On second thought

October is time to start Christmas shopping and get wise about candidatesToday is Oct. 7, and that means a few things:
Only 11 more weeks until Christmas
There’s still a decent selection of Halloween costumes in local stores
A couple more hard freezes and all the bugs will be dead.
There’s still time to buy me chocolate for my Oct. 23 birthday.… and, while these might all have potential as column topics, Oct 7 also means …
We’re less than a month away from the general election.It’s time to stop watching campaign ads and time to start asking tough questions.Jonathan, 8, told me he’s learning about the elections in school and he asked me which presidential candidate I was going to vote for.I paused.I knew if I told him, he’d want to know why, and I really didn’t have a good answer.I clearly hadn’t been paying attention, and time is running out to get answers. But getting truthful answers to the tough questions isn’t always easy.The easy thing would be to vote ignorantly, or even not vote at all. That way, when the elected officials screw up, we can say we didn’t vote for them.For some who vote ignorantly, or don’t vote at all, it’s because they don’t know where to turn for factual, unbiased information on candidates.For starters, turn off the television and radio and fire up the computer, if you have access to one. Go to a public library to get online if you have to.The Minnesota League of Women Voters each year puts out a voters guide that offers a Q&A-style information on candidates in all the races. Their site is www.lwvmn.org. From their home page, click on "voting and election information," and then on "2004 election information" which offers candidate information specific to each voter’s address.The Minnesota Secretary of State Web site offers candidate information, plus links to their web sites. So, even though the sites are pedaling the candidates, a voter can get a feel for what the candidates are passionate about.That site is www.sos.state.mn.us.Other good, non-biased sources for voter guides can be found at the Minnesota Newspaper Association site, www.mnnewspapernet.org.Click on the red, white and blue "vote" button toward the bottom of the page to link to the Q&A style information on Minnesota candidates.The St. Paul Pioneer Press, www.twincities.com, and Minneapolis Star Tribune, www.startribune.com, also publish voters guides worth reading. Watch those sites for that information soon to be released.We at the Star Herald will, for the most part, leave state and national politics to our colleagues in the daily news business.Our readers can count on us instead to offer thorough coverage of our local county, city and school races.We’re putting together interview questions and questionnaires, and we’ll publish that information in coming weeks.… Meanwhile, there’s still time to shop for my birthday present.