Sheez
… I need a new husband. At least I do if I ever want to have my
vote stand out instead of cancelled by a vote from my own
household. Or, maybe just I should do a better job of keeping him
from the polls. I don’t know what I was thinking. It has been this
way for 20 years.
Sheez … I need a new husband. At least I do if I ever want to have my vote stand out instead of cancelled by a vote from my own household. Or, maybe just I should do a better job of keeping him from the polls. I don’t know what I was thinking. It has been this way for 20 years.
Last Tuesday, his voting streak too far in the back of my mind and the hope of a great voter turnout too much in the front, I called to inform him of the wait at our polling station (long), and said it was OK to stay even if it stretched until after 8pm, even though we’d been invited to an election night party that started at 8. He arrived home at 9pm, and we were more than an hour late. I discovered as we discussed the day that he voted as he always does. I should have nagged him to come home sooner.
For my friends and me, the reasons to vote against Bush were so clear, we wondered if other people were not hearing what we heard so clearly. We thought others who insisted on voting for the president must live in a parallel universe where facts didn’t permeate the fear and anger we believed drove their preference. However, while standing an hour in line to vote at my regular polling place, which is an over-55 mobile home park, the people around me – young and old – all agreed: neither candidate was an inspiring choice.
Heck, I wasn’t worried. Even my brother, the career Navy guy in charge of Naval Intelligence for more than a quarter of the globe, and who, in politics and world view seems more related to Cynthia Walker than to me, wasn’t going to vote for Bush again. That was telling. If he was going to turn away from Bush, surely Kerry would win handily.
Not enough people joined him. Conversations later revealed many felt they were stuck with the lesser of two evils and Kerry just didn’t convince that he was worth the change in the middle of this tumultuous time.
Also, I think it bears some reflection that Kerry was the choice people with higher education, upper incomes and on both coasts (except Florida, which, with a few more acts of God just may sink into the ocean before California does), while Bush reigned among those less educated, with lower incomes and in the middle of America. This baffles me, since his policies hurt them the most.
Unless one travels across county and state lines often to visit people from other places, it is easy to be lulled into believing that, because most of the people in your community feel the way you do, generally, then most people elsewhere do, too. However, national elections reveal time and again that how we think, what we vote for, what is important to us in Santa Clara County and the Bay Area, are so different than the rest of the country.
Note to the Democratic Party: figure out how to win back the South and the heartland, or dismantle and completely rebuild. Better: move over and make room for another party, and everybody get ready for a multi-party system.
The good news that sustains me are both Morgan Hill’s and Gilroy’s smart choices for school board and Proposition 63 that would pour more money into mental health services. It passed throughout the state. It shows, sadly, that mental health services are woefully under-funded in all counties across the state.
In Santa Clara County, services have been cut back to serve only those who are categorized as Access 1 patients (e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar disorders). Those with behavioral disorders that need therapy and medication, too, are just out of luck. And, there are precious few mental health resources for children and adolescents. The lack of services for this population is contributing to a rise in runaway and homeless youth with special needs non-profits are ill-equipped to address.
Proposition 63 funds will help fill some holes that have been left gaping for too long. But the work is not done, especially for us in the South Valley. We need to be sure to speak up, loud and clear, so our community is not left off the map yet again in the provision of important services. Supervisor Don Gage has been a stalwart advocate for South Valley. Call your mayor and your council members. Ask them to turn into squeaky wheels and give him a hand.
