I was lucky enough to have a boss that would allow my fellow coworkers and I to stop for a moment and watch the swearing-in of Barrack Obama and Joe Biden on Tuesday. Can I just say, ‘Wow?!’ It was an amazing sight to see the first African-American in our history become the 44th President of the United States, not to mention a transition in power to that of a Democrat after eight years.
While the moment was indeed historic for African-Americans throughout the United States, it was also a much-needed change in our politics when our country is looking for a way to stabilize itself. With Wall Street’s recent plummet, unemployment on the rise, foreclosures on almost every street in America, and the auto industry failing, our country is sorely in need of guidance. Hopefully, Obama and Biden can help the American people find a way forward into a brighter future. While Obama cannot possibly fix every problem in America by himself, I think he can turn our country in a new direction from its previous course with the help of his cabinet and the cooperation of both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and Congress.
On the same note of positive thinking, the fact that Obama was elected president opens up completely new possibilities for future presidential hopefuls! I hope one day to see a woman in the Oval Office. It is shameful that a country which promotes the idea of equality and endless opportunities has not had a woman as president; if the rest of world can have women in the roles of power throughout their histories, why can’t we?!
Enough rambling for the day! Good luck President Obama and Vice President Biden!
Showing posts with label Elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elections. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Historical Day
What a day! My sister and I got up early this morning to cast our ballots before heading to work. The amount of people waiting to vote when we got to our local polling place at 6:30 am was amazing. Of course, it does not compare to the crowds in NY, CA, and other big states, but for Mobile, AL it was quite a line. In 2004, it only took me a couple of minutes to walk in, cast my ballot, and leave, while this time it took my sister and I an hour to vote.
My dear aunt Snowbird and her husband arrived at the voting place earlier in the morning and we saw them leave after casting their ballots. As we were leaving, our mother was waiting in line since she had to be to work later this morning.
I will not begrudge the time I stood in line to vote, it was definitely worth it to see the masses of people who were ready to change their state and/or country one way or the other tonight. Several issues on our county’s ballot were of importance to our education and transportation systems and I was glad to see people in line reading up on them in their newspapers or on the mock ballots before voting.
It definitely makes you think that many issues go unchecked when it comes to our ability to decide on them. I will readily admit that I am guilty of not voting in the everyday elections of our county. We automatically assume that enough people of similar mind will vote for us. It is quite a bad way to decide our state/county’s issues when you think about it. However, there have been several times this year when I would have voted on issues pertaining to annexes in our city, but could not do so because of voter districts. I have to say that politicians can be sneaky when it comes to drawing up those boundaries and declaring who is ‘affected’ by the issue and so gaining the right to vote on the issue. I will not go into specifics because I am sure every county does the same sort of thing to ensure that their issue is passed whether it pertains to the citizens voting or not.
In other news, I have been working on my Elements sampler. I have gotten one motif stitched up and almost a centaur with his crossbow finished in the Feu block. I am sure to get more done tonight while listening/watching election coverage on CNN.
Happy stitching everyone!!
My dear aunt Snowbird and her husband arrived at the voting place earlier in the morning and we saw them leave after casting their ballots. As we were leaving, our mother was waiting in line since she had to be to work later this morning.
I will not begrudge the time I stood in line to vote, it was definitely worth it to see the masses of people who were ready to change their state and/or country one way or the other tonight. Several issues on our county’s ballot were of importance to our education and transportation systems and I was glad to see people in line reading up on them in their newspapers or on the mock ballots before voting.
It definitely makes you think that many issues go unchecked when it comes to our ability to decide on them. I will readily admit that I am guilty of not voting in the everyday elections of our county. We automatically assume that enough people of similar mind will vote for us. It is quite a bad way to decide our state/county’s issues when you think about it. However, there have been several times this year when I would have voted on issues pertaining to annexes in our city, but could not do so because of voter districts. I have to say that politicians can be sneaky when it comes to drawing up those boundaries and declaring who is ‘affected’ by the issue and so gaining the right to vote on the issue. I will not go into specifics because I am sure every county does the same sort of thing to ensure that their issue is passed whether it pertains to the citizens voting or not.
