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Well, speaking of "post-election banter," I've told a couple of people this story off-list, but since I love it so much-- I'll tell it again here.
I go to a frame shop that's up the street from me, for all my glass. The young (late 30's) man who owns it inherited the shop from his father-- who stops in every so often. They're both very nice, and I can't tell you how many times I've called him at the 11th hour for odd-shaped pieces of glass, and he always manages to have them for me when I need them (and they're spotless when I get them, too). I know he is very conservative and a Republican, and since I lean in the other direction, I never talk politics with him. I've never worn my campaign buttons when I walked in the store. At most, we complained about all the phone calls asking for money.
So I go in there 2 days after the election, and as he's packing up my order, he says, "Well, I voted early." I said that was good and so did I. And then he said, "But I really regret one of my votes. I'm feeling really bad about it." So I asked who that was, and he said he'd voted for Elizabeth Dole (our state senator ever since Jesse Helms retired). I said, "Well, don't let it weigh on your mind too heavily, since your vote didn't seem to matter." And he laughed. Then he he looked me in the eye and said, "But you know what? I voted for Obama. And I'm a Republican." He honestly seemed so proud. He seemed to want me to know that, but also seemed proud that he really looked at the issues and the people involved and voted based on that-- not the way his family had always voted, or the way he was, perhaps, expected to vote. I told him he did the right thing, and he should feel good about it. :) Actually, I think I told him that several times.
So, aside from the actual issues and what might compel us to vote one way or the other, you have to admit that this election was so exciting in so many ways, and on so many levels. The very fact that people all over actually got involved-- we didn't just vote; many of us worked campaigns and canvassed all over-- and no matter which way people were leaning, I found most people with whom I spoke just incredibly interested and involved. Even if they were voting in the other direction, they wanted to talk, and we (and they) were so willing to listen. I even had some people say to me, who were voting for the other guy-- "But thank you for taking the time to come out here, and for talking and listening to us." And even if you didn't actively go out there canvassing or whatever, everybody I know was just so intensely interested in this election. Everybody was talking about it, on some level or another. How exciting is that?
I'll also have to say that as many weeks as I volunteered my time, speaking with all kinds of voters, who were leaning in all kinds of directions, I thankfully never ran into anything like what was posted here, which was so wrong and so unnecessary.
I think it's pretty remarkable, too, that for the first time-- in a very long time-- people in this country got involved, interested in-- and passionate about-- a presidential election. Who could ever complain about that? If you didn't, and "kept it personal," I feel you really missed out.
On Nov 9, 2008, at 11:33 AM, Christina Z. Anderson wrote: Francis, I was the baby of the family and so by the time it got down to me, the eighth, the parents were pretty tired. I used to sit and watch TV a lot with my parents, lying on their bed with them (they had a TV in their bedroom), the news and talk shows and such and even Lawrence Welk. I miss that time with them. Dad's cigar smoke wafted through the room (I know, some would now be gagging)... Do you know I never knew who they voted for though we watched all the news? In the family I was raised in, this was considered a "personal" matter. Some may consider that strange and that it impinges on healthy dialogue. To me it freed me to be true to myself and not my parents' wishes. I have yet to see healthy dialogue about politics, except one I had this past month with a guy who was a conflicted independent not knowing who to vote for in this election. It's that inquisitiveness that I really liked in talking with him, he truly wanted to dialogue and not diatribe. Barbers and professors, and I have been both, should listen with inquisitiveness instead of diatribe, IMHO. But I think I am in the vast minority on this opinion. Oh well... Chris My dad considered himself an independent and my mom who survives him still votes that way. Even though I lean a little left of my parents I would love to go back to Joe the barber's even though I don't think he is cutting hair and I am living 2300 miles away.
I don't think the list is a barber shop but if I could get a good #0 (the clippers without an attachment) in a tiny hotbed of conservatism, we young and old altimers can survive a little post election banter.
-francis
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