So, I don't know why this still cracks me up so much, but I am pretty sure that the only known artifact of the biblical crucifixion was not "the ho"! Way to keep track of your maximum characters, folks. Ha.
Friday, November 7, 2008
A picture I just found...
So, I'm searching through a bajillion folders of pictures on my computer, looking for one in particular, and came across this picture that I took, over a year ago, of something that amused me. Well-timed, since I kept finding all these amazing pictures of my puppy and missing him unbelievably much.
So, I don't know why this still cracks me up so much, but I am pretty sure that the only known artifact of the biblical crucifixion was not "the ho"! Way to keep track of your maximum characters, folks. Ha.
So, I don't know why this still cracks me up so much, but I am pretty sure that the only known artifact of the biblical crucifixion was not "the ho"! Way to keep track of your maximum characters, folks. Ha.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
P.S.
(to the previous post, that is)
This morning, I found myself an undecided voter. I've never been an undecided voter on a major office before (even before I could vote). But I left the presidential race for last, not sure if I really wanted to vote for Obama. I still didn't know if it was the right choice, or just the popular, charismatic, energizing choice. (Don't worry, I wasn't considering voting for McCain; it was just a mattered if deciding if I wanted to vote for Obama. I don't know if he's entirely ready. I don't know if I entirely agree with everything he plans.) I leaned over my ballot in the flimsy fold-up polling cubby, and held my head in my hands. And I knew that, someday, my children would ask me what choice I had made on this day. I didn't get a cop-out. I didn't get to vote for a third party just to avoid making a real choice for something that mattered. And I didn't get to stand by and watch McCain get elected, and think I'd washed my hands of it.
And so I picked up my pencil, and I voted for Obama.
It is new to me, being in this part of the country, that you don't have to wait up late into the night to get electoral results. So it seemed there were relatively few states reporting when I checked the election coverage half an hour ago or so... yet when, a few minutes ago, I flipped back to the NBC election coverage, there I saw: a declaration that Barack Obama had been elected president. I looked at it for a moment, registering. Then I cried. Sobbed.
Then I gathered myself together for about 5 seconds. Then they cut to the rally in Chicago, crowds of so many people-- young people, so many young people!-- shouting and dancing, crying and hugging, kneeling on the ground in overwhelming relief and victory, waving American flags everywhere. And I cried. Sobbed.
Side note: This is the first time I've supported a presidential candidate that actually won. (Yeah, when I was little, I thought I was a Republican.)
God bless America. We might just be ok, y'all. I don't say that because Obama is going to be president. I say that because we elected him.
This morning, I found myself an undecided voter. I've never been an undecided voter on a major office before (even before I could vote). But I left the presidential race for last, not sure if I really wanted to vote for Obama. I still didn't know if it was the right choice, or just the popular, charismatic, energizing choice. (Don't worry, I wasn't considering voting for McCain; it was just a mattered if deciding if I wanted to vote for Obama. I don't know if he's entirely ready. I don't know if I entirely agree with everything he plans.) I leaned over my ballot in the flimsy fold-up polling cubby, and held my head in my hands. And I knew that, someday, my children would ask me what choice I had made on this day. I didn't get a cop-out. I didn't get to vote for a third party just to avoid making a real choice for something that mattered. And I didn't get to stand by and watch McCain get elected, and think I'd washed my hands of it.
And so I picked up my pencil, and I voted for Obama.
It is new to me, being in this part of the country, that you don't have to wait up late into the night to get electoral results. So it seemed there were relatively few states reporting when I checked the election coverage half an hour ago or so... yet when, a few minutes ago, I flipped back to the NBC election coverage, there I saw: a declaration that Barack Obama had been elected president. I looked at it for a moment, registering. Then I cried. Sobbed.
Then I gathered myself together for about 5 seconds. Then they cut to the rally in Chicago, crowds of so many people-- young people, so many young people!-- shouting and dancing, crying and hugging, kneeling on the ground in overwhelming relief and victory, waving American flags everywhere. And I cried. Sobbed.