In other news, I have been working on my Elements sampler. I have gotten one motif stitched up and almost a centaur with his crossbow finished in the Feu block. I am sure to get more done tonight while listening/watching election coverage on CNN.
Happy stitching everyone!!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Election soapbox
A Message from a member of the so-called non-voting age group in the United States
(sigh) Ok, so I'm driving down Airport Blvd this morning after dropping off brochures for some exhibitions that are opening soon at one of my local museums when suddenly I see 10 or 12 people standing around on the medians waving "Vote McCain" signs!
I usually wouldn't rant about something like this, but here I go! First of all, it's dangerous to have people waving signs anywhere on Airport Blvd. Natives of Mobile know how crazy drivers can get on Airport Blvd. With drivers going over or under the speed limit and the millions of stoplights on the street, people waving signs in the middle of the street aren't the best idea....talk about a distraction in the worse way because even I kept glancing over to read the signs.
Second, why McCain?! I'm not going to rant against either party in this post, but I would have rather seen signs telling people to register to vote than one party promoting itself.
So my soapbox message of the day is: Keep your party signs away from the main streets of Mobile just for the sheer fact that they are a bad distraction. I'd rather not get in an accident because the person in front of me is slowing down to read the signs and I wasn't paying attention either!!!
Secondly, please, please register to vote. I don't care who you vote for in this election or any of your state/city elections. Just get out there and register. It doesn't cost a thing to register!! There are plenty of places to register to vote in Mobile such as the local library branches, the Democratic headquarters on Dauphin Street and the Republican headquarters on Airport Blvd.
If you need more information about requirements to vote:
http://www.sos.state.al.us/Elections/VoterRegistrationInfo.aspx
Deadlines and applications are available through Rock the Vote :)
http://www.rockthevote.com/home.html
And to disprove one myth about registering to vote: Registering to vote DOES NOT mean that you are automatically in your state's system as eligible to serve on jury duty. That is determined by your state driver's license or any other state identification card. They told me that at jury duty on the first day!!!
SO GO OUT AND REGISTER!!!! Every vote counts whether it is Democratic, Republican, or Independent!!
(sigh) Ok, so I'm driving down Airport Blvd this morning after dropping off brochures for some exhibitions that are opening soon at one of my local museums when suddenly I see 10 or 12 people standing around on the medians waving "Vote McCain" signs!
I usually wouldn't rant about something like this, but here I go! First of all, it's dangerous to have people waving signs anywhere on Airport Blvd. Natives of Mobile know how crazy drivers can get on Airport Blvd. With drivers going over or under the speed limit and the millions of stoplights on the street, people waving signs in the middle of the street aren't the best idea....talk about a distraction in the worse way because even I kept glancing over to read the signs.
Second, why McCain?! I'm not going to rant against either party in this post, but I would have rather seen signs telling people to register to vote than one party promoting itself.
So my soapbox message of the day is: Keep your party signs away from the main streets of Mobile just for the sheer fact that they are a bad distraction. I'd rather not get in an accident because the person in front of me is slowing down to read the signs and I wasn't paying attention either!!!
Secondly, please, please register to vote. I don't care who you vote for in this election or any of your state/city elections. Just get out there and register. It doesn't cost a thing to register!! There are plenty of places to register to vote in Mobile such as the local library branches, the Democratic headquarters on Dauphin Street and the Republican headquarters on Airport Blvd.
If you need more information about requirements to vote:
http://www.sos.state.al.us/Elections/VoterRegistrationInfo.aspx
Deadlines and applications are available through Rock the Vote :)
http://www.rockthevote.com/home.html
And to disprove one myth about registering to vote: Registering to vote DOES NOT mean that you are automatically in your state's system as eligible to serve on jury duty. That is determined by your state driver's license or any other state identification card. They told me that at jury duty on the first day!!!
SO GO OUT AND REGISTER!!!! Every vote counts whether it is Democratic, Republican, or Independent!!
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