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godreamSo my grandmother e-mailed me a week or so before the election. She lives in Ohio. "Are you going to vote and save the world?" she asked, among many other things, in literally those exact words. Well, yeah, of course I am. Maybe those wouldn't have been the words I'd use, though the more I think about it the more they seem dangerously accurate in a general sense. So I write back. Yes, I'm going to vote, although I admit it's a little depressing knowing that my vote really won't matter either way. But it's my first chance to do so and I'm actually a little excited about that, I tell her. I wrap up the other stuff, I hit send, I don't think about it anymore.
Yesterday my great-aunt (also an Ohio resident -- they live near each other in Cincinnati) sent me an e-mail. The subject line is CONGRATS, all in caps just like that. "Your first presidential vote and you picked the winner," she says, "I always knew you had good taste. After all, you love us." I blink. Blink again. Re-read.
Argh.
If I'd thought I'd probably have realized that of course they're Republicans. They're older, conservative people, who live in the midwest and go to Mass every Sunday morning at least. My grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, they're convinced life was better Back In The Day, and once they make up their minds they stick with it no matter what. Of course they voted for Bush. They represent everything within his target demographic and then some. And in spite of that last characteristic, I'm wondering if I'd called or written or something and tried to convince them to vote the other way if I could have done it. I know, I know, only three votes, but I hate knowing that I'm one of those horrible people who could have maybe reached out a hand to help stop this and I didn't.
In other news, I learned yesterday (or maybe at that point it was this morning? I was writing a paper, it was pretty late) that the plural of continuum is continua. Yay, Latin! But continuums still sounds better to me.
Yesterday my great-aunt (also an Ohio resident -- they live near each other in Cincinnati) sent me an e-mail. The subject line is CONGRATS, all in caps just like that. "Your first presidential vote and you picked the winner," she says, "I always knew you had good taste. After all, you love us." I blink. Blink again. Re-read.
Argh.
If I'd thought I'd probably have realized that of course they're Republicans. They're older, conservative people, who live in the midwest and go to Mass every Sunday morning at least. My grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, they're convinced life was better Back In The Day, and once they make up their minds they stick with it no matter what. Of course they voted for Bush. They represent everything within his target demographic and then some. And in spite of that last characteristic, I'm wondering if I'd called or written or something and tried to convince them to vote the other way if I could have done it. I know, I know, only three votes, but I hate knowing that I'm one of those horrible people who could have maybe reached out a hand to help stop this and I didn't.
In other news, I learned yesterday (or maybe at that point it was this morning? I was writing a paper, it was pretty late) that the plural of continuum is continua. Yay, Latin! But continuums still sounds better to me.
