballad sounding to me. It also almost feels like a story song. But I think those elements are what made it more mainstream and made the band more successful. I remember the song being used in and episode of the FOX TV show “Strange Luck” in 1995. It was the first time I heard “my music” being used on a TV show.

The lyrics for “Shit Towne” haven’t aged well, because I can’t exactly rock out about the crackheads down the street with my 9 year-old in the car. But it’s still an okay song. Along those lines, I’ve always loved the righteous indignation of “Some f$cking change!” expressed in “Waitress.” And then there is “Stage” which builds to the emphatic “Come on motherf$cker!”

T.B.D. is a slow burn of a song, but I’ve always liked it and the all-out ending is worth the wait. “Pillar of Division” on the other hand is a slow burn that doesn’t have as dramatic an end but still works.

I think “White, Discussion” should have been a bigger hit. It sounds like a classic and I think the extended scream must have inspired songs like Filter’s “Hey Man Nice Shot.”

There is also the secret track named “She Road a Horse into My Head” or maybe just “Horse” which I’ve always liked, but it sounds more like a country tune. “White, Discussion” and the secret track are actually on the same track of the CD so back in the CD Mixtape days I was frustrated that I couldn’t put either of them on CDs by themselves. And I also didn’t put them both on because there would be that long stretch of dead air.

The album was a mainstream hit, reaching number one on the Billboard 200. It’s Live's bestselling album, having sold over 8 million copies and certified 8× platinum. “Selling the Drama," "I Alone," "Lightning Crashes," "All Over You," and "White, Discussion" were all singles. (Though some only outside of the US)

On the Billboard Hot 100- “Selling the Drama” reached 43, “Lightning Crashes” reached 12, “All Over You” reached 33 and “White Discussion” reached 71

On the Modern Rock Tracks- “Selling the Drama” reached 1, “I Alone” reached 6, “Lighting Crashes” reached 1, “All Over You” reached 4, and “White Discussion” reached 15.  

The band made 5 subsequent albums Secret Samadhi (1997), The Distance to Here (1999), V (2001), Birds of Pray (2003), and Songs from Black Mountain (2006).

I know I bought Secret Samadhi and The Distance to Here but I never liked them as much as I liked Throwing Copper.

In 2011 band members Patrick Dahlheimer, Chad Gracey, and Chad Taylor, announced that they would restart the band without Kowalczyk. They hired a new lead singer Chris Shinn, formerly of Unified Theory. The first (and only) album to feature Shinn, The Turn, was released in 2014.

In 2017 Ed Kowalczyk rejoined the band for a tour and in 2018, they released the singles "Love Lounge" and "Be a Giver, Man" and the EP Local 717.

In June 2022, Kowalczyk announced that Chad Taylor had been fired from the band. And in September 2022, Kowalczyk announced that he would be touring as Live without Dahlheimer or Gracey, leaving Kowalczyk as the only original member left in the band. However, since then the other members have been trying to reclaim the band’s name.

--

Some information from Live’s Wikipedia pages  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_(band)

Science Fiction Readers Find Community

 

Anastasia, moderator at SFBC, visits fellow moderator Damo in Dublin in Aug of 2025

Let’s imagine that the entire population of Colonial Park (where East Shore Area Library (ESA) is located) all read the same book, and they all somehow magically fit inside a meeting room at ESA to discuss the book. The library has enough chairs for everyone, and the meeting room has enough space for everyone. And everyone even has a little leg room. And somehow one book was able to appeal to the many different demographics of the town.  

Obviously, this would not be possible in real life. However, Library Manager of Madeline Olewine Memorial Library (MOM), John Grayshaw is the creator and administrator of the  Science Fiction Book Club (SFBC) on Facebook, whose member count just reached 15,000 members in December of 2025. The members aren’t from just one town they are from all around the world: US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and many more.

The book group has two monthly Group Reads. There is a Classic Group Read which is anything published more than 20 years ago, and a Modern Group Read which is anything published in the last 20 years. Members nominate and vote each month to decide what novel or short fiction collection will be read, then each week there are weekly discussion posts. There is also a weekly short fiction discussion too. 

Additionally, John has conducted over 100 interviews with science fiction authors, as well as biographers, historians, and other experts including, David Brin, Neal Asher, C.J. Cherryh, Larry Niven, David Gerrold, Samuel Delany, Lois McMaster Bujold, William F. Nolan, Hugh Howey, Andy Weir, Kim Stanley Robinson, and many others.

John does a lot of research for these interviews pouring over previous interviews so that he can balance asking questions that have never been asked before with asking questions he knows will have interesting answers. This amount of research paid off last January when the expert lined up for the Q and A about Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett fell through so John ended up answering the questions himself.

