All That Remains are the Yard Signs

Tracey Mendrek, Senior Consultant

After a long, expensive and exhausting campaign, the 2012 election is finally behind us.  No matter what your political leaning is, everyone is ready to move on.  But alas that is impossible, because yard signs still litter the landscape.  Many are beginning to look a little tattered around the edges or faded from the sun, but there they are still promising hope, change, leadership and reform.

Yard signs are an integral part of a successful campaign.  They call attention to a candidate or an issue and they remind us of our right as citizens to go to the polls and affect change.  But what was initially placed so proudly is forgotten so quickly.

It occurs to me that those wayward signs remind us that our right and responsibility as citizens doesn’t stop on election day.   We wish that the campaigns that put up the signs would come and take them down, but this is emblematic of the problem.  We vote and we forget.

All that remains are the yard signs, but perhaps they should serve as a constant reminder to pay attention.  On November 6 we vote for people who represent our views and our beliefs.  We can’t turn off our concern as soon as the final election night wraps.  We must participate in the process every day, follow our elected officials carefully and hold them accountable for the promises they made.