Michael Jackson TalkRadio Content

here's something wonderfully and uniquely American about voting at the same polling station year in and year out; election after election. It matters not that we live in a massive metropolitan area or that the outcome in California is almost guaranteed to be largely for the Kerry/Edwards ticket. We planned carefully when we'd cast our vote; just before lunch time when I figured that the line of would-be voters would be short. There was no wait. Our daughter , Alisa, voted before work in New York with less than an hour to wait. Our eldest, Alan, spent just half an hour waiting to vote and our youngest, Devon, will be rushing across town to vote later this afternoon. He's likely to have the longest wait. But it's worth it.

The same volunteers man the booths at our local Synagogue and they appear to recognize most of those coming in to exercise their franchise. "How are your tomatoes this year?", asked one. "Don't ask, it's been the worst crop in years", I replied. "How many grandchildren now?". "God willing, within two weeks we'll be welcoming our fifth. Four girls, one boy". They had cookies and coffee. It was so small town and nice. I said that I was disappointed by the attendance and they responded saying that it was by far the largest turnout they had ever seen. Good. There was an ease and niceness about the encounter with, I suppose, Republicans and Democrats, that has been hard to find during the just concluded election. On the way out I bumped into our regular UPS driver who shouted across the parking lot, "I voted for your fellow!" I've always respected their delivery.

Right outside the building there was a sign in several languages, one of which read, "Kung kailangan ninyo ng kopya ng libreta sa Tagalog, tumawag po lamang sa 1800 994 VOTE."

How very true.

In the Groove