Election post

On Monday afternoon, I filled out my absentee ballot and helped my son (a first-time voter) fill out his.  Of course, I didn't tell him who or what to vote for; I just made sure he was aware there were four pages to fill out, and I showed him where to sign the envelope before he sealed it.  I had already told him to read the arguments for and against each ballot measure (and the rebuttal to each argument), rather than try to learn about the propositions by reading the brief description that appears on the actual ballot.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that my son had done quite a bit of research on his own, from reading editorials to just chatting up some of the regular customers where he works.  A little audacious hope can go a long way.

The first time I ever cast a vote in a presidential election, I didn't have the satisfaction that I had this time of voting for a candidate.  I didn't feel particularly inspired by Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.  I didn't even feel mildly attracted to them.  I didn't vote for them; I voted against Ronald Reagan because his brand of American patriotism was scary and repugnant.  "There's a bear in the woods," indeed, but it's us.

This time, I voted for Barack Obama -- not against John McCain, but actually for Obama -- because George W. Bush, Karl Rove, and the Supreme Court stole my America eight years ago, and I want it back.

Well, okay, my America didn't really exist yet... but they stole my hope that someday it would.

My America, or what I want my America to be, was the crowd at any Obama campaign rally, or a large-scale picture of  Barack Obama's own life so far:  multi-ethnic, multicultural, nurtured with strength and optimism, even in a "non-traditional" household, and committed to a call for unity, equality, and responsibility.

In his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (a speech that had me in tears of joy and anticipation at the time), Obama said, "It's not enough for just some of us to prosper, for alongside our famous individualism, there's another ingredient in the American saga:  a belief that we're all connected as one people."  That's my America.

I dropped off the absentee ballots at the county Election Office on Tuesday afternoon, then returned home to write four small papers for two different classes.  I opened up a browser tab for CNN.com, and I put CNN on TV, too, as soon as East Coast polls began to close.  I kept the TV muted so I could concentrate on writing while glancing up from time to time to see Wolf Blitzer talking to a reporter... by hologram?  Okay, strange -- but that's actually my America, too.

My son began sending me text messages at about 5:00:  "Did he win yet?"

My husband came home at 6:00 with pizzas.  "Did he win yet?"

I gave up on writing, and I texted my son in the affirmative when the map of Ohio went blue, even before the West Coast polls closed.  "YES HE DID!!!"

So my America has a chance.  Now if only the Proposition 8 clot hadn't decided that my California doesn't include more than 10% of my fellow citizens...