November 7, 2008 A Polite Plea

As we’re all coming off of our political hangovers, I’m sure the last thing we all want to talk about is politics . . . so don’t worry, I’ll keep it light. I don't want anyone to burnout. I’m coming at this topic with a plea, not a rant. But here we go . . .
Let’s talk about voting . . . mostly just waiting in lines to vote in particular.
Now I understand it can suck waiting in line for a few hours in order to vote. I don’t think anyone really enjoys standing in line in order to do something that should take a few minutes. Luckily for me, I just had to walk my little ballot on down to the mailbox in the mailroom of my building. No lines for me . . . suckers. But I digress . . .
As I watched the news after the early polls opened up, the coverage focused on the long lines and interviewed people who seemed to be less than pleased about waiting in those lines. But let’s chat about that a second. I know it’s shitty to stand in a line for hours at a time. But let’s put it into perspective. You have the opportunity, the privilege, to be a part of and vote in what will be one of the single most historic events in American history. Your grandkids’ grandkids will study this in American History classes for years to come. And you can say you were there. But instead, you chose to complain that you had to wait 2 hours to vote, and were upset because you had to get back to work. That disturbs me. This is work where a client wanted a document by the end of the day, and if you didn’t get it to them, you’d be in “big trouble.” Well I’ll let you in on a little secret: you client or boss isn’t going to read it that night, so go ahead, live a little, get it to them Wednesday morning. I’ve waited longer to decide who’s more insane, Bill O’Reilly or Keith Olberman, than you waited to vote. It’s time to get our priorities straight.
A lot of nations would kill (and do kill) to have open and easily accessible elections and stations the way we have them. Sure, there are flaws, but there are flaws associated with anything of this magnitude. People waited for up to 12 hours in South Africa on April 27 1994 to cast their ballot in their first fully democratic election. And you know what, that will probably be one of the highlights of their lives on this earth. And you don’t think they had better things to be doing? They weren’t worried about going to work that day. They were worried about putting food on their tables that night, worried about being harassed, intimidated, and beaten by people that still didn’t recognize them as citizens.
So I think it’s time we stop and appreciate some of the opportunities we have. It’s easy to take things such as voting for granted, and I know a lot of people do. So my plea is for people to step back and look at this in the grand scheme of things, not on an individual level and how it may inconvenience you that one particular day.

Song of the Week: "Death Letter" by The White Stripes

Quote of the Week: "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato

Random Fact of the Week: Starfish don't have brains

Picture of the Week: To the judge: "We didn't know he was there, honest."

Until next week, I need a dime,


Fred