Clean up from the tornado has begun and I am really amazed at what the city and electric company have done. We did go 10 days without electricity and I still have no phone (and it’s a fucking land line!) but really, it’s incredible how much clean up has happened.
I wrote about the tornado here and how it happened on our election day. The courts ordered the polls to be open 2 hours later, till 10pm, but my neighbors were too dazed to go vote. I voted though.
My polling place was closed down due to the tornado and they put 9 polling places in a church on a main street by my house. I passed it around 7pm on my way home from work that Tuesday night; there was a line about 3 and ½ blocks long.
I went home, let my dog out, grabbed my winter coat and went and got in the line. I was in that line for 2 and a half hours and never saw one of my neighbors. Voting was not on their minds at all.
It was quite the experience to wait in such a line to vote. We actually had a lot of fun. Pizza was passed along the line twice (hand sanitizer came first). A giant, I mean GIANT, bowl of candy was passed around every 30 minutes. Water, juices, chips, granola bars and even boxes from some sub shop. After I cast my vote there was a room full of more pizza and drinks. If they did this for every election I think a whole lot more people would show up to vote.
Was it disheartening that as soon as I got into my car the winner of the TN Democratic primary was announced? Before my vote was counted? Well, sure, but I live in TN, I’m used to my vote not counting. I still think they should add a day in May to vote and spend a month advertising it. I said so in my first diary about the storm and my opinion hasn’t changed. You can help:
Call the Secretary of State at the Division of Elections with a message to give TN a chance to vote after they’ve recovered from the storm. 1.877.850.4959
I went and voted for one reason only, this guy:
How could I not go vote after Dr. Reid fought so hard to get voting rights for people of colour? Back when there were polling taxes, literacy tests, and roads it was deadly for a Black man to drive down at night?
I could have stayed home I guess, but I don’t think I would have felt good about myself. I would have never had the nerve to talk to Dr. Reid again if I didn’t exercise the right he and so many others fought so hard for.