We've been pretty busy over the last few weeks, and I want to report on all our comings and goings, but before the moment escapes me I wanted to record some thoughts about today's presidential election. So. Some random thoughts.
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The polls are still open all over this great country, so one might say it is still anyone's game. A huge part of me is incredibly nervous about the results that will start coming in this evening, but an equally huge part of me is bursting with pride, excitement, and patriotism after casting my vote for Barack Obama today. This is the fifth presidential election I have had the privilege of voting in. My first was Bill Clinton's first campaign. At the risk of jinxing everything, Obama's campaign has brought out the same feelings of hope and excitement as that campaign did, so many years ago. I had to vote absentee back then, because I was in college and not home in California for election day. I remember wishing I could have been at a polling place to cast my vote, and I remember watching the returns with an excitement I could not contain. I remember calling my mother from the house phone downstairs in Wilder House to share the excitement, and having her tell me happily how lucky I was that in my first presidential election, I got to vote for a winner.
I deeply hope that today a whole slew of first time voters, voters energized and excited by Obama, are getting to vote for a winner. Nothing could be better.
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Just like on Super Tuesday, this morning Henry and I packed Hank up in the stroller and made our way to the local poll. Reports from around the country of incredibly long lines and extraordinary voter turn-out had us motivated to get there in the morning, hoping to avoid after-work crowds. We didn't have much of a wait, but there were certainly more people present than we have seen at previous elections in the same place. In front of us in line there was an African American woman and her son, who was maybe 12 years old. He was bursting with excitement. They had brought a special pen with them to sign the voter rolls -- the mother was going to let her son sign for her, and then they were going to put the pen away, only to be used for special signatures in the future. The boy was so enthusiastic and so happy to be involved in the process. He was beaming. It was a lovely thing to see -- after so many years of discontent and apathy, to see a young person so excited about the democratic process, hopefully his thirst for the political process will last until he is eligible to vote himself.
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I believe that Barack Obama has energized young people in a way that I have never witnessed. I can only hope that the new wave of voters will embrace the right -- the privilege -- to vote, and that voter apathy can become a thing of the past. Many many years ago I saw a photograph of a long line of people, snaking across a field, of people waiting to vote in a nation's first election in many many years. I don't remember the nation, but I remember the photo and the knowledge that it captured the essence of voting -- giving the populace a voice. I always think of this photo, and of people who have fought so hard for the opportunity to vote, when I hear of low voter turn out in this country, and I feel disappointed in Americans when they don't understand the gift we have in the right to vote.
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I really, really hope that Proposition 8 fails in California. I am saddened that it is even on the ballot as it will constitutionalize discrimination and homophobia -- two things that are unacceptable to me. A constitution should never be used to strip a person of individual rights -- it should be used to expand individual rights.
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Obviously political opinions differ, but I think no-one can disagree that this has been an incredible election and an incredible campaign. I see so much more excitement, interest, and optimism than I have ever seen before and I hope it can last. The entire world is watching this election and hoping for change in America, I just hope we can give it to them.
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More thoughts to come as the returns come in.
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