by Ernest Hogan
Things being as busy and crazy as they are, I was tempted to just put the above photo up, and leave it like that, but the election and the subject of voting are kinda important, so here’s some words:
When I was growing up in West Covina, SoCal, the folks who ran the local precinct practically knocked on your door to make sure everyone was registered and walked you to the polls on Election Day. They didn’t care what party you were, or who you were voting for. They wanted you to vote.
Later I moved to Arizona, the notorious red sate, where things were different. They were always changing where the polling places were. Tracking yours down was a royal pain. We once saw poll workers treat a Native American woman who showed up at the wrong place like a criminal. We know people who couldn’t get to the polls on time. They also decided to not have as many polling places. It’s like they’re afraid of a little good, honest democracy.
That stuff, and the fact that we worked across town from where we lived, had us sign up for mail-in ballots. We've been doing it for years and it’s been working fine.
This year, with the pendejada over the post office, we filled out our ballots as soon as we got them, then drove them down to an official drop box, next door to the sheriff’s office, and tracked them until they were accepted by the county.
Sure, Trump is crashing and burning, but we can’t count on that . . .
Biden isn’t radical leftist enough for a lot of you, but right now we’re plummeting back to the Dark Ages. Staying home, or voting for a third party candidate, or writing someone in will just continue the fall.
Voting is like pinball. You whack the ball in the direction of the alternate universe you want to live in. Sometimes it gets tossed where you don’t want it. Sometimes it all goes tilt. But, if you aren’t whacking, everybody else is deciding what world you’re going to live in.
You can complain all you want, but if you don’t participate, it’s your fault.
Ernest Hogan is running himself ragged with stuff that you’ll be reading about in future Chicanonauticas.
2 comments:
when we win, that's our fault. when we lose, that's our fault. choose to win.
what if they gave an election and everybody voted?
Ernest, thanks for your observations on voting. It's insightful to read how different states handle voting during elections. Sometimes, we just assume all states are like our own. They're not. I wonder, though, when we tell people to "vote", we take it for granted they are voting for the candidates and platforms we support. That's when el pesimismo settles in.
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