all the news that print will fit.
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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Tuesday, November 02, 2004 np: the clash - london calling for the beginning of what i hope will be a resurgent time for our country, i thought that the clash's 1979 epistle would be appropriate. also let it be known that if anyone wants to buy me the really swank, expanded edition of london calling for the holidays, feel perfectly welcome to do so. i got to my polling place at st. barnabus episcopol over on jefferson road about 7:30am this morning. i had finished voting around 8:45am. an hour and fifteen minutes isn't too bad considering the other, hellacious stories i'd been hearing on the radio for early voting. now all i can do is sit back and wait. we went to trivia last night at college hill bar. this is something i love to do, but sadly it's hard for me to go out many monday evenings when trivia doesn't start until 10:30pm and i'm a school teacher. alas. but, that's why we take advantage of work days. the highlight of the night (other than me knowing, in a category where we had ten crayola colors scribbled on a sheet and had to identify them by precise name, that the purple color was indeed "purple mountains' majesty"), or rather, most interesting, came when i overheard a conversation at the table behind me. a rather loud and obnoxious girl, appearing to be of college age, was making her argument that she has as much right not to vote as anyone else does to vote. and while i certainly agree with her in principle, i really had the urge to turn around, tell her that i agreed with her, but then tell her what an absolute fuck-face she is for not voting this time. i'll wax reminiscent for a minute: the year is 2000. i'm a sophomore at guilford college and the election is coming up. feeling especially ostricized by both major parties, i proudly (and to this day, without hesitation) cast my write-in vote for ralph nader and the green party for president. nader and the greens do represent my personal beliefs more accurately than any other party and i felt very drawn to their mission of achieving third-party recognition by topping the 5% mark in the national race. despite the outcome of the last 4 years, i still don't regret my decision, as bush easily carried north carolina in 2000. my vote for gore (nor the total votes for nader in NC switched over to gore) would have made a difference. the point i'm getting at is that despite my feeling of alienation and non-representation, i still found a niche, an idea that i agreed with and cast my vote. i didn't harbor any delusions of great revolutions thanks to my vote. (i'm no stephen cabarrus, afterall.) but i did spend the next four years feeling unflinchingly betrayed by elected officials and knowing that my vote had been not only ignored (my write-in vote for nader was never counted, thanks to north carolina's absurdly stringent standards for ballot access) but quieted. of course, since i cast my vote for a major party candidate this year, one might say that i've been corralled into the mainstream, forced into one of the two major pits in which the majority of voters are mired. perhaps. but all i know is when president kerry takes the office in january, he will owe the far-left section of his party far more than just lip service during the next four years. john, i've got my eye on you. don't make me regret believing in the system that i have far too much stake and hope in to be healthy. i'm counting on you. -- again, i'll be at the green bean tonight for the election watch party. say howdy. i'll be in my light pinstripe suit jacket. it does seem like the social event of the season, afterall. posted by J. Neas | 11/02/2004 10:18:00 AM
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