Also in January, John completed a 3-month research project about all the "Lost Stories" from Harlan Ellison's "Last Dangerous Visions." LDV was a sci-fi anthology project that Ellison started 50 years ago but never completed. After Ellison’s death, his friend and fellow writer J. Michael Straczynski got a version of the project published in October 2024. John started wondering what happened to all the stories JMS didn't use and that still haven’t been published in other places and would any of them see the light of day in the future or were they lost to time. John started reaching out to the authors and eventually published an article in Amazing Stories Magazine.

For a group this large John needs some help managing it, so he has 5 group members that are also moderators. Their diversity reflects the group’s diversity.  Anastasia lives in West Virginia, Heather in Tennessee, Damo in Ireland, Tanya in the UK, and Stevie is in Australia. “We’re covering as many time zones as possible. The sun never sets on the SFBC,” said John. John points out that there is a lot of work that is done behind the scenes to make the group run smoothly. Damo writes the Group Read discussion questions, Tanya draws a sketch of a Sci-Fi author every month, and Stevie combs through the posts looking for spammers.  

 Anastasia, moderator at SFBC, and her service dog Hoodoo visit creator/administrator John in PA in 2022.  

No matter how large the group grows, John feels it is important to maintain a “small town” feel. For instance, every member is personally welcomed to the group when they join. New members say what some of their favorite novels and authors are before they join and this is shared in an introductory thread so that existing group members can learn a little something about the new members.

John credits perhaps an unlikely source as the model for the group, Stan Lee and Marvel comics. “When I was a kid and reading comics Stan Lee had a way of making Marvel seem like a cool club that you were a part of just by reading the comics. The way he would say in the footnotes ‘for those of us in the know, we know this happen is issue 89 of Amazing Spider-Man. Or he would say ‘Smart readers already know this is from Fantastic Four 134.’ It didn’t even matter if you had those issues or not, it still made you feel like a part of something. And that’s the feeling I always wanted people to have from the group. We’re not just a generic group on Facebook we’re the place all the cool kids are hanging out and by being here you are one of us now.”  

And projecting this feeling of community has worked well. Many group members tell John that SFBC is their favorite group on Facebook. Or that they are only still on Facebook because of the SFBC.

“Best fb group bar none!” said group member YiFeng You from Massachusetts. “Honestly, been at fb near the beginning, no other discussion group comes close. In fact, probably the best book discussion group I’ve been in period in real life or online.”

“Great group - keeps adding to my TBR list and learn something new each week about SF,” said group member Ivor Watkins from the UK. “Also it’s polite, respectful and welcoming - an oasis in FB waters.”

“Great job by admins & moderators for keeping a fair atmosphere,” said group member Maurice Parrod from France.  “Always a pleasure to come here and reading and discussing about SF.”

With members so spread out across the world John said, many of the Group’s members have commented that it is great to find a community of readers rather than feeling like a lone and isolated reader like Harold Bemis from the Twilight Zone episode ‘Time Enough at Last.’

Other than the sense of community John has cited several other keys to the group’s success. John shared that sometimes it takes a long time for something to grow. He started the group in the summer of 2010 but it didn’t reach 1,000 members until the summer of 2015. And that’s when he started doing monthly group reads and the group started its rapid expansion.  

The last two lessons are more specific to online groups/message boards. John said, “In today’s world people often read books and join book groups to relax and escape the everyday news cycle. The last thing they want is to reencounter the news of the days in their read groups so the moderators and I do our best to keep real world political talk out of the group.”

“The final lesson is it is an unfortunate fact that many people try to join read groups not to discuss things, but to get some free advertising for their latest book,” said John. “The group’s rules ban such promotion and any member who tries it is banned from the group”

So, the next time you are at a program at the East Shore Library or just there getting some books. Just for a second imagine 15,000 people crammed into the library because if you do you’ll know how lucky we are that we live in a time where it is possible to have a place where we can share a sense of community with so many people around the world because of a shared love of something like Science Fiction.

Celebrating Middletown's History

John Grayshaw at Madeline Olewine Memorial Library

 

Middletown PA History is an educational page on Facebook that was started last year by John Grayshaw, who is the Library Manager at Madeline Olewine Memorial Library, one of the branches in the Dauphin County Library System (DCLS).

 

John first came to the Capital Area when he got a job as the Library Director at the Middletown Public Library in 2015. In 2016 he and his family moved to Middletown and later that year he bought a house there. In 2023 he started working for DCLS.

