We had a simple, unspoken rule in our house growing up….get up, dress up, show up. It applied to every event both civic and social. You never said, “I don’t feel like it”, I’m too busy, “I don’t want to”, “I can’t”. You showed up and participated.

I thought about that rule after the election when people were asking, “What do we tell the kids?” and it occurred to me that telling them to “show up” is a pretty good idea.

Look at the numbers.

25.6 percent of the population voted for Hillary Clinton
25.5 percent voted for Donald Trump
46.6 percent didn’t vote
1.7 percent voted for Gary Johnson

That means that the election was decided by 25 percent of the population—or that 75 percent of the population doesn’t support the choice. But it doesn’t matter because Donald Trump is moving into the White House in January and he will be making decisions that affect our lives for four year. Whether you are happy about it or not – it’s pretty powerful to think that a mere 25 percent of of the population made a monumental decision, for not only the United States, but for the world and we all will all be living with that choice.

Nearly half of the voting population never showed up…and that’s what you tell the kids.