You Have, In Your Hands, A Fire Extinguisher

Hello friends.

There was no Bad Job Bingo last week or this week, and that's because — as I put it to the folks in ElevateCX — I am but a Steph-shaped mass of anxious goo. I can't focus on anything that's not either election-related or pure brain candy.

I'm not here to bring you CX news or belated Bad Job Bingo, although I hope my ability to be funny and useful in that way returns for all of us ASAP.

And you may resent my abuse of my email list to send you this message tonight, although I'd remind you that I'm the same person who brought you a 5000-word feature on how Tech CEOs investing in Trump mirrors Hitler's relationships with German cartels in the Interwar period, so you know. It’s that kind of newsletter.

No, I'm here to remind you that our house is on fire and everyone we love is inside it and your actions tomorrow will decide whether it burns to the ground. You have to vote, and you have to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

I'm here to remind you that even if you think we set the fire ourselves, we still have a responsibility to put it out. The only thing the moral high ground gives you is a better view of the apocalypse. Real heroes get smoke in their eyes and soot on their hands. You have to vote.

I'm here to remind you that even if you hear sirens in the distance and you're sure those firemen will be here soon to take care of everything, they're not here yet. Grab a garden hose and do your best. You have to vote.

I'm here to remind you that even if you think the house and everyone in it is a total loss, that will certainly be true if no one attempts a rescue. You have a duty of care by virtue of just being a human. You have to vote.

I'm here to beg you to vote tomorrow. I'm here to beg you to ask everyone you know to vote tomorrow.

Our house is on fire. Everyone I love is inside, and I can't save them by myself. I need your help. I need you to vote. Please, please, please vote.

Vote for the safety of our kids and our most vulnerable neighbors. Vote not for perfection but for a way forward. Vote for a flawed but tangible future. Vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Voting as Fire Extinguisher

by Kyle Tran Myhre

When the haunted house catches fire:
a moment of indecision.

The house was, after all, built on bones,
and blood, and bad intentions.

Everyone who enters the house feels
that overwhelming dread, the evil
that perhaps only fire can purge.

It’s tempting to just let it burn.

And then I remember:
there are children inside.