Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Women rock (the vote)!


Just the other night, I came back from a Walmart run to see Anna Marie had pulled out some of my old Schoolhouse Rock videos.

And one of the segments was "Suffering until Suffrage."

And I had to explain to her what the song was about.

And then today, I get a text message from Amanda (the sister, not one of the two sisters-in-law) wishing me a happy 88th anniversary of the right to vote!

Awesome!

(By the way - I scoured YouTube for a copy of the song to post here, but was unsuccessful. Why can't the women voters get any YouTube love?)

I love to vote. I didn't start until after I graduated college, because I moved 500 miles from home a week after I turned 18 and knew I wouldn't get home often enough to do so. But now - oh boy, now I'm a voting machine!

(Well, not literally. Then my chads would probably be hanging. Or worse yet, pregnant.)

In South Carolina, where I first registered, we had to declare a party affiliation.

(We also had to draw a map to our house, which I thought was a little odd, but it was my first time to register so I kept my mouth shut.)

But in Mississippi - well, it's a free-for-all. No ID? No problem! Heck, if I wasn't so well known in the community, I could probably go vote under my sister's name since she moved to Memphis. And that free-for-all means that I can vote in the primaries of the other party! And I do! Not for sabotage, mind you, but just because I know that voter turnout is so abysmal that any little bit helps.

(On the flip side - if you vote in one party's primary, you can't vote in a runoff if the other party has one. You have to kind of hedge your bets with that one.)

And on the subject of voter ID - I happen to think that opposition to such measures is just ridiculous. Have you seen the bill that didn't pass in our state? (You don't live here. Of course you haven't.) It wasn't just a driver's license that would be acceptable - you could bring a birth certificate, or a Social Security card, or probably even your Kroger Plus Card. And if you had none of those, the state would issue you an ID for free! No one who operates in polite society today would be left out!

So, ladies, congratulations on being able to vote. And if you don't, shame on you! Lots of people worked really hard to get you that vote!

Even if you can't get excited about the issues in an election, you owe it to yourself, and that star-spangled girl from Schoolhouse Rock to cast your ballot.

4 comments:

Lissete said...

HERE ya go!

Good day to re-watch Iron Jawed Angels.

Anonymous said...

I love school house rock. Do you think there's a DVD of all those great songs out there somewhere?

Unknown said...

I love school house rock!

Susie Q said...

Love Schoolhouse Rock and LOVE being able to vote! It IS an honor!