Am I the only one?

Okay. So I know what I am about to write may not have anything to do with Southside Park, or downtown. I don’t have a story about flooding on 9th and J Street, nor can I write about an old abandoned building that is scheduled for demolition in a few days time. I can, however, right about something that is truly going to affect everyone in this town and towns all across this nation.

On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, millions of people will exercise the “hard-fought-for” right to vote for the President of the United States. I can’t control the excitement I feel inside. I have voted for a president four times in my life and only one of my guys won (two consecutive terms). This time, I might be in for a real treat.

Am I the only one who is so excited about this election, that I think it should be a national holiday? Am I the only one who thinks this is the single, most, important election of my lifetime? Am I the only one asking myself, “Angela, when have you ever looked at poll numbers and speeches and political debates with such obsessive vigor in your life?

One day, driving home from work, I was listening to 103.5 The Bomb on the radio. The DJ was asking for people to call in and express whether voting truly makes a difference. A young woman called in and said, “Voting doesn’t make a difference, ‘cause politicians are going to do what they want anyway (paraphrasing).” She went on to admit, “that’s why she [isn’t] voting.”

My 75-year-old, stepfather grew up in Mobile, Alabama during the Jim Crow era, where black people couldn’t walk on the same sidewalk as white people. He couldn’t go to the same schools, or drink out of the same faucets. He couldn’t look a white person in the eye if he was walking on the same dirt road. He was called “boy” up into his late 20’s. These things are tangible for me. This isn’t ancient history.

I know we’ve all heard stories like this before, but to think these things happened to not just one, but many of family members and friends, who are still alive, makes me think how fortunate I am to have the right to vote. My family makes it that much more necessary to be a believer in the voting system and not a cynic like that caller on the radio.

So, am I the only one who is super, fantastically, crazy excited about this election
? No!

Oh! And, on election night, if you happen to see people partying in the street like it’s New Year’s 2000, all over again, you’ll know why.