Election Day

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Like a child sitting in the back seat of the family car as it passes through Nebraska or some other farm state (nothing but alfalfa and corn, corn and alfalfa), I greet this Election Day with a plaintive, "Are we there yet?!"

Is it over?

Is it safe to come out?

The obscene amounts of money have been spent ... not on the nation, but on unimaginative and artful competitors who hope no one will notice that the emperor spent his treasure on clothes no one can see. Obscene! Almost 2 billion dollars between the two presidential candidates, not to speak of hundreds of millions provided without a record. Think schools, think hunger, think hurricane relief, think ... well, think of what good that money might have done.

The voting for president and others is today. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. With luck, by tomorrow, we will know which man will give us the same ol' same ol' for the next four years.

Are we there yet?!

PS. I went and voted. The day was sunny and crisp. Afterwards, I went outside the Senior Center where the voting was held and sat on a bench in the sunshine. I had parked the car at some distance from the center so as to avoid the traffic jam and, since my hip was raising hell, decided to sit and watch.

It was very nice to see the people come in their one's and two's and three's. There were old people with walkers, there were young people with pierced noses, there were guys in suits and guys in woolen mackinaws, there were ... lots and lots of different people, all of them with a vote to cast. One (wo)man, one vote. Very pleasing somehow. There are people in the world who would kill to do what we were all doing so casually.

I decided to give my hip a rest on the bench until the first black person passed. My hip was grateful for the long sit in the bright sun. Everyone was pink or pretty close to it. Finally, a black guy in a security guard's uniform passed, gave me a fleeting smile and was gone. My hip groaned, but I did not. Even one black face was better than none. I got up and walked back to the car.
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