Editor, The Smithfield Times:

You might see these shirts being worn in our community, and there are two reasons why.

The first is obviously to reinforce the importance of wearing masks when and where we can’t effectively socially distance; recent data suggests that 70,000 lives nationwide could be saved between now and the end of the year if we do so.

The second is to remind us all of the importance of voting this Nov.  3.

In my opinion, we live in the world’s greatest democracy and yet on election day we have become used to turnouts of 50% or less of eligible voters. We desperately need that to change if we are going to have a truly functioning democracy that represents the will of the majority of our citizens.

This is why we will be wearing these shirts between now and Nov. 2.

 

Joe Puglisi

Smithfield