It is three two weeks until the elections. You better be registered to vote.
My father considers voting a very serious obligation on the part of the American citizen. I am not disputing this. I think it's important too. How he goes about letting me know that voting is important, however, is the more amusing part.
Every time an important election comes around - mainly the presidental ones, but California recently had that whole big recall thingy affair that ended up in yet another actor governing the state - my parents send me my absentee ballot registration form. They are fully aware of how lazy I can be, because apparently they don't trust me to download the necessary forms off the internet. However, not only do they send me the form, they fill it out for me and even put a stamp on it, marking the area I need to sign with a big arrow on a Post-it note. I mean, I'm lazy, but I can fill out a simple form. I suppose they figure that if they do all of that for me, I'm more likely to send it in. (Please note that for the recall and this current election, I downloaded the proper forms off the internet as soon as I was able to and sent them in All By Myself, before my parents mailed the filled-in registration form to me.) Too bad they don't realise that the biggest obstacle is me remembering to drop it off in a mailbox. I never remember to mail things. Good thing this year I could register online.
But that's not my favourite part. No, my favourite part involves the little newsprint booklet that explains all the different propositions and referendums that can be voted on. I'm aware enough to know who's running for President and we're lucky if I know what's happening in the Senate - but any more? No, I'm sorry, my brain is full of other stuff. As Mary Newton said, "You know, I think I could have the cure to AIDS or cancer in my head, but that brain is all filled with old dialogue from The Brady Bunch." (I don't know who she is, but I like the quotation.) Or in my case, shopping, little white dogs, where I can travel to next and how stupid boys are.
Anyway, when my parents mail me the booklet, there is always a Post-it on the front from my father that says something to the effect of, "I have marked inside how I would vote. Of course, you can vote however you wish, but this is how I am voting." As my father was in town this past weekend and I was lucky enough to have him hand me my voter registration materials In Person, he took this opportunity to sit down with me at 8 freaking AM to go over how he would vote and why, going through Each and Every state measure. I'm from California. There are usually too many of these to count. That didn't stop him from explaining his reasons for voting for or against a specific measure. And he went over ALL OF THEM with me. At 8AM. Of course, he carefully preceded this long-winded lecture (at one point he was a professor; I feel so sorry for all his students) with the statement that I can vote how I want, but THIS is how HE - and my mother, of course - are going to vote.
It would kill him to know that I voted Republican in the recall.* But we're just not telling him that.
Usually I don't like to be treated as someone who is completely unaware of what's going on, and generally I hate being lectured. But in this instance, it's pretty funny.
I love that he cares. I love that he tells me how he's going to vote and why. I love that he realises that in this instance, I am obviously old enough to make such decisions myself.** But just in case...
.. I have a little newsprint booklet with yeses and nos circled, just in case I need something to reference.
*Not because I feel that I should have to explain myself, but because I want to avert getting any hate mail: I am voting for Kerry in this election. I think Bush is imcompetent and looks like a monkey. However, I do not vote along party lines, I vote for what I believe. I look at what the candidates have to say and whether I agree or disagree with them. And this is what I did for the recall. I looked at where all the various candidates stood. And I found that I agreed with McClintock, who yes, is a rather conservative Republican. "As a woman, how in the hell can you vote for him when he's anti-abortion," fuckwit asked me in astonishment when I told him who I ended up voting for. My response? I agreed with nearly everything else he represented (ah, I'm becoming conservative in my old age), and if he was elected to office, he would never be able to pass an anti-abortion law anyway. It made sense to me. Voting blindly along party lines is one of the stupidest things a person can do. And anyway, I've been told many many times that my vote doesn't count in California anyway. Now, that's not how one should be looking at things, is it now.
**I however, am not old enough to know what to do with my life, apparently. His other lecture this weekend, which I was fortunate enough not to hear once but TWICE, was that I really should consider returning to med school - nevermind that that year and a half of my life was more miserable than anything else - but I wouldn't have to practise afterwards! Get your MD, he kept saying, and then you can do what you want. If that's not a gigantic waste of $120K, in addition to all the therapy I'd need, both emotional and shopping, in addition to the fact that I'd probably want to kill myself every day I was in med school, I don't know what is.
