This has been a tumultuous week for emotions. I was too busy living the excitement to write it down.
Election Day
My polling location was in Cleveland, OH, the heart of all the nail-biting excitement. It was in a church community center, in a solidly middle-class area of town. The neighbors are cops, firemen, city workers, and union members. The plethora of Kerry/Edwards signs is a strong signal of affliation.
My first indication that this wouldn't be an ordinary voting year was the full parking lot. Normally, at that hour, the voters are outnumbered by the poll workers (a sweet, elderly bunch of folks). I had to park on the street and down the block, then dash through the rain about 400 yards to the center.
Inside, about 150 people stood in 7 lines (Wards A-F, and an information line). They were patient, and appropriately somber. I watched the newbies get instructions on using the punch-card ballot. Each time, the poll worker ended with a demonstration of checking the card for fully punched holes. There'd be no hanging chads here!
Everyone was deliberate, purposeful, and focused. They WERE going to vote, they WERE going to have their say.
I floated to work on a cloud; surely with citizens like these, the country is in good hands.
Watching the election returns was not as suspenseful as it usually is. I tried to keep my glee surpressed - my husband is a Kerry supporter.
But, no matter what the stations were saying, no matter what ponderous blatherings emerged, I felt that, somehow, we (Americans) were going to come out of this all right.
So I drifted off to sleep, Ohio's results still in doubt, without a care.
And woke up to wonderful news.
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