November 12, 2012
Some of you complained in the run up to last week's election: about the ads, about your favorite shows being preempted by the debates, about the robocalls. Some of you got mad at your friends for their partisan facebook posts. Since the election, some of you have been smug and happy; others livid and checking the options for moving. There is a general relief that it is behind us.
Through it all try to remember that you live in America. We are not promised full-time harmony or delight in all the candidates or outcomes or process. What we have, however, is a system that allows for power sharing and peaceful transitions as leadership structures change. If you travel around the world, you'll notice that not everyone lives that way (think coups, bloody rebellions, and oppression).
Here's a story to help you remember that voting--no matter how infuriating a process--is something you should cherish:
On October 22, my sister was riding her bike to work in Dallas. A car hit her. The crash broke both her arms. She doesn't drive and with casted arms, she can't steer her bike.
On election day, she called her county party headquarters to see if she could get a ride to go vote. She got the voice mail and left a message, but no one called her back.
So she walked the two miles to her polling place. When she got there she couldn't open the door to get in there. She waited several minutes and watched several people go in and out before the door finally stayed open long enough for her to slip inside.
She voted. Then she walked home.
Some of her candidates won. Some of her candidates lost. She was proud to vote.
And I'm proud of her.
Go Elizabeth!!!!
ReplyDelete-Davis
I can see why you're proud of her. We all should be proud! Hope she's healing ok.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Erin's Auntie / Vickie's sister! YOU ROCK.
ReplyDeleteOn America: there may be worse places to live, but there are better places as well. It's not the be all and end all of the world, despite what the indoctrination of our school system says. We get to vote, but look what's being done with that vote... one word: Palestinians. Oh and other words like "war in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.." Oh, and me having to convince a recently minted young Jordanian doctor the other day that in the richest country in the world people go bankrupt when the get diseases like cancer. This was after he said he liked Romney. After I was able to convince him that what I was saying about healthcare was true he wasn't so keen on Romney.
So, yeah, it's great - America. To a point. But then when our vote gets screwed with to screw with other people the way it does, that greatness looses some of its luster.
You know all this though. I'm preaching to the choir.
To end on a positive note: again - Erin's Auntie: she would have been proud of you. Not that I met her personally, but hearing from your sister what a political person Amazing E was, I suspect she would have thought you were quite the bada$$ for going through what you did to vote. I think you are too. For me Election Day is the most important day of the year, more so than Christmas and Easter combined (and I'm a devout Episcopalian). So yeah you!! Thank you. You've given me another story to convince my friends here in Jordan to vote in the elections coming up in January.
All RIGHT! Good for her. I'm proud of her too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing that story. It is just another example of where Erin got her passion and commitment to a worthy cause.
ReplyDeleteGinger Freeze