Pulling a Donna Moss

So, like I told you, I don't get to go home to vote today, so instead I'm trying to convince my brother that he should vote my ticket for me. Even though this is not in exchange for my actual vote, I explained it by using this example from The West Wing, with Donna trying to get somebody to use their vote to count for hers, as she'd mistakenly voted for the other candidate on her absentee ballot.
This is torturous for my "I can't believe how liberal you are, are you freaking kidding me" somehow (I don't even know how, because seriously?) Republican brother, but I think I'm going to get him to do it. Apparently Martha Coakley needs all the help she can get today (again: I do not understand how it can be close, but according to the news it is), so I'm just glad I'll get 'my' say.

Robocalls are a stupid invention.

Have I mentioned before that I live in Massachusetts? I'm sure I have: I'm generally proud to be from this state - We're at the forefront on gay marriage, we beat the rest of the country to universal health care, and we've decided that R's are a completely unnecessary letter of the alphabet: what's not to love?

However, I would like, very much, not to be living in Massachusetts this week, as there is a big Senate race on right now, and the candidates - what with their commercials and 9 Robocalls a day and their constant bickering - are both driving me up a wall. Also, for some reason that is completely unclear to me, a Republican has a pretty good chance of winning Ted Kennedy's old seat. In a state where there are 3 registered Dems for every registered Republican, it boggles the mind. As Stephen Colbert said last week, this is definitely a sign of the coming Apocalypse...

And, of course, it gives us a prime opportunity to screw up the rest of the country, because if the Republican candidate wins, he'll be #41, thus blowing the Democrats' "super majority" (not that they've been able to accomplish anything with the super majority, but still). So goodbye health care bill: we've got ours, so the rest of you can just suck it. That seems like some great Massachusetts liberalism in play right there.

Anyways, I don't usually go off on political rants here, because, well, I have to defend my hippie-commie-liberal-pinko ways enough in person, so who wants to start something here, but I have to write something, because this kind of stuff makes me stressed out. I have to not listen to any of it, because attack ads (from my candidate, especially) and obviously, horrifically untrue statements (which I have to say have been more from the other side this time) make me want to throw up. It's like when I was younger and somebody would start picking on somebody else or my parents would start screaming at each other - it wasn't my fight, & you don't want draw attention to yourself, but you kind of wish you had the courage to just step in and say "Shut it! You're wrong, and you're mean, and there's no damn reason to be... Now play nice or walk away!" Play nice or walk away: why is that such a hard concept for people? Especially politicians? (And is it any wonder teaching kids to be nice to each other is something that attracted me so much?)

And also? Calling people 72 times in one weekend is not going to convince them that you understand their problems and will be there for them. It will convince them that you have no fricking clue what it means to be a human being, and that electing you is not their best decision. If you were smart, you'd start reading Facebook: more than half of my Massachusetts friends spent the day complaining about the calls they've gotten this weekend: either the number or the attitude of the callers themselves (pushy, much?)... I'd say every single status update today was either about the snow/ice or these calls. Ah: the phone rings again, I kid you not. And it's nearly 9 at night. I wish my eye was better and I could just read a book, shut off the whole rest of the world.

Let's see if I've unpacked my Firefly dvds, shall we?

I would tell any Massachusetts readers I have not to forget to vote tomorrow, but I think there's a slim chance of that happening.

I'm going to try to bribe my sister and her husband to vote, instead.

Big Sigh of Relief

It was a pretty amazing night, last night. I'd like to sit here and bask in the happiness of actually making a difference, for just a little bit. And yet, I spent most of the night being petrified that someone in the humongous crowd was going to do something desperate, that I would watch a horrible history unfold instead of a triumphant one. That must say something about me, that I couldn't just let go of the fear for one of the most inspiring speeches I have ever heard, but it's where I am... I have had that kind of a history with elections (the whole thinking we've done it and then getting crushed like a bug), and it's been that kind of a year for me personally: the kind where the other shoe just keeps dropping, and landing on me. So, I'm going to cut myself some slack on the whole fear thing.

But it was a wonderful, wonderful thing, and I'm so glad that things have changed enough in this country to let us get to this point.

I've been looking over some of the ballot questions and am distressed to say that other changes in our society aren't occurring as fast as they should be - Arizona, California (maybe), Florida, all passed bans on gay marriage & Arkansas passed a ban on same sex couple adoption. This makes me crazy, and yet I remain hopeful, since today's a day where it is pretty obvious just how far we've come, that we'll get there eventually, that all people will be seen as equal, if we just keep doing the work.

- Oh, and an aside here: When Obama's speech began with a list of groups of people (gay, straight, white, Hispanic, etc) and actually included "disabled and non-disabled", I cried. Because just the acknowledgement that we exist is something that's been missing for a long time... And remind me to write a little bit about voting as a 'disabled' voter and wth it's so freaking complicated -

On the positive side, voters in Colorado refused to amend their constitution to change the definition of a person in such a way as to ban abortion & South Dakota voted against banning abortion all together; Michigan voted for stem cell research and medical marijuana; and my own state of Massachusetts kept its collective head by voting against repealing the income tax (you know, so we can have.. schools and roads and stuff) and decriminalized marijuana in small amounts, calling it the sensible marijuana policy.

So, all hail the sense - common and good - that enabled us to make changes. And let's keep on working for the changes yet to come.


Happy New President, America.

Nudge Nudge

Because a lot of people are saying it better than I ever could, I'm going to just post some links today... Let's get out there and make a difference, reader(s)!

Here's 10 Reasons to vote Obama, and I'll add a couple of more:

He's got support from a lot of Republicans who think he's the right guy for this job.

I'm more nervous than ever that he might lose, and I'm not the only one.

This guy's already written his strip for tomorrow, and he'd be embarassed if he was wrong. AND SO WOULD WE.

And if you need still more convincing check out these very funny lists (helpfully rounded up over at Chaos Theory).

Please go vote. Even if you're voting (wrong) for the other guy.

Hope

Tomorrow, we vote. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, although I think you'll be able to figure out where I stand in the next few minutes - I'm just going to remind you that vital to vote, because what you care about matters.

The past 8 years, and the two presidential elections I've been eligible to vote in, my candidate has won my state, but lost the country. 4 years ago, when Bush (II) was reelected, I literally cried, amazed that parts of our country were either so blind or so stupid as to want to continue the policies that I felt were ruining a lot of what is good about this country. I'm still amazed, but now I don't know that they were stupid or naive, just that they've been scared. I've been scared too, and I'm still pretty scared. Scared that tomorrow night won't go the way I think it should, and I will be stuck with another four years of policies that go against what I believe in, another four years of someone who doesn't really know what they are doing. Scared that I'll have yet another president I feel I will someday have to apologize to my children for. I hope that won't be true, but I really thought it wouldn't be true four years ago, so I'll just have to wait and see.

I'm sick of being scared, and while I know that Obama is not the Almighty returned to earth, and that his (please god) presidency will be full of ups and downs and trials galore, I also think that he will at least try. He will make an effort to address all of the injustices that I see everyday. At least, that's what I hope.

And hoping, sometimes, is all we have.

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.
It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." — Howard Zinn