11/7/00

Vote!

Dewey Defeats Truman! This may be the closest race since 1948. Your vote counts.

I'm not reading any weblogs or other news sources today until after I vote. I cherish not knowing what the exit polls are showing, or what the mood is in each camp. I don't want to know what happened in Pennsylvania (etc.) until after I vote.

Sheila and I will be among the last Americans to vote, since we're on the West Coast, since we wait until after work to vote.

Around 7 we'll take the ritual walk to the polls, cast our votes, then come home and turn on CNN. Until then, I don't want to know what's going on.

It's a psychological thing, there's a euphoria associated with voting for your candidate that's much enhanced when you haven't heard the predictions. I treasure that feeling.

Btw, our voting place is in a church. I find that utterly appropriate.

David Brown asked why wait until after work to vote?

Here's why:

When I imagine the history of voting in America, I picture the factory workers, the farmers, all the working people over all the years of American democracy. They had to wait until after work to go vote. I'm with them. Voting during the day is for rich people, the over-privileged, the elite. Etc. It's hokey, but it's a connection to the past, to the traditions of American democracy.

Me and Sheila, we gotta work. Then we go vote.

We went through the voters pamphlet last night. There weren't many tough calls. Sometimes some of the initiatives are difficult, but not this time. In Washington state the process has been simplified -- look for Tim Eyman's name. That's your first clue. If Eyman's name appears, chances are 99.99% that the opposite choice is both moral and practical. (Of course, you still have to read it and decide -- but I've yet to see an Eyman-backed initiative that wasn't hand-crafted in Hell.)

My weblog is one year old today.

Sheila's weblog is one year old too.