For the first time in our twenty years of married life, my husband and I voted differently for president. His comment when he saw my ballot was, "I can't believe you're voting for Obama". My reply, "Well, I can't believe you're voting for McCain".
We've been arguing about this for months, each trying to sway the other to vote for their candidate. He has his reasons, and I have mine. Enough said. No more heated discussions about who's the better choice, no more "he's an idiot!" referring to the other person's choice. It's done, the envelopes are sealed, ready to be dropped at the post office later today.
Now for a bit of truth here, in the past twenty years I've never cared or bothered to research the issues or the candidates. For twenty years I left this up to my husband. I'd hand him my ballot and tell him to vote for me. I'd sign the envelope and he'd mail it. I'm sure anyone reading this is absolutely mortified that I took so little interest in political matters. I'm somewhat mortified about it myself. It's not that I'm uneducated or stupid, seriously, I'm neither. I hold a college degree and a job that requires some semblance of intelligence, I just never cared.
This year is different. This year I care a lot about who is our next president. I won't go into why, because it's blatantly obvious by looking at how screwed up our country is right now. I also won't go into why I support Obama, because to me, it's obvious he's the better choice. Plus, this isn't a political blog, it's a weight loss blog.
The only point I want to make is do your research, decide who YOU think is the best choice. Not what your spouse or your friends think, but YOU. Whatever you do, please vote.
I have a good friend, he's 53 and I work with him every day. He has a Masters in Computer Science and is very intelligent, yet he has never voted. He's a U.S. citizen and he's registered to vote, he said he's just never cared enough to vote. I was furious with him when he told me this little fact a few weeks ago. Then I realized that essentially I've been doing the same thing for 20 years. Now I'm a little furious with myself.
Exercise 10/25/2008:
A very strange workout today...
10 minutes treadmill cardio blast
10 minutes crossramp
10 minutes bike
10 minutes stair climber
30 minutes strength/upper/lower/abs
5 comments:
I'll admit it too, I haven't always voted either. However, I did vote 4 years ago and I can guarantee it was not for our current president.
Hopefully enough people feel as strongly as you and I do that we definitely need a change and they will do something about it on November 4. I really don't see how we can go through another 4 years of this.
Congratulations on your change of heart! It makes me happy to hear it -- and not just based on your decision (although I'm giving you the thumbs up on that -- wink!). It's always encouraging when folks take advantage of this very basic privilege, voting -- far too many don't it seems....
While I've personally always been one to vote and keep up with campaigns, etc, I can still relate to how others might feel disinterested, disenfranchised, apathetic, powerless, or just plain disillusioned, about the whole electoral process. In particular it's easy to understand how one might slip into the mindset of thinking ONE person with his/her ONE vote could not possibly making any difference, so why even bother? And yet, our system of democracy is one of the most unique in the world, and probably shouldn't be taken for granted. Who knows -- future tides could bring political upheaval and change, a shift to the negative, complete with a loss or erosion of basic constitutional freedoms and rights. I fervently hope that could never happen here -- yet if it ever were to? It is then that those sleeping through the process would finally wake up and take notice, when we've allowed something important and precious to slip through our fingers, you know?
Liberty -- use it or lose it!
Congratulations Diana, you are are challenge leader to date! Way to friggin go! Keep up the great work!
~A
Way to go! On BLBE and voting!
My husband probably wouldn't have pushed to become a citizen if it wasn't for the chance to vote for Obama. In fact, he has been the political blogging maniac in the family!
--The other Nurse Ratched
Diana, I'm so proud of you for taking this step! You know I give you a whole-hearted round of approval and two thumbs up for your choice. I knew I liked you! Okay, I'd like you even if you were voting for McCain. :o)
And look at it this way - if you were ever going to pick an election to make your own choice, it would be this one! Instead of giving McCain two votes, you cancelled out your hubby's! :o)
I hope you had a good weekend!
Post a Comment