Two friends of mine challenged me to dump ice water over my head for ALS and a third asked me if I wanted to be “challenged”. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re in the minority.) I chose to ignore the challenges.

It wasn’t that I’m not sympathetic to ALS. For all I know, it is a great charity. (If you’ve seen a “story” saying that most of the money given to the ALS Association is for salaries and such, not for their mission, it’s a lie. Politifact gave that claim a “Pants on Fire” rating.) They have definitely hit the mother-lode in fundraising. One report I saw said they have raised $100 million dollars because of the challenge. I pray they use that money wisely. The worst thing in the world that could happen to charity fundraising would be some scandal.

I had two reasons for avoiding the challenge. First, it struck me as being “fashionable”. I’m not a fashionable person, just ask my wife. There is a passage in the bible that says people who pray loudly and in public get their reward on earth while people that do it in private get their reward in heaven. (I’m paraphrasing). A friend of mine changed that to “karma points” but the idea is the same.

Secondly, I prefer to act locally. While I understand the need for central places to collect money, and the power of a national charity is immense when it comes to research and such, it is easy to forget the local charities struggling to make ends meet and meet the needs of the people they are trying to serve.

And then I saw a Facebook post from a friend saying that the Mountain Mission food bank was basically out of food. They needed help just to meet the demand from struggling families and kids who needed basic nutrition. So, I went to the store, bought a box load of canned food and pasta meals and dropped them off.

Please don’t misunderstand. I am not trying to make myself sound “better” or suggest anything of that sort. Not at all.  It’s just a choice I made based on where I thought my time and money would do the most good.

I don’t hear it said much anymore, but people used to use the phrase “Think globally, but act locally.” That meant you should think about things going on in the world, but you should pay attention to what is going on in your own backyard.

There a number of charities in town that could use your money or help. They feed families, give assistance with bills or help people break addictions. And most of them work together to make sure no one is working the system and getting more than their fair share.

If you want to support ALS, or Komen or any one of a dozen other national charities, please do…whether or not you make a video of yourself pouring water over your head. At the same time, don’t forget local charities. Most of them do tremendous work without any fanfare. And that’s the way they want it, too..

As of today, the general election is less than two months away. And you are probably already sick of it. I know I am.

Our televisions shows are getting filled up with commercials. Yard signs are sprouting up. And so are billboards and newspaper ads. It is so easy to just want to tune it all out. About the only people that I know are happy with the proliferation of ads are the people who sell them. And even they get tired of it.

I’m not a huge television fan in the first place. Most evenings I would just as soon turn it off. DVRs do make it easy to skip those ads, of course, and I will freely admit that I often do. Nothing beats pausing the television, heading to the kitchen for a snack and then coming back after you’ve built up a couple minutes of credit to fast forward past the offending commercials.

Last night, though, I actually rewound the television (I do love the technology) so I could actually watch and listen to a couple political ads that I had never seen before. In one case, I heard something from a politician I had never heard speak. In the other, it was a politician who has been around a while, but it was a new ad.

This election is a mid-term election; notable for lower voter turnout and less involvement. That said, a story came out last week that showed that voter turnout exceeded 40 percent when approval of congressional leaders was low. Right now, that approval is at an all-time low so maybe there will be an all-time high turnout for this election.

My humble requests:

• To the candidates: Tell me something about you. Tell me about your vision. And not just “jobs” or “lower taxes”. Other than public works programs the government doesn’t “create” jobs. Lower taxes are fine, but tell me what spending you’re going to cut to pay for it. In other words, I want to see your actual plan.
• To both major parties: please stop running against President Obama. He isn’t on the ballot. I know he is unpopular in this state, but draw a distinction between you and your opponent. Stop tilting at windmills.
• To the electorate: Don’t just accept what they want to tell you. Ask questions. Be informed about your choices. In a couple key races, there are independent candidates. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard much about them, but I hope that will change in the coming months.

If you are angry about the direction our country is headed, and like to vent on social media about how bad things are, don’t sit on the sidelines. Get involved. You don’t have to volunteer for a candidate, but you do have a responsibility to be informed and use your vote responsibly..