Friday, October 24, 2008

A Right, A Duty, An Honor

I voted this morning. And I teared up twice while doing it. I may be a dork, but I'm a patriotic one.

I had planned to vote early since I drive right by a voting site on the way to work from Landon's daycare, but I hadn't had time so far this week. This morning I knew I had nothing waiting on my desk, so I pulled into the Randalls parking lot at 8:15 hoping there wasn't much of a line. When I walked in the place looked deserted, I used my handy dandy blackberry to google the early voting information to make sure that this site did in fact open at 7 am. Assured that I was correct, I began to wander to the back of the store in search of voting booths when I saw a hand waving at me from inside the cereal aisle. I followed the enthusiastic beckoning to find a friendly senior citizen sitting on a stool, he wished me a happy morning and asked if I'd like vote. I showed him my registration card and was directed to another friendly senior citizen named Bob who asked me to sign my name; he then pointed me to yet another friendly senior who gave me a little print out with my special electronic voting booth access code. Along the way I was warned by two different smiling senior citizens that I should not put my "I voted" sticker on my leather jacket as it would "just ruin it!" - I thanked each of them for their advice and cracked up as I pictured my grandmas telling me the same thing. By the time I stood in front of my little voting booth I had spoken with at least six smiling people who all seemed tickled that I had come out to vote this morning. I entered in my little code and the first thing that greeted me was my Selection of Presidential Candidate. I turned the little dial to Barack Obama/Joseph Biden, pressed Enter, and my eyes promptly filled with tears.

It's not just that I'm proud to vote for a candidate I believe in (my first presidential election was 2004 and I was voting against a candidate more than I was voting for one), and it's not just that I think Obama will be a great president, one who will thoughtfully and intelligently consider things before acting, it's because it is such a f*cking honor to get to vote at all. The fact that we can all voice our opinions, that we can vocally disagree, that we can choose our leaders- well, that's a pretty wonderful thing. Both of my grandfathers fought in Vietnam, and it's an honor to them to exercise my right to have a say in who will steer this country through the next four years.

So go vote. The idea of McCain/Palin winning this election may make my stomach churn, but I would at least like that selection to have been made by a majority of all U.S. citizens rather than the smaller percentage who usually vote. And if you're like JP and fundamentally at odds with both presidential candidates, at least research your local representatives and propositions, they often have more of a say in your daily lives than those on the national ticket.

And, just as a general public service announcement, please for the love of God, stop forwarding blatantly false or grossly misleading political emails. Make use of Google, snopes.com, and factcheck.org before clicking "Send" - I've had to request my name be removed from multiple people's forward lists because I found the contents of the email so offensive (one told me that as Christians we should fear all Muslims in America and our goal should be to drive them out - I try very hard to respect other people's views, but I will admit my opinion of the person who so eagerly forwarded that to everyone she knew is permanently negatively affected). The sharing of information is important, the sharing of false information is decidedly not.

In eleven days our next President will be selected by our fellow citizens, go be a part of that decision!

13 comments:

  1. quick question: can we vote at any polling place or are we assigned to a particular one? (i'll be voting in Texas for the very first time this year.)

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  2. How exciting! I am early voting tomorrow and am really looking forward to it.

    Has JP picked a presidential candidate yet? Ends, my boyfriend, seems to be in the same boat - he is mad at McCain for running a Karl Rove-esque campaign and picking Palin, but he really doesn't want to vote for Obama. Lately he's been talking about voting for Bob Barr.

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  3. I can't frickin' wait to vote! I'd been planning on just doing it Nov 4, but maybe I'll research to see where I can do it early. Nice pick!

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  4. Hey Paragon: if you vote early you can vote anywhere- if you google "travis county early voting" you'll find a PDF of all the location, it's a great option. If you vote on election day then you have to go to your assigned polling place, which is listed on your voter registration card or can be found on the travis county election site by doing a search for your name.

    Five tomatoes: your boyfriend sounds exactly like JP- he hates the campaign, hates the VP pick, hates the pandering to an evangelical base he fundamentally disagrees with (and thinks goes against much of what the Republican party should be about), but he disagrees with Obama on just as many, if not more issues. So does he vote for the guy he has lost all respect for but who agrees with him on more issues, or someone he disagrees with even more but doesn't dislike? I think he's decided he's not voting for President but will instead vote for all the other offices up for election. It's a tough place to be in.

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  5. I voted just minutes before i read your post... i didn't cry but i felt pretty darn important :) go obama!

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  6. Yay for voting, and double yay for voting for Obama! I'm happy that I'll have gotten to vote for Obama twice this year! (Even though my vote here in Bible Belt won't count, my state's going decidedly red. I just want to throw up about all the "Sarah!" signs in everyone's yards around here. Barf.)

    Those in JP's predicament should consider that Obama's foreign policy views are the most responsible, and have the best chance of peaceful conflict resolution. An Obama presidency could be the only thing keeping us from war with Iran. A spokesperson from McCain's camp recently made a statement that within the next four years we will definitely be at war with Iran. If McCain honestly believes that, I'm even more concerned about having him in the White House. And considering recent statements by Sarah Palin that we should never question the judgment of Israel when it comes to their military actions, dear lord. Haven't we had enough of failed ideology dictating decisions to go to war? McCain might claim to not be continuing George Bush's policies, but he's still taking policy advice from the neoconservatives.

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  7. I can't wait to vote. You've reminded me to research our polling places. I'm going to take both boys. This is historic. The email forwards are making me crazy too. McCain's "He's not an Arab, he's a decent Christian man" is telling about the attitude of some in this country

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  8. This might make me sound really stupid, but you can vote early? I know you can vote by absente ballot early, but you can actually go to a polling place to vote early? In all states? Really? I think I may have missed something.

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  9. Ha, I just googled it. In my state you can only vote absentee if: You will be absent from your city or town on Election Day
    You have a physical disability preventing you from voting at the polling place
    Your religious beliefs prevent you from voting on Election Day.

    I'm such a lawyer.

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  10. I had to comment that I recently had the same experience with the Muslim email. A good friend of mine from high school forwarded that email to everyone she knows and after typing a scathing reply, I had the good sense to hit save instead of send, but know that my opinion of her is forever altered.

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  11. I am so with you on the forward of emails that have little to no factual merit. My father-in-law is always doing it, then "holds court" with you, telling you all of these facts, as well, as if he is bright, and has done tons of research. After he told me about Obama taking his oath on the Quran, I had it, and had to point out all of the inaccuracies of that particular email. It is scary how many individuals read every forwarded email, and then believe it as the Gospel truth.

    And, for what it's worth, I am voting for McCain, but still can't stand false information about EITHER candidate being spread.

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  12. I just wanted to say that my mom, sister & I had to tell all of my aunts to stop forwarding ANY politically-related e-mails to us during the 2004 election, because everything they sent was super-religious-right, unfounded garbage. Which they wholeheartedly believed, by the way.

    It is amazing to me how many people continue to vote for a party that does absolutely nothing to help them, and in fact hurts them, because of a shared stance on "values." But I digress.

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  13. I also told my mother in law not to send me any more political emails after a BLATANTLY RACIST anti-Obama email was sent my way. Even if I didn't support Obama (I do, by the way), I would have been horrified. What's wrong with people?

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