Happy Election Day!

As depressing as the evening news can get, sometimes things happen that make me very hopeful about the state of our nation. Last night after work I hurried down to the polling station to get my vote in before 7 pm. I thought it would take 5 minutes to vote and I had to get home to make dinner, take the kids shopping, etc... You know the drill.

Anyways, to my shock there was a HUGE line--literally about a hundred people waiting in front of me. Like most Americans, I HATE waiting in lines, esp. when in a hurry. Add to that how busy MOST people are these days, and how impatient our national character is. :) I expected to hear alot of very unhappy people.

Well, being the interested observer of life that I am, I got in line and started watching what was going on around me. Immediately I noticed a radical thing: NO ONE was complaining! No one was cursing or giving up and leaving even though the line was so freakin' long. Some people looked anxious with the wait, but not a single person threw down their registered voter card & left in disgust. That's amazing considering how irate we can get when there's a 3-person line at the grocery checkout!

People were there from all walks of American life: many races and countries of birth, businessmen standing in line next to construction workers, soccer moms and businesswomen. Some looked barely old enough to drive, let alone vote, and some walked out with canes. A few parents had brought their kids with them to witness democracy in action, which I find incredibly cool. It was an amazing thing to witness: while standing there I realized that in some other countries "voting" or "campaigning" might mean these groups attacking each other with guns or pitchforks, or starting a coup if their candidate didn't win. Yet here we all were standing in line, peacefully, not complaning, even though we had other places we'd rather be and no guarantee of an outcome in our favor. Wow! We as a nation must be doing something right.

xoxo,
Layla