voting

Earlier in the week, I had become concerned that I wouldn’t be able to vote, that my absentee ballot would not arrive in time for me to vote. I had researched and downloaded the provisional ballot that can be used in emergencies, but I knew that such a provisional ballot would very likely never be counted. I was discouraged, though not yet distraught, by the thought that I would be denied the opportunity to vote for Barack Obama. Playing with my daughter, who is only one and a half right now, I’ll sometimes call up a youtube video of Barack and try to get her to watch. I tell her, “That’s your President” even though it’s not yet true. I like to think about her future living in a world where Obama has been President, not because I believe he can single-handedly roll-back the damage done by thirty years of Republican ideological warfare (although he will certainly do his share), but because if he is elected, it will mean that America has already (and at last) turned away from that short-sighted, miserly thinking. I didn’t want to face her and possibly her children in the future and say that I failed to vote for him, even if I had the best of excuses (I supported him but couldn’t get to the polls twelve time-zones away). I would be embarrassed to have failed myself, my country, and my little girl so thoroughly.