|  By the time most of you read this, I'll already be at the polls. Here in Pennsylvania, the polls open at 7. This year, it won't be necessary to be there before 6:30. You may think that's early for an election where likely no more than 15% of the people will turn out in places without a "major" race, but precinct has a bunch of diehards, and for years we all like to have a real low stub number to take with us for the day.
I'll be there IN THE COLD with my local Democratic and Republican committeepeople. The candidates will all stop by. WHAT A CHANGE from last year. First, last year was warm. Because there had been such a problem with signs being stolen, many of us were out around 3 in the morning checking for signs, replacing stolen ones, and staking additional ones up and down the ticket. We were set at some inhuman hour and STILL the diehards were already lining up. And it didn't matter, no one had slept in days, and we were all running on some combination of adrenaline and coffee. Today will be much more quiet. After the pre-work rush, it will mostly be a bunch of political junkies talking local politics and greeting the people who can easily park their cars and step on up to vote. I'm looking forward to speaking with the local Republicans. I'm interested in their take on NY-23, co-option by the far right, and whether they plan to vote for Arlen or Toomey. I'm probably not going to see the anger of last year. My pick fave was this towering guy with patrician features and preppy clothes to match. What we call around here "old Main Line". He came out of the polling building and decided to start yelling at me when I offered him an "I Voted" sticker so he could get a free Starbuck's coffee. He screamed so vehemently about the country going off a cliff that his pallor actually got a little pink. He ended with the accusation that Barack Obama was to the right of Saul Alinsky, and I couldn't know that because no one supporting Obama had finished high school. I was honestly able to say I had read Alinsky, and knew that Obama was nowhere near that far left. Can't WAIT to see HIM again. I'll be tweeting anything of interest off my personal feed. What will you be doing today? I hope you'll vote if there is an election where you are, and you are old enough to vote. I hope you'll talk to your local committeeperson and see how you can get involved with voter registration and 2010 GOTV efforts. Make sure your neighbors, friends, family and co-workers vote. Maybe someone wants to ride over with you... And while you're out, consider this: Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say. The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.
Carve an extra hour out of your day to stop by your local food bank and make a donation of either cash or food. If you don't know where the nearest food bank is, Feeding America (which used to be called Second Harvest) has a tool (lower left of the page) to help you locate your local site. If you're really time-compressed, they have a donation page, too. I don't personally know what it is to be hungry. But I know people who have been. This is a problem we can help address as individuals: a bag of groceries here, a $25 check there -- if we all did it, millions of children and adults would not have to go to bed hungry. Have a great day - we'll be here tonight with election returns and commentary. |
