Sic Semper Tyrannis

A Stubborn Democracy

Yesterday I had an uplifting experience. In an event of suspicious timing, the second great ice storm of 2007 moved in just in time for the city-wide bond election. Since my neighborhood streets were clear I decided to go vote. Little did I know that the YMCA where I vote was without power. But did that stop the democratic process?

Not a chance.

I walked in the door to see gray-haired, convivial folks sitting in the dark, wrapped in blankets, greeting me and the other two or three people who walked in to vote as if they were neighbors. And in a way, we are neighbors.

I took the Coleman lantern that they provided over to the booth and voted, feeling like I was recreating a scene from over a hundred years ago, when folks might have galloped in on horses or some such.

I realized that though the times are quite different in this country from those days of hardy-souled voters, the glue that holds it all together is still the same.

posted by Mike @ 3:59 PM