Just a Thought
I have a thought.
I was just reading an article on RCR Wireless about political text messages, Obama’s in particular. In it, author Colin Gibbs writes, “But in the course of a few weeks, Obama’s text-messaging effort has grown from a national curiosity to a bona fide new way to register volunteers, create stickiness with potential voters and keep supporters in the loop.” This got me to thinking.
In two weeks the election will be over. Someone, Obama or McCain, will emerge the victor. Afterward, there will be no more campaigning, no more debates, no more rallies or fund raisers. In short, there will be nothing more to receive a text message about.
But does it have to be that way?
What if, instead of receiving text messages from a presidential candidate, we received text messages from the President of the United States of America?
After all, just because the election will end doesn’t mean that everything else will. There will still be events of national importance that we should hear about. There will still be television broadcasts that we should watch. There will still be calls to volunteer and donate that we should answer.
So shouldn’t we get text messages about those things, too?
In the article Gibbs made a comment about Obama’s text message campaign that I think we should consider on a grander scale. He said, “The Obama messages made me feel engaged and informed, and gave me the opportunity to get involved with the campaign by contributing or showing up at a rally.”
Couldn’t that just as easily be “The president’s messages made me feel engaged and informed, and gave me the opportunity to get involved with my community/city/country”?
What if we all felt engaged by our president? What if we all became more informed about our nation and our government? What if we all felt like we were a part of a community, a part of something bigger than just ourselves?
On November 4th, after months of watching the debates and reading the articles and discussing the issues, we each will cast our vote. And then it will be over. Either John McCain or Barack Obama will be president. The confetti will be swept away and the yard signs will be pulled up and the patriotic fervor that pulsed through the small towns and the big cities of this great country will disappear for another four years.
But what if it didn’t?
And what if all it took to keep that spirit alive was a simple text message?
Just a thought.
Tags: campaign, election, McCain, Obama, text message