This comes to us via valued correspondent Vaduz Uvunt from Craiglist about voting for the first time today in Brooklyn:
In 1992, I had turned 18 and was to have my first time voting be the Presidential Elections. Bush (Sr.) v. Clinton. I was quite excited and studied up on both candidates. I was in Louisiana, a state that always voted Red. I grew up in a family full of die hard Reagan fans. (After Reagan died, my brother actually flew out to California to pay his last respects.) They were also, die hard anti-welfare, anti-“anyone who’s not white” and anti-Democrats. The Republicans were right… correct. I was not of like mind. I didn’t have any problem with someone because of their race or lifestyle… only if they were good or bad people. And seeing as these people were judging others for things that, quite frankly, were probably out of their control – that led me to believe I wasn’t related to all that great of people. Anyway… the day of election came. I rode to the polls with my mother. Prepared to cast my vote for this country bumpkin Clinton guy. So, there I am, standing in line, patiently waiting to give my name and go into the booth. As my time arrived, my mother seeing my excitement grabbed my arm, dug her nails deep into my inner bicep and said to me:
“You just remember – when you go in there, you vote for BUSH!”
Long story short – I went into my booth, closed the curtain, clicked on Clinton, completed my voting session and, as I walked out of the booth, yelled out “Go Clinton!” My mother didn’t speak to me for the rest of the day, and ever since had the rule that we were not allowed to discuss politics anymore.
Today, I voted again for Obama. This time even more educated than ever before. My mother voted earlier last week for John McCain (although she’s more excited about Sarah Palin.) For the past 24-hours, for the first time since 1992, we have gone back and forth – her trying to tell me that we’re all going to have to “share the wealth” and me trying to clarify how misled she has been by McCain and Palin. But… I have since given up. She’ll just have to wait and see what kind of positive changes the Obama Administration will bring to this fucked up country.
And, now, we wait for the official results.
