Four More Years!

Oh, my heart!  Waiting for hours, watching as the tide seemed to be against our President!  Being so sure that Tim Kaine wasn't going to make it!  We took an hour's break to watch an episode of Deadwood, and when we came back, George Allen was conceding to Tim!  What happened?

WE happened!

Prince William County/NOVA really came through for Mr. Kaine (and for our President!).  I can't begin to describe how incredibly exciting that is for me--after years in Utah, where, let's face it, my vote in national races was nothing more than a way of earning my "bitching rights," suddenly my vote MEANS something.  It is influential, it counts.  It's amazing, it's heady. 

The lines here in Northern Virginia were so long they wound up having to extend voting past 11 pm.  When we went out to get our celebratory/sadness foods (we didn't know which it would be), the line at the local polling place was even longer than it had been at 6 am (an hour-and-a-half), 3 pm (closer to two hours), and 6 pm (around three hours).  Amazing.  I am so proud to live here, so amazed by the turnout.

Oh, and the food?  Well, let's just say I was up sick for most of the night--too many Popeye's fries, a Whopper with cheese, and wowser brownies with Ghirardelli chocolate chips (but we forgot the walnuts!).  That was enough to have my gut in total rebellion all night.  Well, all morning--didn't even go to bed until almost four.  And that wasn't ALL the food!  I was too full to eat any jalapeno poppers or chocolate satin (Satan, lol) pie.  Guess we'll have those tonight!

I am not overjoyed by the results of this election.  See, we still have the same obstructionist, petty house to deal with--the same guys who made it their lives' work to impede in any way they could.  My hope is that, since there's now no vow to "make Obama a one-term president," perhaps they'll hang up that hateful crap and do something constructive for Americans instead of serving their corporate bosses and acting on their mean, racist agenda.  Hopefully, their spitefulness won't lead them to intentionally trigger those idiotic budget cuts.  Just because we got our President and retained our Senate doesn't mean that the idiocy of the past two years won't continue.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried.

Yes, that was very political of me.  I've had to swallow four years of their "impede at every opportunity, then blame the President for not making progress" garbage.  The racist innuendo, the flat-out lies.  I'm tired, and I don't want to listen to that garbage anymore.

Speaking of garbage, I have, for the past year-plus, been hiding my posts from a large number (over 150) of my Facebook "friends" in order to shield their delicate sensibilities from my political speech.  I have also refrained from arguing with anyone whose wall posts (posts to THEIR wall) come across my news feed.  It just seems right to me that my wall is for me, your wall is for you.  This was a one-way street, as people were happy to jump in and argue with me on my wall.  Well, last night, I broke my self-imposed limitation--some dimwitted asshat had posted a picture of our President in black face with watermelon and fried chicken, with the White House in the background and some awful, racially stereotypical words along the bottom.  I lost it--I called him a racist and I dropped him.  It felt good.

Really good.

So good, that the nasty woman (a mutual friend) who commented with something about our "future being much DARKER now" is also off my friends list.  And that felt so good that I realize it's time to be done.  Done with the selectively hiding things from this person or that so they don't get offended.  You know what, all my Facebook "friends" know I'm an atheist, but they don't hesitate to smear my news feed with their religion.  They know I'm very liberal, but they spray their wing-nutty, teabag crap all over my news feed.  And I LET them, without challenge or argument, because it's their wall, they get to do that.  But dammit, so do *I*.  So I think it's time to do some major housecleaning.  Knock, oh, 150+ people off my friends list. 

I think it's going to feel incredible.

My sister called last night, after Ohio was projected, but before Virginia was called.  She made some crack about how Virginia had sold out the President, and I was so afraid that was, in fact, the case.  But we didn't.  No, as the numbers came in through the night, it became clear that WE gave our President the great state of Virginia.  Yeah.  We BUILT that!

Totally off topic, I tore out the tomatoes today and unhooked the hoses.  Yeah, a little late after the hard freeze, but no harm done.  It's almost winter.  I hope we get some real snow this year. 

Welcome to America!

