Welp, we all know they’re coming.  You guessed it, the endless barrage of political ads that accompany election season, especially when the highest office in the nation is on the ballot.

I’m not sure I’ve ever met someone who enjoys viewing the endless litany of attack ads or the “talking heads” on television trying to spin every action imaginable into a reason why a person should vote for a certain, preferred candidate.

This year, the pundits and professional prognosticators are getting an early start on their election season search for relevance and I’m already ready to plug my eyes, nose and ears.

So what’s the alternative?

Turn that election year dread into a plan of action.

Perhaps you will make a personal decision to learn for yourself what candidates and political parties stand for by becoming informed from your own research.

A great way to start is to read the political platforms of the different parties.  These are easily accessible online and the documents offer a window into the nuts and bolts of a party’s belief system.  I did this myself in the past several years and to be honest, I was pretty amazed by how I felt after reading those documents.  Let’s just say that the actual words in them didn’t match very well with what I had been told all those years that I should believe by those same “talking heads” that I mentioned earlier.

Another great way to be involved is just around the corner, as the MN Precinct Caucus Night will be held on February 27th.  Soon after that, the Presidential Primary election will take place on March 5th, followed by Township Annual Meetings on March 12th.  All of these events are opportunities to get involved and to find out for oneself what other actual human beings - our friends, neighbors and community members - think about the direction of our local, state and national levels of government.

To help our readers sort through these many opportunities for involvement, the Patriot will be publishing articles over the next month that highlight the different opportunities and how to become involved.

After all, these are opportunities and while it might seem like the actions of governments are out of our control, nothing could be further from the truth on a local and county level.

We are proud each week to be able to bring readers information about local government happenings and we hope our efforts are useful for people who choose to be involved.  For those of you who are trying to ignore all the “political noise”, good luck!  You will need it!