One thing right in America

Pardon me while I wax eloquent for a minute, but since my life has been pretty solitary and/or quiet for the last week or so I've had time for reading and reflection and not many subjects for picture taking.

Today on my way home from work I went to cast my ballot in early voting at the Brainerd Recreational Center near downtown Chattanooga. I admit, I was a little nervous driving around in that part of town. It seems like I'm more conscious of situations like this now that I've had Ryan around and now he's gone to Florida. As I drove in, there were signs from different candidates toilet papering the lawn as is usual at such places. Those seemed like fresh reminders of all the name calling and demoralizing behavior I see whenever I turn on the news about the election. (I quit watching the news about the election almost before it they started broadcasting it, perferring to gather information other ways.) Needless to say, I went into the building feeling a bit demoralized and dragging my feet toward what I feel like is my civil duty. I even thought about leaving when I saw the long line, but in the end I was glad I stayed...

As I stood in line for about 40 minutes waiting to vote, I noticed several things about the situation. Since there are only 4 places to do early voting in Hamilton County, all kinds of ethnic and social groups were there. Old, young, black, white, Asian, low income, high income, blue collar, white collar, obese, anorexic. But even though none of us knew each other and probably weren't enjoying standing in line, nobody had a bad attitude. Even the voting personel were from all different racial and social strata. Many people struck up conversations with each other. It was very peaceful and relatively quiet. People standing next to each other chatting about the weather even though one might be a Republican and the other a Democrat. And the thought struck me... how amazing is this?

It seems like whenever you see a change in power or differences in political viewpoints in many foreign countries you also see accompanied violence, strife, and anger. Transition is never easy. This principle also goes back into our history. I've been reading about the turmoil surrounding the founding of our country; how many groups had to fight to get others to hear their voice. But what I saw today makes me feel proud to be an American.

No matter our differences, no matter if we vote for McCain, Obama, Nader (or the 5 other independents on the ballot I saw) we have the right to vote peacefully, if we so choose, in a secret, quiet, orderly, (mostly) trusted system. We don't come out of the voting place and throw things at each other or blow each other up with car bombs (even though we may go back to verbally abusing our opponents the next day). Maybe I'm stretching it a bit far, but today I saw a bunch of Americans coming together to exercise their American freedom... and it made my heart proud.