Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Lessons

Basically I learned two of them last night:

1) The desire to exclude gays from society makes you "moral."

2) We never need a reason to invade another country.

At least I'm in a band I really like. And at least I had a guy ask me to take a picture of him and his friend last night in front of the Vote Here sign outside his polling place in Chavis Heights. Both of them had just voted for the very first time and were grinning from ear to ear about it.

--Ben

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh. I'm disappointed in you America. I really thought much more of you. We've been together for years now, and every now and then you surprise me and show how great you can be, but you've let me down again. I've seen you in the shopping malls, in the high school halls, and thought, maybe, maybe we can pull this off. Alas, the cold hard truth, is that America, you're a sucka. You've been taken in by the fear tactics and cold calculus of power hungry bastards. You've sided with Mr. Potter versus George Bailey. Or maybe George Bailey just told Clarence to fuck off and jumped back in the river and let Bedford Falls rot. It's a shitty ending. Sorry Mr. Capra, we let ya down.

Ricish(Researching Grad Schools in Forlornia)

Anonymous said...

Yesterday, Jennifer and I drove to Raleigh to volenteer at a polling place for MoveOn. We worked from 6-7:30. There were quite a few first time voters and it was really cool helping out. There was a really nice man from Pakistan that have all of his state court judges picked out.

As we waited we talked to the Republican poll workers. One of them told us that all of the states were leaning heavily in Kerry's favor. It was a great feeling--people were voting in record numbers, lots of first time voters, making friends with the Republicans and having a nice time getting along. I really, really felt happy and optimistic. This is what I wanted--for people on both sides to see that the other side wasn't crazy or demonic--we all just want the best for each other.

By the time we left it was nearly 8. We had a few Kerry signs in the car we were going to keep as keepsakes. I thought I was going to explode from excitement. Then we made the long drive back to Chapel Hill.

--

Part of the sadness that I feel does not come from thinking "Could I have done more" but from "What more could we have done?"

Has America turned that far to the right? When did institutionalized discrimination and fear become OK?

And Kentucky: You really let me down. Hard. Voting for Bush is one thing but giving the nod to Bunning--there is no excuse. And that marraige amendment. I am ashamed.

This morining I am having a hard time seeing any hope. I have to focus: 1)I have a great wife 2)a great band with my best friends and 3)there will be another election in four years that George Bush can't win.

Unless...

David

paok said...

I feel utterly sick to my stomach. I just want to go to bed for the next four years.

Anonymous said...

I am ashamed to be from KY. So angry. I can't watch basketball now.

D

ddoodd said...

This sounds so fucking corny, but it's true: If it weren't for blogs today, I would be ruined.