I love Election Day. It’s one of my favorite days of the year. I feel so empowered even though I know that whomever I vote for will perceive my needs in a way that doesn’t quite match with what I had in mind.
Before I vote I make sure to research all the candidates regardless of political affiliation. This year there was a candidate in my district who pledged he would work toward reducing the salaries of all members of Congress by 10% and that Congressional salaries should be frozen until they created a balanced budget.
Hooked! Dude had my vote. I know it’s totally unrealistic but what if we could get a couple hundred people like him in office? It’s a personal pet peeve of mind that our representatives are so criminal as to give themselves raises when their constituents are out of work and eating cat food.
But enough about the criminals, I mean politicians. Let’s discuss the poling place for a moment. First of all, whoever is in charge of Virginia voting, get a clue. Traffic in northern Virginia is some of the worst in the country. Do you know how difficult it can be to leave work and make it to the polls before 7 p.m.? During the last election, we had a major weather event and I managed to get to the polls at 6:58 p.m. But in addition to that, how many times will it take you to realize that the A-K line is ALWAYS much, much longer than the L-Z line?
So last night as I was waiting in line with the other A to Ks, I had the opportunity to browse the library of my local elementary school. This is what my taxes pay for so I thought some intelligence gathering was in order. Here’s a selection of what our little ones are reading these days:
There seemed to be a Halloween theme with a number of pumpkin-related books on the shelves.
- Aunt Eater’s Halloween Mystery
Guess what type of animal the lead character was?
- No Dragons for Tea: Fire Safety for Kids (and Dragons)
Actually I noticed an entire shelf of dragon-related material. Not sure if this is dragon month or a tip to the last installment of Harry Potter in theatres but I noticed not one of them was the classic, Puff the Magic Dragon. Bummer.
Joey? Okay…
- And here’s one for the 5th grade best-seller list…
How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate
Now I think it was great that the line of people I was standing in was very colorful. Very democratic evidently (based on the election results) and very diverse. But I have to say that I agree with Chris Core from WTOP when he said that it just isn’t right to have signs in Spanish that thank people for voting. Don’t get snooty if you don’t agree—just hear me out. We are a nation of immigrants with different backgrounds, histories, and cultures. Very few things tie us together and bond us as a people. One of them is our language. All the other non-English speaking immigrants that came before adapted and conformed. To vote you have to be a citizen and to be a citizen you have to know English—it’s part of the test. So do not waste my tax dollars on signs in Spanish. Next thing you know they’ll be translating a proposal for immigration reform. Hmmmmm.
And while waiting in line I was entertained by some of my neighbors. One guy who was chatting away and accidently knocking over books was shushed by his wife. His reply? “I thought we were here voting for free speech.” Too funny.
Here are my final words for all the elected officials. Start paying for your own parking like the rest of us and we can start in the right direction to reducing the budget deficit.
From the Observation Deck 