Nov 2, 2004
Election Day
Election Day. Like the last one, like most of them anymore, I try not to torment myself with hope or fear. Instead I queue up along with others at 7 am as the polls open. Good people in a warm lit building on a cloudy and slightly damp morning. We shuffle and smile. Chat some. Some have their kids with them, voting first then taxiing them to school.
As I leave I glance at the bumper stickers. At that moment more Kerry than Bush, but I have no doubt that there were more Packer fans than Kerry and Bush fans combined.
Later I will descend again into the turmoil of the great causes as I see them. But for now, for today, I hope to settle into the calm eye of functional routine. Teach, grade, advise, tell a joke and laugh at the jokes of others.
Most of all today, I want to remember, and to savor, what I felt in line at the Rice Lake City Hall this morning. That for all the deception, fraud, bad faith, and folly within our nation, this process still invokes awe. That for all the divisions between us, I was one of a crowd of good people this morning. And we were united as we took our ballets, filled in the circles with marker pens, and slipped them into the machine and left city hall as the sun peaked out from beneath the clouds in the east.
As I leave I glance at the bumper stickers. At that moment more Kerry than Bush, but I have no doubt that there were more Packer fans than Kerry and Bush fans combined.
Later I will descend again into the turmoil of the great causes as I see them. But for now, for today, I hope to settle into the calm eye of functional routine. Teach, grade, advise, tell a joke and laugh at the jokes of others.
Most of all today, I want to remember, and to savor, what I felt in line at the Rice Lake City Hall this morning. That for all the deception, fraud, bad faith, and folly within our nation, this process still invokes awe. That for all the divisions between us, I was one of a crowd of good people this morning. And we were united as we took our ballets, filled in the circles with marker pens, and slipped them into the machine and left city hall as the sun peaked out from beneath the clouds in the east.