- This is the first time I'll be able to vote in person on election day since, I think, 1998. In 2000, I was on a work trip in North Africa, and I was in France for the 2002, 2004, and 2006 elections. I voted by absentee ballot in all these elections, and I always did what I could to get out the ex-pat vote in Paris--my American friends there can attest that I hand-delivered Federal Emergency Absentee Ballots to friends who didn't receive their home state absentee ballots in time for the 2004 election--but it's hard to be surrounded by foreigners when the fate of your home country, and really, the world as we know it, is hanging in the balance. The Washington Post summed up my feelings pretty well in this article: The Prized Token of Sticking Together on Election Day.
- This is the first time I'll be able to vote for Congressional representatives since 1996, when I lived in New York. In 1997, I moved to the District of Columbia, which was then considered my "home" for voting purposes while I was in France. On this Election Day, please take a moment to ponder the inherent injustice of the over half million American citizens who pay taxes and go to war for our government yet have no Congressional representation--no Representative in the House; no Senators--simply because they reside in our nation's capital. If you think that DC is too small to have its own representative and senators, please bear in mind that the population of DC is larger than that of Wyoming and close to that of Vermont, North Dakota, and Alaska. I'll write more about this another time.
- I get to vote for a former writer for Saturday Night Live for Senator. I'm voting for him because he has political positions which I support; the fact that he wrote a book called Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot is just icing on the cake.
- Americans have the right to vote. I literally get choked up whenever I stop to think about how precious this right is, and how lucky we are to have this opportunity. If I needed reminding, one of my West African colleagues sent me an e-mail this morning saying he hopes I've voted already. The world really is counting on us today.
- I could go on and on, but now I need to get to my polling place and vote, in person, for the first time in 10 years. God Bless America.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
On Voting
Some random thoughts on why I'm so excited to go vote today:
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In the spirit of random election musings:
The day before and the day of the election I had to take the PATH train that skirts the World Trade Center site in New York on my way to doing some training in New Jersey. Lots of people do this every day. I do not. It felt immensely strange to be looking out the train window at that huge hole and the beginnings of reconstruction in the course of an otherwise ordinary day. It's hard not to pass that site and think about how much the U.S. has squandered in the past seven years.
On the way back from New Jersey last night, I talked to an African-American woman who commutes past Ground Zero every day. She said she was undecided until the moment she stepped into the voting booth, but she went with Obama because she didn't think Palin was ready to be president if something happened to Sen. McCain. As we passed Ground Zero, she got quiet. I asked if she'd ever grown used to going by it. She said no, she hasn't.
This is the part of the country that Sarah Palin doesn't regard as "the real America." The Republicans had nothing to lose by insulting us. No Republican was going to win New York any more than any Democrat would have won Texas. But I have to say that riding past that scar felt pretty real, and this morning I am hopeful that President Obama (ooh, that felt good to type) will help us take back the American values and commitment to our Constitution that we've spent the last seven years giving away out of fear.
Elections always amaze me. I secretly harbor a desire to be an electon judge...
p.s. If you're thirsting for a little French, watch this video. It's a very entertaining tale.
http://vimeo.com/2113477
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