 

The page is a passion project. “I’m on the Middletown Historical Restoration Commission,” said John, “and that group has two goals- help preserve Middletown’s historic buildings and promote Middletown’s history, so this page was a perfect fit to help with those goals.”

 

However, while the focus is on Middletown it often bleeds through into more broadly the Dauphin County area. “President Lincoln and President Kennedy both visited Harrisburg so of course I wrote all about it,” said John. “I have an upcoming post in March about Wilt Chamberlian’s 100-point game which was played in Hershey.   

 

The page is an independent entity. “I started it as its own thing because I didn’t want to be bound by any existing organizations,” said John “If it was through the Commission I’d be bound by those rules. If it was through the Middletown Area Historical Society, same thing. I wanted to get the information out there and to be my own boss while doing it.”

 

John talked about how the posts are written. “Normally, I don’t do new research, most of the posts come from research from the Middletown Area Historical Society or the Lower Swatara Township Preservation Society, or the Penn State Harrisburg Archives, or the Middletown Area School District Archives, or newspaper articles or (historians cover your ears) Wikipedia.”

The Liberty Band has held a significant place in Middletown history due to its longevity. The band, in various incarnations, served Middletown for over 100 years. Though the band is not active today, its Liberty Band Hall is still standing today as a reminder of this history.

 

Originally, John also put some of the historical information on the Middletown Public Library’s website back when he was the Library Director. He worked with a High School intern Alexis Jefferson. She did the research and the first draft and John helped her edit the articles. “But I didn’t feel like enough people were seeing it on the Library’s website,” he said.  

 

A lot of residents contact John with research questions after reading the articles. John gets questions about the history of specific homes or people wanting him to research their family history, or people that want to donate historical objects. “I always point them to the historical societies and say I’m just a guy writing articles I don’t have the resources of these existing organizations,” said John.

 

Friends John made from the Commission help advise him about the borough’s history. “I didn’t grow up in Middletown or the Capital Region or even Pennsylvania. I grew up in Bayside, Queens, New York. So everything I know about the area I’ve learned in the last 10 years. Meanwhile, people that read my posts talk about how things were when they were kids, so when my research fails me, it’s great to have folks that grew up here to bounce things off of.”   

 

The first official post was on Christmas Day of 2024 because that is Helen Twelevetrees’ birthday. Twelevetrees was a Hollywood actress in the 1930s and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She moved to Middletown in the 1940s with her husband who was stationed at the Olmsted Air Force Base. Unfortunately, she died an untimely death in 1958. She is buried in the Middletown Cemetery.  

 

The topics range from old history like The Middletown Resolves which was when Middletown declared its independence from Britian in 1774 (two years before the Declaration of Independence) to more recent history like the Three Mile Island disaster or Hurricane Agnes.

 

John has been surprised by how popular the page has been and how much positive feedback he has gotten from residents. The page currently has over 1,500 followers. The most popular post was about the Olmsted Air Force Base which has 600 likes, 150 comments, and 245 shares.

 

Another really popular post was about Robert Reid who was the Mayor of Middletown for many years and is very beloved in the borough.

At the corner of Spring and Union Streets, this triangular-shaped building housed the Middletown Post Office from 1876 until 1893.

 

Most of the posts follow the “this day in history” type format. Though some posts about buildings in Middletown and future posts about historical businesses aren’t tied to any specific dates. By the end of 2025 there were about 70 posts and John plans on just restarting the cycle in 2026 though he will continue to sprinkle in all new posts too.

 

“My hope is that everyone that lives here will know all this history now,” said John, “And that people will figure out new ways to use this history to attract more tourism to the area. The Commission has been trying to get some wayside markers to promote the town’s history.”

 

John has enjoyed the anonymity he has since he posts to the page anonymously, “I liked being anonymous, but there is also that part of you that does want some credit. Many people seem to think I’m like some really old historian. I posted about President Lincoln’s visit to Harrisburg and someone asked if I took the pictures myself. Another woman commented that she hopes all my historical pictures will be preserved somewhere when I die. I messaged her back and said ‘I’m only 43!’”

 

John reflected on his work on the page this past year. “My 9-year-old thinks I’m crazy and doesn’t think Middletown History is as interesting as I think it is, but I guess somewhere along the line I just caught the history bug…You can stand at the Square and imagine where the tavern was where President Washington visited and look across the street and see the house where Lafeyette visited. Then you can walk down the street and see where an Underground Railroad stop was… My house in Oak Hills was originally owned by a Sgt stationed at Olmsted Air Force Base, and a few houses down is where Helen Twelvestrees lived…. The history feels like it is all around you in Middletown.”