VOTE DAMMIT!

Today's the day, people.  I don't think I've been
this excited for an election since my freshman
year of college in 1992.

Dru's Dad sent the following out on this day in
2000 and I've kept it ever since. It's pretty
touching and something I think of every time
I visit a voting booth, Presidential election or not.

For quite a long time now I have been deeply cynical
of this whole presidential campaign -- a campaign
that has come down to the evil of two lessors, as
I have heard it described.  Here in Wyoming, a state
with 3 electoral college votes, my individual vote
for president (regardless of my choice) has been
meaningless for nearly a year -- it is foregone that
the Wyoming electoral college votes are Republican.
Most of those friends and colleagues I know who
listened to the debates were mostly doing so just
to have their decision, long before made,ratified.
And regardless of which side they were on, or what
they heard in the debates, the campaign rhetoric,
the political ads -- all served simply to confirm
for each their position -- a position arrived at
almost automatically and much earlier.  So why bother?

But at this moment, well before any results can be
reported, I am deeply moved and profoundly proud
to be a resident of the United States of America.

At 7:00 AM I was 33rd in line at my local polling
place, and the line grew steadily behind me.  I
stood in line with strangers, neighbors and friends
-- Independents, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians
and "others."  We didn't speak of politics, nor of
candidates, nor of positions.  We made small talk.

We honored one another by respecting each other's
views, acknowledging them as equal to our own.
There were no guards at the doors, no uniformed
"keepers of the peace" watching over the process.
The process, rather, was being conducted by
volunteers -- friends, neighbors and strangers.
And not a one of us in line even gave a thought
about the honesty of the poll workers or the
integrity of the process.  We didn't have to.
We know it.  We expect it.  We can't imagine it
any other way.

As I left the booth and walked back past the
line of citizens quietly awaiting their turn
to exercise their fundamental right in this
democracy of ours; as I turned up my collar
to the icy wind inevitably whipping across
the parking lot; as I watched the stream of
cars and pickups coming into that lot and
driving away, I confess, I choked up.

In a couple of months we will have a new government.
And when it changes, we will have a party --
no violence, no jailing of the vanquished, no turmoil
-- a party!  We will grouse about the ineptitude of
those we just elected; we will let them know in no
uncertain terms of our dislikes and our demands;
we will judge them publicly and privately; and we
will ultimately trust them to manage the affairs
that keep us working more or less together.

I voted for a new president, even though I knew
my vote didn't really matter. I voted for judges
and local officials, and constitutional propositions
and optional tax issues where I knew my vote would
matter.  And I did that side by side with friends,
neighbors and strangers, in suits and blue jeans
and uniforms and sweatpants, in rusty pickups and
shiny imported autos. Together we just changed our
government. We took a pen in our hands and shook
every governmental institution in this, the most
powerful country in the world-- and then we all went
to work and got on with our day.