Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Change, it's the new status quo.

During my run this morning, I was shocked by the weather. I live in Cleveland. It is November and it is 75 degrees and sunny. Running felt downright balmy. However, everything will be status quo by Saturday...cloudy and snowy.

I also was shocked by how I got hornswaggled into voting today. My husband called me from our polling place to say that there were no lines, and you could just walk right up to a booth. With a dramatic roll of my eyes, I walked out the door, still wearing what I slept in last night, to go across the street to the school to vote...not even 100 yards from my house.

Teenagers greeted me at the door to ask if I knew what precinct I was voting in...to which I almost replied, "No. I don't even know why I am here," but luckily I was distracted. It was hard to ignore the state of that musty public school that I only look at and think please, please, house sell, so I don't have to send my daughter there. I noticed that families were there with children. Large, extended families from this area where we can hardly boast about affluence. People were quiet, but expectant. I saw hunger and exhaustion and desperation in many faces, I heard hunger and exhaustion and desperation in the voices of teachers and students that haunted the school hallway.
My God, I thought, they actually think that this matters.

Which, in a way, is everything.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regardless of the reason you voted, or whether it ultimately means something to the country as a whole, it means so much to me that you took the time to do it! So yes, in answer to your question, I am incredibly proud of you (as I am with everything you do on a daily basis)

Anonymous said...

well... I am disappointed. You gave into peer-pressure. :(