Every time an important election comes around - mainly the presidental ones, but California recently had that whole big recall thingy affair that ended up in yet another actor governing the state - my parents send me my absentee ballot registration form. They are fully aware of how lazy I can be, because apparently they don't trust me to download the necessary forms off the internet. However, not only do they send me the form, they fill it out for me and even put a stamp on it, marking the area I need to sign with a big arrow on a Post-it note. I mean, I'm lazy, but I can fill out a simple form. I suppose they figure that if they do all of that for me, I'm more likely to send it in. (Please note that for the recall and this current election, I downloaded the proper forms off the internet as soon as I was able to and sent them in All By Myself, before my parents mailed the filled-in registration form to me.) Too bad they don't realise that the biggest obstacle is me remembering to drop it off in a mailbox. I never remember to mail things. Good thing this year I could register online.
But that's not my favourite part. No, my favourite part involves the little newsprint booklet that explains all the different propositions and referendums that can be voted on. I'm aware enough to know who's running for President and we're lucky if I know what's happening in the Senate - but any more? No, I'm sorry, my brain is full of other stuff. As Mary Newton said, "You know, I think I could have the cure to AIDS or cancer in my head, but that brain is all filled with old dialogue from The Brady Bunch." (I don't know who she is, but I like the quotation.) Or in my case, shopping, little white dogs, where I can travel to next and how stupid boys are.
Anyway, when my parents mail me the booklet, there is always a Post-it on the front from my father that says something to the effect of, "I have marked inside how I would vote. Of course, you can vote however you wish, but this is how I am voting." As my father was in town this past weekend and I was lucky enough to have him hand me my voter registration materials In Person, he took this opportunity to sit down with me at 8 freaking AM to go over how he would vote and why, going through Each and Every state measure. I'm from California. There are usually too many of these to count. That didn't stop him from explaining his reasons for voting for or against a specific measure. And he went over ALL OF THEM with me. At 8AM. Of course, he carefully preceded this long-winded lecture (at one point he was a professor; I feel so sorry for all his students) with the statement that I can vote how I want, but THIS is how HE - and my mother, of course - are going to vote.
It would kill him to know that I voted Republican in the recall.* But we're just not telling him that.
Usually I don't like to be treated as someone who is completely unaware of what's going on, and generally I hate being lectured. But in this instance, it's pretty funny.
I love that he cares. I love that he tells me how he's going to vote and why. I love that he realises that in this instance, I am obviously old enough to make such decisions myself.** But just in case...
.. I have a little newsprint booklet with yeses and nos circled, just in case I need something to reference.
*Not because I feel that I should have to explain myself, but because I want to avert getting any hate mail: I am voting for Kerry in this election. I think Bush is imcompetent and looks like a monkey. However, I do not vote along party lines, I vote for what I believe. I look at what the candidates have to say and whether I agree or disagree with them. And this is what I did for the recall. I looked at where all the various candidates stood. And I found that I agreed with McClintock, who yes, is a rather conservative Republican. "As a woman, how in the hell can you vote for him when he's anti-abortion," fuckwit asked me in astonishment when I told him who I ended up voting for. My response? I agreed with nearly everything else he represented (ah, I'm becoming conservative in my old age), and if he was elected to office, he would never be able to pass an anti-abortion law anyway. It made sense to me. Voting blindly along party lines is one of the stupidest things a person can do. And anyway, I've been told many many times that my vote doesn't count in California anyway. Now, that's not how one should be looking at things, is it now.
**I however, am not old enough to know what to do with my life, apparently. His other lecture this weekend, which I was fortunate enough not to hear once but TWICE, was that I really should consider returning to med school - nevermind that that year and a half of my life was more miserable than anything else - but I wouldn't have to practise afterwards! Get your MD, he kept saying, and then you can do what you want. If that's not a gigantic waste of $120K, in addition to all the therapy I'd need, both emotional and shopping, in addition to the fact that I'd probably want to kill myself every day I was in med school, I don't know what is.
posted at 07:21
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