I hit my polling place twice. When Larry and I voted this morning, I saw a neat-o parking spot labelled "Curbside Voting."
While my dad can walk, and drive, he has some joint and a lot of foot pain, and it takes some effort, and standing in line on a cold, rainy day wasn't an option. He was planning to forgo voting, till I told him about the curbside service. So, since they had also changed our polling place to one out in the boondocks, I went back with him later in the day.
The poll worker came out with this cool little portable voting machine - they bring it out to your car and hand it in to you through the window. Totally awesome.
I'm extolling my great civic virtue and voter-vigilance as a preface to explaining that I am all in.
It's been a good-ish but long day, the election and the nation worry me, and I cannot imagine anything worse than following the returns all evening.
I'm not baffled by the desire to watch it all, if people want to. I can kind of understand wanting to. I did it for years. But I am QUITE baffled by the people who say that it's unpatriotic to not watch. I can't cite where I hear this. I've heard it several times, it's kind of a "they say," but I gotta disagree.
What knowledge, what positive change, would happen if I kept up with the slow accumulation of electoral votes, that will not happen because I wait for the result? Am I apathetic to want a quiet, de-stressing evening of a good book, and to find out tomorrow, either who won, or what Constitutional problems have been triggered?
Well, I can only say, I need a break. Tomorrow, we deal with whatever we've come up with. Tonight, I'm dressing down, making a hot chocolate, and reading Life in a Noble Household, 1641-1700. It traces the the Russell family in England and how they weathered (or failed to survive) the economy and politics of the era. It's both fascinating, and a reminder that whenever we live, we can find ourselves in turbulent political times and we just, basically, deal with it!
5 comments:
Where the hell is that darned "like" button?
*chuckle*
Me, too...and similar such comments!
B/R,
Dann
I've come to the same place vis-a-vis football or baseball games that I have a rooting interest in (especially ones I have a rooting interest in.) I no longer have the patience or the fortitude to put up with the pitch-by-pitch or play-by-play tension. I'll check out the score late in the game and then watch. Maybe.
Elections, though, are something else. For some reason, I haven't come to that point yet, but maybe I will. I'll watch the coverage from the get-go, both on TV and on the 'net -- and I'm a Nate Silver junkie. But the idea that it is somehow unpatriotic to do so is a bit weird. No, a whole lot weird.
Of course, if I lived in South Carolina, I might unplug a bit :-)
... of course, that should be "the idea that it is somehow unpatriotic to not do so is a bit weird." If FB can institute editing ability for comments, why can't Blogger? Grumble.
I love the curbside voting! We still vote with paper ballots & pencils (and I hope we always do) but I am sure some kind of similar system could be implemented here. Consider me an advocate!
I love the curbside voting! We still vote with paper ballots & pencils (and I hope we always do) but I am sure some kind of similar system could be implemented here. Consider me an advocate!
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