I just got a phone call from my son.
Usually he calls when he needs something (like money), but today he called because he was excited. He'd just voted for the first time in his life, and he wanted to tell me about it. I'll admit, I was somewhat surprised he even had a voter registration card. This is the same kid who didn't get around to getting a driver's license until he was 17. He's never shown much interest in politics, preferring to invest his energy in death metal music, graffiti-esque art, perfecting his homeless waif look and avoiding an education at all cost.
And then he went to the Obama rally in Phoenix. He saw Caroline Kennedy and heard Obama speak, and now he can't stop talking about being part of "history in the making" and going to college ... and voting. My God, it does a liberal Democrat mom's heart good!
Say what you will about Barack Obama, he's done what many have tried and few have accomplished ... he's getting out the youth vote. He's crossing party lines and color lines and gender lines and he's inspiring people. He's reaching disheartened old voters like me and disinterested young voters like my son, and getting them out to the polls because they're excited about casting their votes. He's more than a candidate, he's a phenomenon, and he's gotten two generations of Kwachie's all kinds of whipped up about the possibilities.
Kwach
5 comments:
You are just saying this because you are afraid of Mallo, right?
Thomas said to me earlier, "Well, Evelyn...Do you support Mrs. Clinton?" and I said, "No, I think I'm leaning more towards Obama."
Then Thomas, a middle-aged Nigerian man, said to me, "what is with you women? You say you want a woman in the White House, and then you don't support her!"
And I said, "Thomas...are you an Obama supporter?"
He said "No, I support Mrs. Clinton."
So I got to say, "What is it with you black people? You say you want a black man in the White House, but you don't support him!"
And then we both got to laugh. It IS pretty weird.
It's pretty weird for me, too, since I'm a woman and all. But I don't believe that I'm a gender traitor. "Because Hillary is a woman" is no more reason to vote FOR her than it is to vote AGAINST her. I wouldn't vote for Ann Coulter, either.
Now, if Ann Richards were still alive and running against Obama? I'd totally vote for Ann.
Ann Coulter supports Hillary. I just figured out the other day we don't even live in a democracy. I am still working through that. I mean I wanted to vote for John Edwards and by the time it was time for Washington to vote, he was gone, yet he is still on my absentee Ballot, so I am voting for him anyway.
It all seems so complicated in the States.
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