November 2000
I remember sitting and standing and pacing about Matty's parents house in Grand Blanc waiting for Florida to be called. It took days and it didn't matter. I had voted, vicariously through my sister's absentee ballot (long story), for the wrong guy. It didn't matter, as Nader had no real effect in Michigan. Still, I waited for days for the wrong president to be named.
November 2004
I was playing with Jon Reid, Dave Mack, and Joe Novelli at Tomato, and about the time the NC polls closed we moved to the kitchen and watched the numbers mount up. I had voted for the wrong guy again. It didn't matter much again because Kerry couldn't win a Kennedy look-alike contest in Martha's Vineyard if he was the only contestant (although he did win re-election in Massachusetts again tonight).
November 2008
It took me three elections (yes, Perot was the other one...I was 20 years old and a staunch contrarian...and the little guy was funny) but I finally got it right. And I know not everyone will agree with me (about 48% of the electorate if the last numbers I checked are correct) but I finally voted for the right guy.
As we watched the results come in, you could literally feel the energy. Mason couldn't sleep and was relatively well behaved for being up until midnight while mommy, daddy, and friends watched the numbers add up to 270 (and well beyond). By 11 PM or so, he had tallied more than the needed 270 to claim to presidency. Again, I finally voted for the right guy. And not just the guy who won, but, and I honestly believe this, the guy who will actually be best for our country, our current situation, and our next generation.
With a son in tow this evening, I thought about what this will mean for his generation. Hopefully it won't just be a footnote in his grade school text books about who was the first African American voted in as president. And in all actuality, to me, that's what that is, a footnote. It is what else this man can inspire in us. He is right, the government can't fix everything (or anything it seems, sometimes). It is up to us to right the wrongs. It seems so simple and self-evident, but it sometimes takes a great man to bring the simple to light.
Think of MLK saying racism is wrong, don't judge based on race or color of skin. Today, that seems so simple, even if it is still out there. Think of Ghandi saying that the lower Brahman aren't untouchables and then washing their feet. The social strata of the world still exists, but the evidence is all around us, and as much as we aim to ignore it, we can't and we know, deep down, that he was right. We are all the same.
And if nothing else gets accomplished, if every grandiose plan falls short of approval over the next four or eight years, if nothing else, let us all learn at least one thing: it is up to us, each of us, to make things better, at home, in our community, and in our world.
It is up to us.
Now go and do it. I know I will, if for no one else but my son.
