2003-10-07 
 

odd voting

I love voting....especially in San Francisco. Sure, I loved voting back in Massachusetts because I'm someone who believes that some days it just takes one voice can to save a whole world. (Horton Hears a Who is still one of my favorite books.)

People in the Bay Area do tend to view voting as something fun to do rather than facing it as a chore. I will admit that I may have a skewed view of this because of my own experiences. The polling place I went to for my first five years in the city was actually just the coffee shop down the block. Close to home, easy to get to...and just how sad can you be with coffee and pastries available in the same location as your ballot?

My new polling place is a garage. Not a park-a-bunch-of-cars garage, but a single family garage in a cute Victorian around the corner from our apartment. It's very neighborhoody and cozy going in there to vote, and everyone is in a pretty good mood. (no lines at all) Does this happen in other places, or am I just lucky to live in SF?

By the way, I know I haven't soapboxed about the California governor thing and it's because I hadn't really made up my mind. To be honest, back in the beginning, there was a small part of me that wanted to vote for Arnold. It's the part that saw one or another of his movies and said, "Yah, that's the kind of guy we need in government." Fortunately, about five minutes later I remembered Ronald Reagan and stopped the insanity. "AIDS? What's that? Let's ignore it. After all, it's only the fags who have to worry about it and the less of them the better." <----- Okay, I'm paraphrasing what he might have said had the man ever bothered to address the issue. And I know that there's hope that Ah-nold will be a more moderate republican, but the truth is that I just don't know. He has no real political history to show what he may or may not be in favor of and it seems like a sucker bet either way. He can say what he will, but he won't be able to fulfill his campaign promise to bring down our deficit without breaking some of his other promises.

SO you're wondering what I ended up doing? I voted against the whole silly affair. While the prospect of voting for one of the many choices was exciting and I have no great love for Mr. Davis, I still feel he got the fuzzy end of the lollipop on this one. As my dear, departed Uncle Charles used to mutter when faced with the latest tabloid headline in the supermarket checkout,"Bread and circuses...bread and circuses. They're trying to distract us kiddo!"

Labels: dose of mikey, san francisco

* posted by me at 11:20 PM

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