So, the other day I found a tick on one of my dogs—a tick in the middle of January. I have lived in Minnesota all my life and found plenty of ticks, but only in the warm months—never in January. But it got me thinking.

I hate ticks. When I was a kid there were plenty of wood ticks. Sometimes just talking about them was enough to make you feel like they were crawling all over you; searching for a tender spot to latch on and suck your blood. As if that wasn’t enough, then along came deer ticks—just as creepy but can also give you a potentially fatal disease.

However, by far the worst tick in my experience is the poli-tick. You know; those people creeping around in the political system, sucking the metaphorical blood from this nation—possibly giving the democratic system we all enjoy a fatal disease.

I’m not saying all politicians are bad. There are plenty of people in public office working hard for the public good. However, there are also plenty of the other kind. You know these people—seeking public office so their bank accounts and egos can become bloated just like a tick’s body.

One of the side-effects of this is this: many people think all politicians are crooked; so, they don’t vote. I find this particularly disturbing because voting these people out is one of the few defenses we have against the poli-ticks. For example, in this last election the enough people had had enough of Donald Trump, so they voted him out. No matter how you feel about it, Biden is in and Trump is out.

I guess the moral here is this: Learn to recognize the poli-ticks and vote for the other person. Your children will thank you when it is their time to vote.