Dear Editor,

Regardless of your presidential leanings, I have a challenge for you … a simple task.

List the Top 10 expectations you have for your residential candidate … what makes you want to vote for them? What do you want for our country? What do you want for your family, friends, community? Just a few ideas. A simple task. Your personal expectations for your presidential candidate, why do they get your vote?

Let’s call it a time capsule. Put in writing your “Top 10 list” and place in a sealed envelope. One year-plus from now, let’s open our time capsules in January, 2018. I pray that your expectations have been met at some level, because if you chose the winner, your “vote/hopes” have been sealed; you have “hired” your candidate who should fulfill your “bucket list” but also helped place our country in the same direction.

I know exactly what my expectations are. I know who can fulfill them. I did my homework. Will my candidate win?

If you don’t vote, there is no reason to go through this exercise. If you do vote, you will probably be participating in the most important decision of your life and your family’s future.

A simple exercise, yes. Or call it an opportunity. Voters get to give themselves “a pat on the back” (if your “vote” is a win) and I pray we are on the same team!

We, the voters, should do our homework before putting that “check” on the ballot. It is a promise to ourselves and others. We soon will be passing the baton to a new president who should fill our “bucket list” as if it were their agenda: your vote of confidence.

Pam Shepherd

LaGrange