Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day Reflection

Call me Sophia Petrillo (look that reference up if you don't get it).

Picture it: November 1980, a small suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a cool, dark evening, sometime after dinner. My parents led my brother, sister and me down the back streets of our neighborhood to a house with a short line waiting outside. Once inside, surroundings were tight and cramped. I kept asking my mother what we were doing there. She kept telling me to hush, that she'd explain later. When we were back outside, on the walk home, I attempted my question one more time. She said, "Your father and I just voted for the next president." I didn't really know what that meant, but since my nickname wasn't Brenda Starr by accident, I decided to ask some follow-up questions. What is voting? What does the president do? Who did they vote for? Getting the answers to these (at the time) monumental questions was a turning point in my childhood understanding of the world. It was just a few weeks later during bathtime that my mother explained to me the idea of a "new year"; it was unfathomable to me that when 1981 hit, 1980 was gone for good.

This morning, 28 years later, I waited in line for over an hour to cast my own secret ballot. I looked around me at all of my neighbors and fellow citizens who were risking a late arrival at work, a missed bus or appointment for the sake of having their vote counted. It was amazing. In the past, Ads and I have waited 5 minutes at the most to pass through the poll booth. This morning, the line wrapped around and still trickled outside the front door. Today had a cool, late-summerish feel to the morning, and most people seemed to be in good spirits as they waited diligently for their turn at the ballot box. I heard a few people echo my thoughts of the pride they felt by the high voter turnout today. Right before leaving my ballot box, I took one last significant look at the ballot and then slipped it into the ballot machine.

So, whatever your affiliation, whoever you cast your vote for, congratulations and many thanks for taking part in this most historic of elections. You did the entire nation some good today.

Rock the vote!

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