Tuesday, November 02, 2004 :::
 
2 thoughts for the day, as there is nothing other to do than wait.

On the way to the voting station in the middle of the afternoon, (when wise people vote if they can, to avoid lines) a certain pudgy, balding English teacher was greeted by a group of youngsters, probably 6th-graders, from the public charter school on the corner. (DC has no private charter schools--yet.) They were as mixed as could be, racially, but they were, of course, largely separated into groups of boys and girls, and the girls got to him first. "Excuse me, sir. Have you voted?" "Well, I'm on my way right now." "Who are you going to vote for?" "George Bush." The questioner solemnly entered the information on her clipboard, but this other young lady burst out, "NNNNNOOOO!!!" Said English teacher, with lots of experience with youngsters, shamelessly made fun of her, and then pointed out it was a democracy. "Thank you," said the questioner solemnly, and their teacher, who bore all the signs of a lifelong reader of the New York Times, ushered them along without comment. The boys came up a few seconds later, and another very solemn questioner asked the same litany. However, when said English teacher told him he had voted, the young man did not ask for whom. He just marked Bush. Said child was actively engaged in stereotyping, but stereotypes sometimes have foundations in fact.

The neighborhood, Mt. Pleasant, to the west of 16th Street--the one that ends at the White House--is one of the nation's most beautiful, and also one of the most actually, honest-to-goodness diverse. The houses on Park Road sell for millions of dollars, and Hispanic families crowd spacious and adequate basements just around the corner. Well, that held true until an influx of two-kid, two-car families bought up all the group houses and converted them into million-dollar showplaces, so most everyboy is white these days. But not this group of kids.

And A Mind That Suits, who sides with the Weekly Standard against the Journal and National Review on the war, but with the Weekly Standard and the Journal against the National Review on immigration, was reminded of how wonderful this country can be as a group of really, really old folks form a home blocked his way out of the voting area. His mother taught him well, so he just waited, though one elderly gentleman just gave up and sat on the wall to let other people pass. He was African-American, and the ladies he was with were chattering in Spanish. In other countries, they would not be allowed to vote. Here, they are conveyed by the taxpayers, through the 501(c)(3) that helps them. What a great country.

The one thing this neighborhood has never had is many Republicans. In frustration, A Mind That Suits wrote in Ronald Wilson Reagan in 1992, and the Communist Party candidate got more support.

As for the candidates, a couple of reports have come out confirming that George W. Bush audibly what he obviously thinks internally: he would rather win his way with 50% than compromise and cruise with 60%. If he loses--an even chance, as of this writing--that will make both father-and-son presidents one-termers. However, John Quincy was a clone of John, although a better politician, but W. is nothing like H.W. He said in his acceptance speech that he was like his mother, and he is right. Everyone "loves" her because of her unapologetic white tresses and unapologetic liberalism, but she is fiercely loyal to her conservative son. And they are both pleasant, prickly, and uncompromising. The apples doesn't fall far from the tree; you should just remember that, with humans, there are always two trees involved.

GET OUT AND VOTE.


::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 3:24 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.