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I take voting very seriously. As soon as the girls became conscious, I took them to vote with me, and showed them I took it seriously; later the conversations began about how long it took in this country for women to get the vote (I avoid the term "given" the vote, which makes it sound like "Here, darling, you've been a good girl, have a chocolate").
This year the ballot is the lightest I've seen in San Francisco: mayor, DA, sheriff, and the usual mumbledy-glum of Propositions. California is the first place I've lived where the ruling bodies so consistently seem to want to second guess their jobs by farming out decisions to the electorate. My favorite frivolous Prop this time around is the one that would require the Mayor to show up before the Board of Supervisors for a Q&A session periodically. It doesn't sound like a bad idea, but given the supervisors who proposed the thing are the ones who loathe the Mayor, what it comes down to is a requirement that the Mayor come down to the Supervisors' chamber and get scolded for an hour or two. There are a couple of highly useful propositions too: more funding for libraries (Yay! Libraries!), and one that would make it harder to get the non-binding props on the ballot, which is a prop I can vote for without question. And despite his missteps, I like the mayor pretty well, and the DA is okay. Sheriff? Well, he's no Marshall Dillon, but who is?
So despite the fog and drear, I'll go cast my vote, and I expect you all to do likewise. Even when it seems like hurling a spitball into the void, the right to hurl that spitball is as fragile as every other right we have. Voting is a muscle: use it, lest you lose it.
ETA: Someone on another list mentioned: Voting is another way to get up Anne Coulter's nose. Always a positive thing.
This year the ballot is the lightest I've seen in San Francisco: mayor, DA, sheriff, and the usual mumbledy-glum of Propositions. California is the first place I've lived where the ruling bodies so consistently seem to want to second guess their jobs by farming out decisions to the electorate. My favorite frivolous Prop this time around is the one that would require the Mayor to show up before the Board of Supervisors for a Q&A session periodically. It doesn't sound like a bad idea, but given the supervisors who proposed the thing are the ones who loathe the Mayor, what it comes down to is a requirement that the Mayor come down to the Supervisors' chamber and get scolded for an hour or two. There are a couple of highly useful propositions too: more funding for libraries (Yay! Libraries!), and one that would make it harder to get the non-binding props on the ballot, which is a prop I can vote for without question. And despite his missteps, I like the mayor pretty well, and the DA is okay. Sheriff? Well, he's no Marshall Dillon, but who is?
So despite the fog and drear, I'll go cast my vote, and I expect you all to do likewise. Even when it seems like hurling a spitball into the void, the right to hurl that spitball is as fragile as every other right we have. Voting is a muscle: use it, lest you lose it.
ETA: Someone on another list mentioned: Voting is another way to get up Anne Coulter's nose. Always a positive thing.