Walnuts On My Windshield - Issue #18

November 5, 2004

Voting is very important to me. I think it is accurate to say that I have only missed voting in one or two elections in my life. One year, I was in the hospital and had to request an early discharge in order to go vote. I still had my hospital bracelet on, and I was so weak that I was leaning on Scott, but I stood in that 1.5 hour line and voted. (We lost big time, but as least I had voted.)

I watched the news reports about people standing in nine-hour lines to vote in Ohio. Some people took it to court and then got out of line. Then they were steamed when they didn't get to vote. I will admit that we have it very easy in Walnut Shade. We vote at the Walnut Shade General Baptist Church, about ¼ mile away across the Bull Creek bridge. I can see it out my office window, and since I knew that a high turn-out was expected this time, I took a peek before we left, to make sure the line wouldn't be too long .

The thought of a long line to vote is somewhat of a joke. We have lived and voted here for eight years. I usually vote mid-morning or mid-afternoon, and I am often voter number 152 or 213 or something like that. I have NEVER had to stand in line to vote here. There are usually about four booths, (either zero, one, or two occupied), about four election officials, and my kids and me. In primaries, the election official typically has the Republican ballot in hand while asking you which ballot you want. Then he says something like, "That's what I thought," with a big smile.

This time, we actually did have to wait. I could tell turn-out was high from the office window. The sloping gravel parking lot - gravel being an afterthought; most of it is grass - looks pretty full with half a dozen cars in it. The election officials' cars pretty well accomplish that. However, this Tuesday I stood at my window and watched two cars WAIT to turn into the lot! The driveway's kind of narrow, and it's not easy to pull in while someone is pulling out. Even with that, I was not prepared for what greeted me.

I took the boys with me. I have always taken all the children with me to vote, because I want to impress on them the importance of the event, and I want them to understand the procedure. This time, I finally gave the girls the option of staying home, and that is what they chose to do. However, to their credit, they have gotten the process down, and I believe the significance of it is firmly entrenched in their brains and hearts. Josiah has it down, too, but he chose to go with me, which was fine.

This time there were the usual four (or maybe it was five) election officials, but there were EIGHT voting booths! Six of them were in use, there were two people in line in front of us, and several folks came in right after us. Amazing! As I said, we take voting to be both a civic and educational responsibility. It's not an every day event, so we try to take full advantage when it does occur. (Unlike Arkansas, where elections seemed to be bi-monthly events, in Missouri - or at least rural in Missouri - we only vote twice a year: in the primaries and in the general election.)

Although I felt bad for those people behind me who had to wait while I did show and tell with the kids, I decided my children's education took priority over their convenience. I went through the whole deal while Josiah watched and listened knowingly and Andrew watched and listened entranced. "Here's the sample ballot, so we can see what the issues are before we vote; although we already went to the county clerk's office and got this blue one - remember, Andrew? Now here is the full text of Amendment 3. The question is whether all the money we pay in gasoline tax should be spent on road repair or whether some of it should be spent on other things. (Josiah: "We think it should all go for the roads, right?") This is where I have to prove who I am and that I have registered to vote. Now she looks up my name on the big list - see there's Dad's name; he already voted - and I have to sign my name. That way, if I tried to come back later and vote again, so that my candidates will get more votes, this lady will tell me that I already voted and can't vote again. Our system is one person, one vote. You only get to vote once in each election."

I received my ballot, we made our way to a booth, and I asked Josiah to pull over a folding chair for Andrew to stand on. Three heads craned over the ballot as I showed Andrew the little ovals I would color in to show who I was voting for. Andrew has not yet mastered the art of whispering, so a few times, as he read over the ballot, he blurted out things like, "NOT CLAIRE MCCASKILL, SHE'S BAD! WE WANT MATT BLUNT!" Oh, well. At least all his outbursts were accurate.

The ballot was long, and we had to whisper our way through quite a few discussions. "This judge has some very bad ideas and has made some bad decisions. (Andrew: "So we vote NO on him, right?") These other three judges are good, so we will vote yes on them." Josiah followed along closely on every candidate and knew pretty much who I should vote for. I was really proud of the way he handled himself.

We finally finished, passed Andrew's folding chair to a woman with a toddler at the next booth, fed the ballot into the machine, got our "I voted" stickers, and headed home. I was overcome with a sense that we had done all we could, but I didn't know if it would be enough.

We watched the election returns till about 11:00 PM, although I think Katie stayed up till about 1:00 AM - news hound that she is. While we sat there, with the two big races (President of the United States and Governor of Missouri) still neck and neck, I told the kids that they'd better plan right now to vote in every election. If they had to wait in line, so be it. If they had to walk to the poll, so be it. No matter what they had to do, they'd better do whatever it took in order to vote, because without that privilege, our nation would be nothing.

I thought about our friends in China, who live under all kinds of restrictions and don't get to choose their leaders or their laws. I thought about people all over the world who have never had the opportunity to vote. I thought about people who have endured terrible hardships - even worse than nine-hour lines - to be able to vote. And I thought about next Thursday, when we will go to the parade and honor the people who have fought and died to preserve the freedoms, including voting, that we Americans enjoy.

I can't really explain how thrilled I was with the outcome of the election. My president won, and the Republicans have a majority in the House and Senate. Missouri has a Republican governor who is a very strong Christian. All the way down to the local level, we elected (for the most part) decent people with common sense. It was an affirmation of the values that are precious to us and that we are trying to instill in our children. There are times when you do everything right and you still lose, but this Tuesday, we did everything right, and the victory is sweet!

Until next time,
Patty

From My Bookshelf:

Guns, Crime, and Freedom by Wayne LaPierre, rank 10. This audiobook was a clear explanation and compelling defense of the 2nd Amendment. It was almost enough to make me go out and buy a gun while I still can! It also explained how and why our criminal justice system works (or doesn't) and gave suggestion for how to improve it and cause our nation to function more in line with the Constitution. This book was worth WAY more than the $0.50 I paid for it at the Friends of the Library used book sale!

Toy Makers by Linda Skeers, rank 4. This is a kids' combo biography about people like Milton Bradley and the inventors of Lionel Trains, Erector Set, LEGO, and Barbie. I learned some interesting things, but I also re-realized why I hate combo biographies: they jump around too much and (by definition) don't cover a person thoroughly enough to satisfy.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, rank 10. This is another steal of an audiobook that I picked up at the used book sale. I grabbed it because of the author. He also wrote Into Thin Air, which I read years ago and loved. It was about a disastrous Mt. Everest expedition; a couple of them, in fact. His writing is so well-constructed that it's a pleasure to read, regardless of the subject. This book was also excellent, though disturbing. It's about a young man who, for reasons only partially understood, chose to enter the Alaska bush to live off the land for an undetermined length of time. I guess I won't tell you what happens, but it's am amazing story.

Quote of the Week:

"Correction does much, but encouragement does more." ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

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