Generational Voting

Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn I intend to drag my young child out of bed & to drag said child to the polls to stand in line to vote. I warned said child tonight about the morrow’s itinerary & was asked about breakfast – we will eat it in line, I said. And make sure your game-boy battery is charged.

Said child is off from school tomorrow for the election so, no doubt, other children in my state will be standing in line with their parents as well. And no doubt they – like me – will warn their children about behaving & being patient. I explained the importance of voting to my child – telling said child that I was going to vote no matter how long it took. Because IT WAS IMPORTANT.

Said child voted with me once before. In the primaries. About a month ago when I put an Obama bumper sticker on my car said child was curious about why it was a different name than the one I voted for in the primaries. I was delighted to TRY and explain the situation to my 7 year old. Whilst explaining the process of electing a president from primary to final election I made sure to oh so subtly emphasize the fact that the person mom voted for the first time was a SHE but that SHE did not win so now mom was voting for Obama because he was her next favorite choice. I refrained from mentioning his race – figuring he’d get that eventually.

Hopefully – in time – he will understand his mother’s heady experience during the primaries of having a choice between a woman & a black man. Honestly – I thought the day would NEVER come. All day I have found myself thinking about MLK, Harriet Tubman, & others looking down from above & thinking to themselves – yes, it was all worth it. May we PLEASE as an electorate tomorrow deliver for MLK & HT & so many others that have struggled & gone before. May the dream be a reality.

Hopefully my child will remember tomorrow’s historic election experience. And carry it forth into a future of responsible civic duty by voting.

And what parents do politically – or not – matters. The only campaign sign my parents ever put in our yard when we were growing up was for George McGovern. Remember him? I remember this – though at the time it would take awhile for the significance of this to sink into my young mind. I remember my mother being glued to the Watergate hearings – absolutely glued - refusing to talk to children who interrupted the hearings. I have never to this day seen my mother so intent & ANGRY.

These things I remember.

Tomorrow these same parents – my son’s grandparents - will be heading to the polls – my father in a wheel chair. You couldn’t keep him away from voting if you tried. How will they cast their votes? Always democrat.

So on to tomorrow – hopefully planting the seed for another generation of voting in my family tree. A family tree that includes a black sister. My said child’s godmother.

I posted a sign on my office door warning students that I might be late for office hours – because I was voting. Yes – it’s that important – even for people like me who live in a state so red that both Obama & McCain wrote it off months ago. Obama probably won’t win here. But he will still get my vote. I will be counted because – it does matter.

And may we all wake up to an Obama presidency Wednesday morning.