Side note: This is the first time I've supported a presidential candidate that actually won. (Yeah, when I was little, I thought I was a Republican.)
God bless America. We might just be ok, y'all. I don't say that because Obama is going to be president. I say that because we elected him.
Why I love election day
I love voting. Like, perhaps unnaturally much. I find it absolutely exhilarating, and always have. I was registered to vote before I was 18. (Yes, that's legal.) I think the first election I actually voted in (at the very least, the first one I voted in, in person) was I think some sort of minor primary for like school board positions, or something relatively small and local like that. I went with my mom. We certainly did not need to wait in line. The nice older ladies who highlight your name off in the precinct name books gave me my first "I voted" sticker. I felt like I should get a cookie.
In fact, I always feel like I should get a cookie. I packed cookies in my lunch today so I could have one, post-voting. Perhaps next year, I should take election day off work, bake a bazillion cookies, and hand them out to people leaving the polls. Hmmm.
So anyway, here is why I love election day. (Even more so than voting in general-- I mean, I could have sent in a mail-in ballot or participated in early voting, but I decided to risk the predicted hours-long lines on this day, in particular.) And in particular, why I am so, so happy with THIS particular election day.
I remember even as a kid, seeing historical and current pictures from other countries, where the right to vote was a more recently earned privilege, a right people still vividly remembered fighting for-- and lining up for blocks and blocks for the opportunity to exercise that right. And I was always amazed at all this reported voter apathy in our own country-- I mean, was it really so long ago? Is it really only the first generation who wins the right (even if it took many generations of fighting for it, before them) who realizes its value? Especially as a woman, and having learned of how the women before me fought for my right to cast that ballot, I don't see how I could not do so.
I know all the scandals, the malfunctioning voting machines, the talk of corruption, all that. But why would you ever not at least try? I don't think our system is nearly that far gone. People who stay home, saying that they don't trust the voting system, or are disillusioned by the two-party domination of national offices, or think one vote doesn't count. They don't get credit for being all cynical and cool. What they get blame for is being apathetic and lazy. If something is wrong with the system, fix it. If you have problems with something, let your voice be heard about it. You don't get to have an opinion and expect it to magically be fixed for you.
But all of that is WAY beside the point, today anyway! I don't know the final numbers yet, of course-- and even once they come in, no matter how historically good they are, they'll still fall so far show of how many people are eligible to be registered and active and vote in this country-- but regardless, for Americans, and amazing number of us appear to have turned out to cast their ballot in this election!
At my voting site, I was so lucky as to cruise in and out in under 35 minutes, even with the dozens of ballot items in Colorado this fall. It spoke of good preparation and a well-staffed site, dealing with so many people from 4 precincts. But I read of stories of elsewhere, where people lined up for hours just to vote. I wouldn't have minded if I was stuck in such a line. Everybody coming to vote got a smile from me this morning. It was just so exciting to see such a collective fervor over an election. I don't even care who they were voting for. I mean, ok, I do care, but I'd rather someone vote for someone or something that I don't support, than stay home and not bother to vote at all.
I work with young adults, a great proportion of whom are homeless, and the rest of whom are dealing with a lot of other stuff in their lives, like children, substance abuse, or mental health issues. Not too many people would blame them if they didn't make voting their top priority.
But the amazing this is, a lot of them did. These young people-- for most of whom, this is probably their first election voting-- have been energized by this election for months, and today I helped more than one person look up their polling site and find out the types of acceptable ID. Also-- and this may be a difference of geography, or size of polling place, or some other factor, but I don't know-- the folks working my polling place today were not all retirees. In fact, probably most not. They were a mix of all ages, people who probably took the day off work just to help manage the long lines and help this historic election go as smoothly as it can.
That was all sort of incoherent, to be sure. But that is a little bit of why I love voting, and election day, and people in this country actually realizing that the right to choose who represents them is an amazing right and carries a corresponding responsibility to exercise it.
