voters' rights.

I'm not even middle class.  I'm working class.

Tonight when I watched the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, I sat in a working-class bar, amongst (the very few) working class people who turned out to see it, I recognized it; I am them.  I am one of those people.  They are my people.  Of course, when one of the several people in the bar asked me if the t-shirts I was holding were to be given away, and I responded that they were a gift to those who donated (let's be straight, here; *my* gift - I'm coughing up the money for the cost of the garments + my husband's time and his company's machinery for the creation of said shirts), she said, donated?  And I said, yes, donated.  To the Obama campaign.  And she said, NEVER. MIND.  And turned her head away.

I belong to the group who votes mindlessly.

I should be voting mindlessly.

I'm not.

But I should be.

Tonight?  I feel like sleeping.

And tomorrow, I shall struggle on, making my single-digit wage, recognizing my own humble origins, my own current humble location on the scale, and still-current desire to elect someone as our president who is intelligent and logical and cognizant of how to lead with a measured thought process.

I won't be voting because of what my parents told me to do, but when I consider it, I realize I would be doing so, but for -- ironically -- having been a stripper.  Lowest of the low.  I really dipped down, even for my own class.  And yet it taught me to think.  To think beyond my own miniscule space.

(Well, that and living in another country for a year; a very much NOT humble element of my origins.  My parents, I'm certain, never considered how that would redirect me.)

Vote.  Vote not what your heart says, but what intelligence and logic and research and balance and study say.

Even my working-class ass knows that much.

Comments

[Amy P in FL]

Whatever got you to where you are, who you are, you've got to find a way to own it & love it, Deb. You are who you are supposed to be. & I don't believe you could vote mindlessly.

[Karen Sugarpants]

And I continue to worry, my friend. (you have to read my latest post to understand what I mean)

[Kyla]

You make me proud, you do.

[Ruth Dynamite]

It's hard now...but it will get better.

I truly believe this.

[apathy lounge]

Voting with intelligence. Now there's a thought! Probably something few have considered when you think that this is the same country that allowed Bush to dominate for 8 years. Your words to God's ears.