I've had a cold over the last couple days, and yesterday I lost my voice. Normally, that's not a big deal, but I'm teaching classes this week so it's been very difficult. I can't just call in sick because there are people depending on me. But it's hard to go through class and straining my voice to be heard by my students. They're very understanding, and we let out early so I could rest my voice. My throat isn't sore (yet) but hopefully today (it's 1am right now) my voice will be better, because I need to teach these classes!

As most of you know, today is election day, and I made sure to go out and vote. I hate the way the government is running right now, and I feel that I have the right to complain if I go out and vote. Anyone who complains about how the government who hasn't voted has no right to. If you care about our country, if you care about our future, you should take some responsibility and get out and vote.

There's a certain feeling of power you get when you vote. You slip your little ballot into the box and think, "I'm making a difference." Even if your candidate doesn't win, (Boo...Tammy Duckworth lost. What is my district thinking?!?! Oh well, she was pretty close and I live in a very conservative district) at least I made my voice heard, my vote gives my candidate my vote of confidence. I was happy to see the turnout in my area...there was a great variety of people there.

Even though my favorite candidate didn't win, at least it looks like things are changing in Washington. I don't know if the Democrats are going to do much better because our country is already in a deep hole as it is, but at least we're going to have a new direction. There are a lot of times when I think that our country is taking steps backwards, but with the results of this election, I feel we're starting to make some progress again. South Dakota rejected the super-conservative abortion ban, gay-marraige votes are close in some states (I don't even think it should BE on the ballot)...hopefully things will start turning around.

So I'm up late, like always, and I've got the latest in the Chicago elections on the news. It's a little crazy because one of the candidates, Tony Peraica refuses to concede the race because all the votes hadn't been counted. With 70% of the votes counted, he was down 43% to Todd Stroger's 57%. At his rally, Peraica urged his people to go to the Cook County clerk's office to demand that those votes be counted. They marked over at midnight and tried to enter the building, then his opponents supporters came as well. Fights happened, people slapped each other, chanting happened, men were standing on top of boxes of ballots, people were arrested, it's currently mayhem and craziness there. I understand that the fight isn't over until it's over, that's fine, but to call your people to come in and harrass the people whose job it is to count those votes, making their jobs that much more difficult is wrong. Just let them do their job...it's late and I'm sure they didn't anticipate it. Grr!

Politics. Man, I have no stomach for all that drama. But I need to be part of the process to make sure that I'm getting counted. I'm not part of cook county anymore anyway so that race doesn't really matter to me!

I hope you all voted! If not, make sure you're registered and vote next time!

Posted by Yano at November 8, 2006 02:18 AM

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