Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Yes We Did.

We sure did.

I'd love to write something profound, something poignant, something meaningful. But I'm still crying. It's like every Christmas ever rolled into one beautiful night. I know that Obama's no magician -- there's still so much to fix, so much to do. But for the first time in a long time, politically speaking, I feel so hopeful.

Sometimes watching history is wonderful. It was tonight.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Thank you Susan B. Anthony!

I headed out to the polling place before work this morning. There was more of a crowd than there was for the primaries, but not that many people overall. I think that there are many immigrants in my neighborhood, so I am not sure how many of them can vote. Still, it felt good to do my civic duty. (Even though I didn't get a sticker. I like the stickers.)

Here in New York we have the old fashioned machines with big levers. I like them much more than the computers we had in Texas. Pulling the lever is fun. (and also, these machines are apparently harder to mess with than the computerized version).

I have always lived in states that go pretty solidly red or blue, so on the national scale, I've never felt much like my vote was all that critical (the local scale is a whole 'nother story, though), but I've always been excited about voting and have voted in all the major and many of the minor elections since. I remember how angry I got in grade school when I learned that women hadn't always been allowed to vote. It seemed (it was) so incredibly unfair. I'd like to think that had I been alive in the nineteen-teens and earlier, I would have been out on the front lines with the suffragists. So for Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Pankhursts, Carrie Chapman Catt, and all those other women (and men) whose names and faces aren't as famous --


thanks for giving me the right to say: