One Thousand Words

Our polling place was my kid's old school - they attended pre-k through sixth grade there (well, fifth grade, as sixth grade was during Covid distance learning) and are now across the street at the junior high. It hasn't been an easy adjustment, and that's all I'm going to say about it.

When my kid was younger, I was a stay at home parent. We took a HUGE financial hit, it was a very hard time, and I was often extremely overwhelmed by being constantly "on" as a parent. But I also hugely treasure the time I got to spend with my kid and how well I got to know them. One of the things I did was spend time volunteering at the school when my kid was in a half-day pre-k program. It was a half mile walk to get there, and I could turn around and go back or I could stay for four hours or whatever and volunteer. So I spent a few days a week in the classroom (a kid once waited until I yawned and then sneezed directly into my mouth) or making photocopies and doing other tedious time-consuming work that freed the teachers up to do more important things. And some days I'd go to the Dunkin' Donuts a block and a half away and listen to music and read a book or write or draw and just not... be a parent for a few hours.

Going back into their school brought up memories and also emotions. The smell of it is unchanged, old wood and wood polish and floor wax and tempera paint and wet mittens. It smells a lot like the grade school I went to, the smell of a school building that's over 100 years old and that smells a bit like a school built in the 50s or 60s but also... different somehow. More complex. There's more going on. There's also fancier doorknobs and more windows.

We walked through the school along the route I helped herd the kids while doing a hunt for the Gingerbread Man. We walked past the auditorium where my kid was in two musicals. We walked past columns painted with peacocks, and signs saying "welcome" in different languages, and unisex bathrooms. And we found the place to vote.

Voting was simple. We'd downloaded and filled in a sample ballot and were able to quickly mark things off the paper ballot with a black marker. They used to be microns but now they're sharpies, no doubt far cheaper. When I slipped my ballot into the machine it alerted me to the fact that I'd skipped a section. I was able to get my ballot back and fix it. My husband had too much marker bleed and the machine warned that the ballot might be thrown out for over-voting. He got a new ballot and submitted it with no problem. It was very nice to have that fail-safe.

It was a nice day. We saw people that we knew. I got a cranberry orange muffin. We voted. It's November.

Mirrored from brigidkeely.com/wordpress.

I am very unenthusiastic about voting right now, especially as I live in Chicago and a lot of our local political options are especially dire. I kind of feel like I’m being asked to chose between being stabbed in the arm or being stabbed in the leg. Both are going to hurt and be bad for me, but which will hurt less? Which will lead to less long-term damage? Do I want to go with the leg, which will bleed more; or with the arm, which may lead to nerve damage of my hand/fingers? It’s a hard question to face, to make a decision on. Frankly, a lot of the platforms that a lot of politicians are standing on are directly designed to hurt me and people like me. They are literal attacks on me and people like me. I’m talking about stuff like restricting access to health care and abortion (even in the case of rape or incest! BTW: if it’s incest, it’s probably rape! even in cases where it will literally kill the mother! ABORTION: MOST EVIL THING EVER; WOMEN: TOTALLY EXPENDABLE), slashing important funding for stuff like education and government services, cutting funding for WIC and SNAP and programs that feed the poor and also stimulate the hell out of the economy.

I’m disgusted by the continuing attacks on the “Obamacare” initiative and the utterly foolish allegations about stuff like “death panels.” At least once a week, often more frequently, I read a blog post from someone about their personal life or a friend of theirs or someone in their church or community who needs medical assistance. Maybe they need new corneas, or need surgery on their jaws to keep all their teeth from falling out. Maybe they need a new heart and also anti-rejection medication. Maybe they need medication for their mental illness. Many of them either have insurance that simply magically doesn’t cover this expensive thing, or else they are uninsured either because they don’t have the option of insurance at all or because they’re uninsurable or because their insurance options suck (trufax: I once had the option of health insurance that paid out less than what you paid into it. For instance, you paid $X per month, but would have to pay out of pocket for anything that cost more than $Y for the year. $Y was less than $X*12 and also you had to pay into the plan for six months before you could use it. One was better off stuffing one’s money into one’s mattress and praying.). There is a gripping and vital need in the USA for affordable, comprehensive health coverage and access to medical care. People are literally dying without it, but as they aren’t affluent white dudes I guess it isn’t really that important or something so hey let’s talk shit about Nancy Pelosi in political ads. Saving Lives: It’s A Bad Thing Apparently.

Anyway, that being said, here’s Eight False Things The Public “Knows” Prior To Election Day by Dave Johnson.