Since my middle school years, I've had an interest in politics.
I think it actually is important who is elected and I think it matters how our elected officials act and react to people and situations. In my opinion, our candidates reflect on us as a nation, and their character counts.
So, as you can probably imagine, I'm not enjoying this campaign season.
This election season is like a nasty, low-budget cable TV reality show that I would never watch. It's been turned into a circus, a joke and a shame.
I'm fortunate to teach a government class to seniors at Adrian High School. Most of the time it's a blast to teach a topic that I'm passionate about and to inspire an interest in politics in some students.
But this year I've found myself saying to my students, “If politics was like this when I was your age, I would have never become as interested in it.”
I miss the days (as recently as four years ago) when both parties nominated qualified candidates who, although human and often very flawed, at least acted and spoke in public like civil adults who were trying to be worthy of deserving our votes.
So, what is a political junky like me who wants civility and competence in politics to do in the final weeks of a campaign that has none of those things?
I'm going back to another childhood interest of mine. I'm jumping back on the Chicago Cubs bandwagon!
During the first few summers that I was old enough to stay home during the day, our house had no video games and the internet was years away.
But we did have cable TV and WGN-TV from Chicago. That meant Cubs games from Wrigley Field with Harry Carey's play-by-play most weekdays at 1:20 p.m. Now, that was my kind of reality cable TV!
The tradition-rich Cubs had no home night games until the late 1980s when lights were finally installed at venerable Wrigley Field. But the Cubs did have a national TV audience on cable in the ’80s and ’90s.
To this day, even though I follow the Twins more closely now, I still feel a connection to the Cubs, Wrigley Field and Chicago overall from watching all those afternoon games on TV as a kid.
That's why I'm rooting for them in the playoffs and hoping they make it to the World Series, which will be played just days before Election Day.
I can think of no better way to try to avoid this reality show nightmare of a campaign than to cheer for my favorite childhood team as they try to win their first World Series in 108 years.
And, if we're lucky, we'll have to wait at least that many years until we have another election like this.