Tuesday morning, Oct. 28, I awoke around 6 a.m. and quietly stepped out of our bedroom, gently closing the door so as not to disturb my late-sleeping wife.
I was puzzled and then concerned by what seemed to be the smell of smoke. It wasn’t overwhelming but it was there. I went to our basement, fearing that something was amiss. But no. There was no increase in the intensity of the smell.
I then opened the front door and stepped outside. Yes, the smell became stronger. There must have been a fire in town, I thought. Stepping back in, I called the nearby police station and asked about it. The officer told me there were brushfires all over the North Shore.
My anxiety diminished. The fear of fire in my house was gone. The fact that there were fires on the other side of the Causeway was concerning, but distant. My wife could continue safely sleeping for a few more hours.
But then, I thought, “Metaphors can be powerful.”
As I write these words, election day is just a week away. And, frankly, the smell of smoke of another kind is already present and, I believe, will define that day, only becoming worse as the evening wears on and in the days that follow.
The tinder for that smoldering fire has been gathered, scattered and scathed throughout our country since 2020. In every part of the United States, fear, uncertainty and mistrust of our electoral democracy had been spread.
At first it seemed the unrest would diminish over time as it became clear the accusations of voter fraud were unfounded and proven to be so by the accuser’s losing some 80 court cases in different jurisdictions throughout the country.
Time after time, accusations were made.
Time after time, they were disproven.
The fires were small, easily doused by garden hose jurisdictions.
But there were those who set more fires here and there and would then shout, “Smoke! I smell smoke! There must be a fire somewhere!”
Yet, in most of the country, there was neither smoke nearby nor on the horizon. One sniffed and sniffed and looked around … but there was nothing. Still, there were those who would say, “I heard that over them yonder hills some people were smelling smoke. It’s on Facebook. Some people said they could see fires. Some folks are feeling threatened. Just because there’s no problem in my neighborhood don’t mean that there’s no fire over there … and it could reach us!”
Now, why would people say there were fires all over the place when, in fact, there were none or, at most, very, very few.
There is a human condition called “phantosmia,” the experience of smelling odors that aren’t there, also known as an “olfactory hallucination” or “phantom smells”. Sometimes there is no actual source of the smell other than oneself. One is predisposed to smell it even though it isn’t there.
Here’s my guess. There are those who have invested in a huge, private fire department that is theirs. And it’s a fire department that will take control of areas they are entrusted to protect. Even if there is no fire, when they move in, the land (and the people) will become theirs. According to them, only if they are in control will there be security, peace, and prosperity with no fires allowed. After all, even if unacknowledged, because they know how to start a fire, they know how to put one out … decisively. Because their fire chief is also an experienced arsonist, flames will be extinguished before they can ignite anything, and all will be fine … the best, ever, anywhere at any time,
Coming back to the “metaphor,” that the “smoke” that some smell suggests the presence of voter fraud.
There is no evidence of systemic fraud in our electoral system. None. No one can control it all. Ballots are distributed, cast, collected and counted in 116,990 polling places throughout our country. The system is not inter-connected online. In case you missed it, let me spell it out … there are one hundred and sixteen thousand, nine hundred and ninety separate voting districts in the United State of America!
One might ask, “Why does a Republican in one district win while, in that same district, Donald Trump loses?” I think the answer has clearly to do with the candidates in question. It has nothing to do with voter fraud.
Anyone can catch a whiff of smoke. As it was with me this morning, it can be concerning. I then learned it was coming from the far side of The Causeway. Everything was fine here but others might be threatened.
Naturally I would want the fire departments in those towns to respond and, if they need help, other departments can come to their aid or back them up. Mutual cooperation and shared expertise have real value to all concerned. In our electoral system there are checks and balances and they are widely distributed. Almost everyone wants our system to work. They don’t want fires.
Where I grew up my mother was a Democratic Registrar of Voters in our district and my father was a volunteer fireman. I’ll never forget as a young boy, riding slowly up our street on the back of a fire truck with my dad’s hand holding firmly to my shoulder. Or, more pointedly, seeing my mother and her Republican registrar colleague having lunch together in our home, enjoying one another, before going off together to canvas the streets in the 6th District.
My mother believed in the electoral system and my father believed in fighting fires. Great team. Great parents. Great country.
Jim Walsh lives in Nahant.
