Yesterday, October 25, 2008, early voting which had begun a week earlier allowed Florida voters to get to the polls early and cast their vote.Perhaps in the process early voting would avoid long lines certain to be a major problem as Florida, a battleground state is sure to have a record number of voters go to the polls.
So in order to do my civic duty, and very aware that we are definitely living in interesting times, I went to my assigned early voting location at the Aventura, Florida Government Center I arrived at the center at about midday, and the lines had formed earlier were now a mass of waiting voters snaking back and forth.
It seemed to me that it would be at least a two hour wait. It didn’t fluster me very much I knew I had to cast my vote for Obama. I would wait until the evening if necessary but I had to cast my vote.
I had the opportunity during the wait to meet two interesting voters also waiting with me on the long line. One was Ronnie, a married woman with two children. She felt as I did that she above all other things had to cast her vote and as she emotionally stated we had to throw the bums out.
We talked for close to 2 ½ hours, we discussed our individual and collective concerns for ourselves, and our country. She felt betrayed as I did by our countries leaders. Our current leader has gotten us into a war in Iraq, when Al Qaeda, and the Taliban , who attacked us on 911, were roaming free, and causing mayhem all over Afghanistan. To her George W. Bush was a liar, and to her George W. Bush had no clue whatsoever as to what was happening abroad, or to our economy, and to our country.
She also wanted to cast her vote for Barack Obama. She mentioned to me that she was Jewish, and conveyed to me that many of her friends would vote blindly for Senator John McCain, she would not; she could not be persuaded to vote against her pick of Barack Obama.
She felt strongly that Barack Obama alone was able to deal with the difficult issues at hand. The economy, health care and two wars, along with the sad state affairs on Wall Street, and the greed consuming both the banks and the financial sector made a bad situation even worse. Her views were very much like mine. We both felt that above all we could not trust the existing government in Washington to tell us the real truth about what was occurring in the economy, or what the root causes were.
Bush had lied to the American people about Iraq, so in her opinion that was the end of that. It excluded her from believing anything that the president would have to say. She no longer trusted the president.
We had to throw the bums out along with the rest of the neocom republicans who we both felt were diluting our constitution for their own political gains here at home. During the course of our conversation Ronnie and I we were joined by a gentleman in his sixties named Larry. Recently retired Larry was quick to point out that he had already lost close to thirty thousand dollars in his retirement fund, as Wall Street on a daily basis continued with mounting losses. He was adamant that this time, this vote, in this election year would be the most important vote that he and all of the voters waiting would cast in our lifetime.
As an African-American, Larry was quick to notice how many people were willing to wait on line. He quickly pointed out that there was no discord anywhere on the lines. The three of us chatted and continued exchanging views, opinions and reflecting all the time how important this one vote would be.
We all agreed that this would be the defining election for our country. As I write about what I experienced during this early voting Saturday, I thought to myself what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than to be with two fellow citizens with opinions, and views which added to the diversity of the electorate which is the strength of our country.
What better way to pass the time waiting on line and to have the ability to discuss the issues facing the country and to wait patiently to cast our vote based on our individual preferences.
I thought what a shame it would be, and what a disservice it would be if any one of us would miss this opportunity and not vote. The three of us continued our discussions; Larry at one point indicated to me that he was afraid of even thinking about it. But he confided in me and said that “America may not be ready for Barack Obama”.” They may want to kill him”, as he confided in me what he had experienced as a black child growing up in California. He was thinking out loud. What would happen if Obama was assassinated?
He was concerned about what would happen to our country?
What would the rest of the world think about America? What do you tell the children? Is there something about the American people which it seems always resort to violence to make a point? We talked about the historical legacy for a few minutes touching on slavery, the American Indian, the wars over the years, and the Civil Rights movement. Ronnie waded in and discussed the Jewish concern which she thought was being manipulated by the right wing neocoms of the Republican Party.
I told him that I had also thought about what would happen? My view was that for sure that would be the end of us in terms of a cohesive society. But, I was confident that this time it would be different.
I have the belief that a dream could become a reality. I was not going to dwell on the negative, not this time. He looked at me, and said “You know you’re right, this is too important for our country to dwell on the negative”. It reminded me of a Bob Dylan lyric which stated that “everyone’s having those dreams”. Here we have Senator Barack Obama playing by the rules, and abiding by the process, and by all indications will be the next President of the United States. What could we possibly tell our children if something were to happen to him, or any other candidate?
I take a more positive view which I nourish, and I am sure I will always remember the conversations with two strangers, two Americans citizens while waiting on line for early voting in Aventura, Florida. I will always remember this Saturday afternoon and the time I spent on line waiting to cast my vote for President of the United States.
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