Seriously, I'm not being a smart-ass.  Yes, I'm concerned about republican robo-calls telling voters that the aftermath of Sandy has made it necessary for republicans to vote today, while democrats vote TOMORROW (Wednesday, November 7th).  Yes, I'm worried about mailings telling Obama supporters that the voting day has been changed or that telephone voting is now occurring.  Yes, I'm worried about Romney's family buying into voting machine companies and polling places experiencing "difficulties" in Virginia.  But I'm also proud--proud that I could stand in line for an hour-and-a-half this morning and exercise my right to vote without anyone taking a stick to me or tossing grenades at the polling station. 

We spent the hour-and-a-half (which began at 6 am!) talking with a very nice woman who is originally from NYC, but has been in Virginia for years (though new to Prince William County).  I did see one gentleman being turned away for not being listed in the system--or at least the poll worker asked him to step aside, have a seat, and they would try to sort things out for him.  I try to imagine just how upsetting that would be, especially in a place like Virginia, which is absolutely a deciding factor in this election.

My vote matters here.  Despite Romney's/the right's attempts to silence me, fact is, in Virginia, my vote could mean something big.  It's a heady feeling. 

More as the election day unfolds, I'm sure.  I voted.  You vote.  Do it.  Seriously.  If you live in a state so deeply red (or blue) that you don't feel your vote counts, vote anyway.  Earn your bitching rights. 

Vote.

Scared in the USA

So I'm hanging on Facebook the other day, taking part in a bit of a political discussion on a friend's wall. He's stumping for President Obama, I'm agreeing with him, and in comes a friend of his who's backing Romney. We're discussing wage inequality and the gender gap in pay, and she pipes up with, "I guess I've been lucky--I've never been paid less than a man in the same job, so I have no reason not to vote Romney/Ryan."


What? Are you serious? Are you stupid? You don't think (and you're probably wrong) that you've ever been directly affected by a grossly unfair, sexist trend and therefore you're going to vote for the guys who don't give two spits about it? Who support polices that forward it? Really?


Well, let's toss that silly Voting Rights Act, then, because I've never been black and denied the right to vote. If it doesn’t affect me, who cares, right?


This woman saw nothing "off" about her position. She absolutely failed to recognize the impact wage inequality has on ALL of us, not just the women being underpaid. She couldn't comprehend why she should care, why she should, in any way, concern herself with the problems of others.


Is she typical? Is this considered good or right? I'm serious--have we slid that far, sunk that low? I know that "I got mine, screw all y'all" has been a growing trend since the early 80s, but surely we can do better than that.


Surely we WANT to. Don't we?


It seems we, as a nation, disconnected somewhere along the line. We went from "man on the moon/Roe vs Wade/human rights champions of the world" to something smaller. Greedier. We've become a nation where the loudest are the ones calling for a richer rich, a poorer poor, and a non-existent immigrant population to blame for all ills. I know we can't all have fallen so far. We can't have all given up on that dream of peace and fairness.


So where are we? And when did we stop putting ourselves in the shoes of our fellow men and women?


We're facing an historic election. We're faced with a clear choice. And for the first time in my life, I am scared. Scared to death. For the first time in my life, I can actually foresee a world where I have less freedom, fewer opportunities, fewer rights, and a markedly limited vision for my future, and for that of my son. And my niece?


Fuhgeddaboutit.


What can I do about it? Vote. It's really all I can do. I can vote, I can encourage my friends to vote, my family, YOU. I can make sure I'm registered to vote (http://www.canivote.org/), I can make sure that my state hasn't passed some restrictive, “keep the poor and elderly away come election day” voter ID law, and I can figure out what I need to exercise my right to vote, should it turn out they have (http://www.ncsl.org/legislatures-elections/elections/voter-id.aspx).


I believe in America, but, as more and more people hop on the "if it doesn't affect me, it doesn't matter" train, I'm finding it harder and harder to believe in Americans. Help me out with that. Inform yourself, seek your news and information from several sources on all sides of the political spectrum. Speak intelligently, don't encourage or tolerate obfuscation and slander. And for goodness sake, choose your candidate based upon his or her words, actions, vision, and character rather than looks, race, wealth, or religion.