I Am A Hero. A VOTING Hero.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 | Uncategorized

Happy Tuesday!

1. I waited in line for two hours at my polling place in order to vote. Normally I am in and out within ten minutes. Normally waits in line bring out the the worst in me. But not this line. Not this wait. Nobody whined. Nobody left the line. We all stayed. We all talked. Being in that line felt like we were part of something. It was great.

I can sense the eye rolling right now.

You can be cynical if you want. Say that your vote doesn’t matter. Complain about all the “vote now” statuses on Facebook if you so choose. Rail about the annoying campaign commercials and how disconnected the candidates seem to be. You can get angry at celebrities and daydream about knocking them off of their Prada designed soapboxes. Fuck, you can even choose not to vote. That’s your right. Who am I to tell you what to do? But I’m telling you, if you don’t stand in line today or tonight, you’ll have missed out on a great experience. A community experience. An experience that I argue is more of a once or twice in lifetime event than a every four year kind of deal.

5 Comments to I Am A Hero. A VOTING Hero.

Thami
November 4, 2008

I agree! I have voted in every presidential election since I turned 18, and this one by far outweighs the rest. It was awesome waiting in line for an hour and a half with the neighbors whose faces I’d never seen before. Such an incredibly diverse crowd: old black ladies, 20 something hipsters, Hmong people that spoke little English, disabled people that could barely get around, dude with a broken foot on crutches, just every kind of person you could think of, all more than happy to wait in line and make their voices heard. All of us there for the same purpose, with no ill will towards each other at all. This is not something that you see everyday, and it was pretty fucking great!

Mike Fotis
November 4, 2008

Really well put, Thami!

Kat
November 4, 2008

Nicely said. I got an email from my mother this morning that said “This is truly a historic election – like no other I have seen!!!” And she has seen quite a few at her ripe old age of 56. She even told me it was okay as I voted Democrat – as long as I didn’t vote for “that jackass, Franken”. Oh, mom.

I’ve been walking around with a smile on my face ever since I voted. It felt really, really good this time. I actually walked away happy with what I had just done.

Now, off to change my facebook status to read “Vote now!”…

Scott P
November 4, 2008

Hmpf. I feel left out. It took me all of maybe 10 minutes to vote this morning.

Mac
November 5, 2008

Right on, man. I didn’t vote in person yesterday (did the absentee thing), but spent the morning doing GOTV for the St. Paul office. I traipsed around Como Park neighborhoods hanging door tags on over 100 houses, and talking to about 11 voters who had already proudly voted for Obama. We exchanged fist-bumps, and it was like I was rallying the troops. They were happy to see a volunteer like myself hit the neighborhood and make sure that everyone knew where their polling place was, and that we could get them a ride/walk with them to the polls if necessary.
Even though I didn’t know my fellow canvassers, we each exchanged nods as if we were teammates (albeit for just one day). We were told that there would be 30,000 of us on election day, hanging tags and knocking on doors all throughout Minnesota.

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