It's a Fright!

Yes, it's that time of year when the ghosts and goblins come out and scare us. You turn on the TV and there they are, looking right out at you with terrifying faces. The scary stuff you get in the mail isn't so bad because you can just look at it, know what it is and throw it out. Underlying all of this are people who are likely quite ordinary, and in normal times are probably not that scary. But here we are with a week until election day and the airwaves and mail is dominated by negative ads. As a nation, we have historically been optimists, looking forward to good things in the future. If you really believe all the negative ads, then none of the candidates for any office is any good! Have we become such pessimists with negative attitudes that we have brought this frightful development on ourselves? I don't know, but I assume the negative ads work to bring in votes. Early on, I decided personally that if a candidate did negative advertising, I would just not vote for them! Well, if I stuck to my decision, I would not be able to vote for anyone who is running. To me, it is scary that election day is only two days after Halloween. Could a candidate win public office by simply stating their position on issues? A friend of mine ran for public office a couple of years ago. His advertising was positive, explaining why he was running and for what he stood. He did not attack his opponent and spent a great deal of time going out and meeting the people. Near the election, I received an attack ad against my friend’s opponent in the mail. I was surprised and asked him about it. He had not seen the ad but had several calls about the ad. Apparently, the state party under which he was running did the ad. Because it is not legal to coordinate such advertising with the candidate, they just did the negative ad and sent it out. He called his opponent and apologized, but the damage was done. For the record, I don't like nasty and would like it stopped! Ed Mallon