Woohoo! Voting.
In fact, I always feel like I should get a cookie. I packed cookies in my lunch today so I could have one, post-voting. Perhaps next year, I should take election day off work, bake a bazillion cookies, and hand them out to people leaving the polls. Hmmm.
So anyway, here is why I love election day. (Even more so than voting in general-- I mean, I could have sent in a mail-in ballot or participated in early voting, but I decided to risk the predicted hours-long lines on this day, in particular.) And in particular, why I am so, so happy with THIS particular election day.
I remember even as a kid, seeing historical and current pictures from other countries, where the right to vote was a more recently earned privilege, a right people still vividly remembered fighting for-- and lining up for blocks and blocks for the opportunity to exercise that right. And I was always amazed at all this reported voter apathy in our own country-- I mean, was it really so long ago? Is it really only the first generation who wins the right (even if it took many generations of fighting for it, before them) who realizes its value? Especially as a woman, and having learned of how the women before me fought for my right to cast that ballot, I don't see how I could not do so.
I know all the scandals, the malfunctioning voting machines, the talk of corruption, all that. But why would you ever not at least try? I don't think our system is nearly that far gone. People who stay home, saying that they don't trust the voting system, or are disillusioned by the two-party domination of national offices, or think one vote doesn't count. They don't get credit for being all cynical and cool. What they get blame for is being apathetic and lazy. If something is wrong with the system, fix it. If you have problems with something, let your voice be heard about it. You don't get to have an opinion and expect it to magically be fixed for you.
But all of that is WAY beside the point, today anyway! I don't know the final numbers yet, of course-- and even once they come in, no matter how historically good they are, they'll still fall so far show of how many people are eligible to be registered and active and vote in this country-- but regardless, for Americans, and amazing number of us appear to have turned out to cast their ballot in this election!
At my voting site, I was so lucky as to cruise in and out in under 35 minutes, even with the dozens of ballot items in Colorado this fall. It spoke of good preparation and a well-staffed site, dealing with so many people from 4 precincts. But I read of stories of elsewhere, where people lined up for hours just to vote. I wouldn't have minded if I was stuck in such a line. Everybody coming to vote got a smile from me this morning. It was just so exciting to see such a collective fervor over an election. I don't even care who they were voting for. I mean, ok, I do care, but I'd rather someone vote for someone or something that I don't support, than stay home and not bother to vote at all.
I work with young adults, a great proportion of whom are homeless, and the rest of whom are dealing with a lot of other stuff in their lives, like children, substance abuse, or mental health issues. Not too many people would blame them if they didn't make voting their top priority.
But the amazing this is, a lot of them did. These young people-- for most of whom, this is probably their first election voting-- have been energized by this election for months, and today I helped more than one person look up their polling site and find out the types of acceptable ID. Also-- and this may be a difference of geography, or size of polling place, or some other factor, but I don't know-- the folks working my polling place today were not all retirees. In fact, probably most not. They were a mix of all ages, people who probably took the day off work just to help manage the long lines and help this historic election go as smoothly as it can.
That was all sort of incoherent, to be sure. But that is a little bit of why I love voting, and election day, and people in this country actually realizing that the right to choose who represents them is an amazing right and carries a corresponding responsibility to exercise it.
Woohoo! Voting.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The next book you should read
...is "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman.It is an intriguing look into what the planet might look like if humans disappeared from it today. Sometimes chilling, sometimes inspiring, it asks-- and prompts the reader to ask-- the questions that everyone should be asking: What did the planet look like before humans spread across it? In what ways could it recover if we left, and in what ways have we already left an permanent impact? What traces of humanity would still remain in 100, or 100,000, or 100 million more years?
And most importantly, how can we do better by the planet than disappearing from it? Because even if we all disappeared tomorrow, the after-effects of our presence here will endure, we can't know for how long.
So, knowing all of this, how can we do better by this home we call Earth-- how can we soften the edges of the footprints we've already made, and tread a bit more lightly on this fragile planet?
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