Virginia Breeze

11-piano-concerto-no-2-in-c-minor-op-18-2-adagio-sostenuto

Sergey Rachmaninov

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I was up at the crack of something this morning.  It was not a bright dawn that greeted us but overcast skies and a slight rain.  Temperatures are in the mid to upper fifties.  And the roads were far more busy than is usual.

There can only be one explanation.  People are out early to vote and they are not caring about getting wet.  I parked a good distance from the poll and had a nice walk as my brain said “thanks” for the oxygen.  Once inside things went quickly and ten minutes later I was in the voting booth.   I hate these “touch this and touch that” screens.  One of them was already busted and a precinct worker joked about turning it back to zero.

Not funny.  I don’t trust them.   And, in fact, I had trouble figuring this one out.  The Virginia candidates were on the right and I voted there and then pressed next expecting to find the Presidential candidates.  But all I found was a large VOTE button and I almost pressed it without getting all my votes done.

So then all my computer learning kicked in (cough) and I went back and discovered about five Presidential tickets on the left in much smaller print.    Mickey and the gang had not made it to the list.

Images flashed through my mind. Watching Eisenhower’s farewell address on a little round tube.  Listening to my teachers freak out over the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Coming home from middle school and watching Walter Cronkite cry as he told us JFK was dead.  Watching RFK in California and the replay of shots being fired. Standing on a Boston sidewalk as a young, handsome Ted Kennedy exited a brownstone after giving a talk to a small gathering.  Standing in the cold with a million other young people on a hill near the Washington Monument and listening to speeches during the Vietnam War.  Carrying the name of someone who had recently died in battle in a long line and mispronouncing it ( I was later told) as I put it in a large box. Listening to LBJ address his “fellow Americans” in that irritating way on television while he drafted young people to go fight in a jungle.  Sitting in Boston Common and watching Abbie Hoffman point to the John Hancock Building “that hypodermic needle in the sky”  as he gave an amazingly funny speech.  Watching John Dean testify on television.  Listening to Carter and Ford go at it in a debate.  Walking through a nearly empty shopping mall after Reagan was elected.  Being told by a coworker that the space shuttle had exploded.  Going downtown to hear Bush Senior give a speech.  Watching Dukakis with his head stuck out of a armored vehicle (the last time that campaign visual will ever be used). Shaking hands with Bob Dole at the Richmond VAMC.  Falling asleep (often) while Clinton was president.  Looking up the stairs at Beth as I came in the door and she said “A plane flew into the WTC”.  Watching Election Day coverage in amazement the last time .  And voting this morning.

I have witnessed just a few of the dramas that have taken place in this country.  At times I wondered if we would survive.  But we did.  The country survived and prospered at times.

And hopefully we will survive whatever happens today as well.  The challenges are as great or greater than anything I have seen in all my years.  The divisions in our society have not healed.  We are hopelessly in debt and trying to bring order to the entire fractious  planet.

It’s a mess.  But it has always been a mess.  So I voted this morning and now I intend to edit some photos.  And wait for the results.

Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters.  This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.  ~Abraham Lincoln

I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.  ~Tagor

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Update// Thanks to the reporter who called from Computerworld and wanted to know about “voting experiences with touch screen computers”  (they s*ck).  His article. . .

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Government&articleId=9119080&taxonomyId=13&pageNumber=2

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Tags: bright dawn, fellow americans, jfk, john dean, lbj, precinct worker, presidential candidates, rfk, time of day, vietnam war, virginia candidates, voting booth, walter cronkite, washington monument