HAPPY HALLOWEEN! May it be safe and enjoyable for all.

I want to direct my remarks today to the subject of prejudging others, which most
of us do from time to time. 

But first, Have you voted yet? There are six different polling places available to us, and it is very probable that at least one of them is in close proximity to where you live. 

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. There are 38,550 registered voters in Lenoir County and, hopefully, a good percentage of them will vote in this election.

I now want to visit and expand on some remarks Valerie Cox made a few years ago. In poetic form, it goes like this:  A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shop, bought a bag of cookies, and found a place to drop. 

She was engrossed in her book, but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be, grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene. So she munched the cookies, and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.; she was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, "If I wasn't so nice, I'd blacken his eye." 

With each cookie she took, he took one too, and when only one was left, she wondered what he would do. With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half, as he ate the other, she snatched it from him and thought, oooh, brother, this guy has some nerve, and he's also rude, why he didn't even show any gratitude. 

She couldn't recall when she had been so galled, and she sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at this thieving ingrate. She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, then she sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached for her luggage, she gasped with surprise, there was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes. "If mine are here," she moaned in despair, "Then the others were his, and he tried to share." 

Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that SHE was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief. I am reasonably certain that you, the same as I, can recall a time when we reacted negatively toward someone, only to find out later that what this person had done was actually worthy of praise. So let's look for the good in others - It isn't hard to find! Now to close with this:  After being with her all evening the man couldn't take another minute with his blind date. 

Earlier, he had secretly arranged to have a friend call him on the phone so he would have an excuse to leave if something like this happened. So when he returned to the table, he lowered his eyes, put on a grim expression, and said, "I have some bad news. My grandfather just died."  "Thank Heavens," his date replied. "If your’s hadn't, mine would have had to!"

Have a great day!