blech.
so yea, i voted this morning.
these are my thoughts on voting:
- it was cold
- it was dark (the sun was still thinking about rising)
- do not do a nightshift and then stay up until the polling station opens. it will make everything seem surreal, like those movie dream sequences where someone is trying to take a test and all of the questions are grossly convoluted and they dont have an HB pencil and they cant remember how to spell their name and there's only 2 minutes left to write an 8-pg essay on the fall of civilization.
i did succeed in throwing the ladies into a tizzy. I was their first non-registered voter. They didnt know quite what to do with me. And one of the polling gentleman kept saying stupid things like "i sure hope my first unregistered voter is as easy as you. I sure hope they are all so easy and nice". Excuse me? I didnt know where he was getting these statements from. I marched up to the table, slapped down my ID and bill with correct mailing address on it and said "I'M NOT REGISTERED". Maybe its because i didnt beat around the bush. Buddy, i'm a non-nonsense nurse who needs a nap.
i think i was subconsciously annoyed at buddy because then i asked the lady who was trying to register me to elucidate the advantages to being on the national registry as opposed to opting out and remaining off The List. She had to consult the manual. She had no answers. I opted to remain off The List. I'm not going to agree to something just because "most people do it. It is easier to be on The List". Easier for what?!
and then i voted.
and then i felt let-down. all this hype about how important it is that i go vote and then it was so far from a big deal it was into imaginary numbers.
things i would rather do than vote
- write the CRNE again (because at least then you can make up really lame/funny answers to stupid questions. questions like "to whom would you go for guidance on topics for the church-based marriage class you are to lead", "johnny is hallucinating. what would you say to him?")
- give blood (because even though they tend to leave me with a bruise over the entirety of my forearm and part of my upper arm, at least they give cookies and juice. Man i could have used some this morning. I bet my blood sugar is under 4)
4 comments:
I know you had a long and probably difficult night, so I'm sure your impressions of voting were not improved by how tired and cold you were this morning. Sadly, though, I still want to talk you out of your voting negativity, because it makes me sad.
So, in response to this: "all this hype about how important it is that i go vote and then it was so far from a big deal it was into imaginary numbers"
I say this: Just because there weren't dancing bears and fireworks doesn't mean it wasn't a big deal. It's the feeling of collective action that gets to me. When I'm walking towards the Voting Place, I see the people around me headed in the same direction, and I feel a sense of community -- even if I know that most of them are probably on their way to vote Conservative. It's the fact that we all (those of us who vote!) do this together, on one day, and I can't help but feel an immense love for all the people who take time on this one day to hit the polling stations and cast their vote, however they cast it. I know it sounds cheesy, but seriously: in this multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religion, multi-ethnic country, the one thing we all have in common is our ability to go out and vote today. For lack of a better religion, I embrace the ritual of democracy (as rare as I get to exercise it) as a sort of spiritual activity.
Unfortunately, I think Election Fever has to come from within you -- it is something that you need to cultivate yourself. I can't talk you into it.
I get high on democracy when I go to vote, and I know the issues, and I know the history, and I know what the likely outcome is, and I pester you and my other non-voting friends CONSTANTLY to vote along with me -- but despite all that, I still sometimes wonder if I'm really making a difference. I get the "I'm just one person" blues, too. But I fight it by constantly telling myself that if everybody decided they couldn't make a difference, so why bother trying, then we'd be in a dictatorship. Then we'd be American. Then we'd be slaves. Then we wouldn't have the right to complain about and question the government, and to try to change it. That's what this is really about, Jacqui dear. The Right to Complain and Question. You have that right for the next four years because of what you did this morning -- don't you want to keep it?
i think i need more instant gratification at the moment. none of this "it will be better in the long run" stuff.
but you are right, there was a sense of community.
and i think i have some political passion in me as i very nearly turned around and verbally bit off the head of a coworker who said that she votes conservative. i wonder if she even knows the parties and the candidates.
and i do like that i now have the right to complain (for the next 4 years). on the otherhand, i very rarely feel justified in complaining about things political as i dont feel i understand what is going on enough to complain. And there are plently of non-political things to gripe about.
Go you! (about the conservative thing)
And, you know, if you want to complain about something and you're not sure what the basis for it is, just ask! You have lots of friends who have studied political science, and odds are one of us knows what the fuck is going on -- and if we don't, our B.A.s have given us enough bullshitting practice that we're very good at pretending to know what we're talking about.
i'm glad you voted, jacqui v. i was standing at the polling station about ten minutes ago and i had to keep reminding myself that my vote did matter, because it does and so does yours and so does everyones. my parents vote conservative, they always have and probably always will (no matter how much i try to talk them out of it), and even though i knew that meant two more points for the conservatives, i was still happy to hear that they voted today. it's one of the few voices we have.
anyway, i'm glad you voted even though it sounds like quite an unenjoyable experience. and now, if the conservatives end up driving this country to destruction, no one will be able to blame you for it.
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