Deadlines
posted by jm at 3:32 AM
Monday, October 27, 2008
About Me
- Name: jm
I am a brilliant creation of the universe formed from the cosmic protoplasm sailing into eternity. I have two hands, two feet, a couple of great ears, and I'm clipping through life at a moderate pace; minding my p*s and q*s, crossing my t*s, dotting every i.
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5 Comments:
Great Picture! Hope is on the way!
I want to go ahead and add my personal voting experience to emphasize the theme of Hope.
Living in Georgia for the last 12 years has been a challenge for me at election time. We never get visits from the Democrats because Georgia is soooo red and considered to be a lost cause. Barack was here awhile back but he is focused on winning this election and I don't think anyone thinks that Georgia can be moved.
We get attention from the GOP for the big gubernatorial races and usually we get visits for congressional races to help secure the seats...I haven't seen much of Senator McCain lately even though a Republican Senate seat is hanging by a thread. There's a 50/50 split right now and the GOP can't spend the resources or people to help their incumbent keep his seat. This is interesting to me, but no one (media, etc,)has called attention to it. Still, it is telling.
So...my voting experience...
I have been watching the news everyday for the last 3 weeks and the lines at the polls have been 3+ hours consistently. It was raining so I thought I'd maybe catch a break. No Such Luck!!!
Yes, the line was three hours. Volunteers made this clear as soon as you got on the line. They also offered a list of additional polling sites that would be open at 7am on Monday. No takers. Nobody left. Nobody.
The lines trailed on through an old 70's city government building. Flat cement rooms with partial sheet rock walls, electrical wires hanging loose and garbage cans scattered about holding garbage and catching the water dripping in through the ceiling. One office still housing the DMV. No lines there...
Volunteers handed out forms and pens, with clipboards...yes, I said clipboards. They gave copies of the referendums and legal policy that we would be voting on. They led us through rooms, around cones and garbage cans, down hallways and back around the same areas in a maze Harry Potter couldn't get through.
They gave us time updates, rain updates and updates on the size of the line behind us. I heard someone say that from 10 am on there was never less than 800-1000 people on line. No one has ever seen anything like this before. I certainly hadn't.
And we followed. Wherever we were told to go we went. We laughed as we looked around corners to see yet another room with 150-200 people in another long hallway, never knowing where it would end.
Children sat on the floor and colored, or ran around cones. People shared gum, commented on a great plan to come back the next day with cases of water and start a business. We held places in line so others could go to the bathroom. We listened to i-pods, talked on cell phones and sent text messages. We talked to each other. No one left.
There were times I'd look around and watch peoples faces. From the younger set I felt a real sense of laughter and joy. From the middies like me- contemplation and hope. From those a bit older I saw determination, set jaws, the look of quiet fortitude. They have come a long, long way. Many of them and their families have paved the way for the rest of us. They were ready to be counted. No one, and I mean no one, was willing to miss this chance.
I teared up 3-4 times from this tremendous energy. I am tearing up now as I remember. It was calm, exciting, heartwarming...yes, tremendous is the word. Since I have so much Scorpio going on all the time I'll even go overboard and say that it was exquisite.
Never have I been around so many and felt so good. This was truly one of the great moments of my life.
I've noticed that Georgia is no longer red on the CNN map o' states. It's pink. It's doing something special and no-one has the time to notice...yet. It's transforming. Without any attention, or special events, or swing state hoop-la it is transforming.
I heard another rumor...that the amount of voters as of Friday has already exceeded the total votes for the state of Georgia in the 2004 election. Just a rumor.
Thanks for letting me share the cup. Hope is a tangible thing here...no one is looking at Georgia...expect a surprise on November 4th.
tami w
Thank you so much for writing that, I am misty eyed as I read it.
It is a divine & transformational moment, it is good so many are choosing with a firmness in their hearts. Blessed Georgia be~
tami, thanks for posting on Georgia. Oct. 22 Rasmussen poll shows Chambliss ahead of Martin by just two, and within the margin of error. So, by "50/50 split" are you talking about a poll? Hope Martin pulls it off!
Good news out of @ fivethirtyeight:
"John McCain is making no progress in his pursuit of the White House. Our model now projects Barack Obama to win 351 electoral votes to John McCain's 187, and to win the Electoral College 96.7 percent of the time to McCain's 3.3 percent. Both numbers are unchanged from yesterday."
Wow, tami. Just, wow.
I have been attentive to the nets, and it has not yet come into general discussion that in past elections, only a small percentage of eligible voters got out, registered, and showed up to vote. Intimidation and suppression kept numbers down, plus so many felt it was useless anyhow.
Not this time.
And when ALL of the American electorate votes, this is what America looks like.
Tami, what a great account and so well written. Soulful to the maximum, and I hope and pray that the surprise becomes real. Please keep us updated. I felt the same thing at the Colorado caucus and there's been no turning back.
The voting phenomenon is happening nationwide. It's a new era in this country. I don't think anything great comes without irresistible joy. Intimidation and suppression cannot keep this down. It took that to get here but the dammed energy is functioning now. Pluto rules that kind of hydro-chemical-electrical power, so here we are. All it needed was a catalyst and the right time.
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