On Voting

Last Wednesday I finally received my absentee ballot after several weeks of worry and fear of disenfranchisement. I quickly and carefully filled out my ballot paying close attention to not make any mistakes and accidentally vote for the wrong candidates. On Thursday afternoon I walked to the post office closest to my office and mailed off my absentee ballot without further ado.

So you're probably wondering to yourself why I'm even writing this uneventful blog post especially since I've been MIA for such a long time. Well for one I'm not to impose my political views onto you, I'll leave that to the news media and some of the political blogs out there. I'm writing this post more so to have an open dialog with my family you know who you are out there. Family, I love you and I know that I should probably call and write more often but you see, since I already cast my ballot and it probably won't even be counted anyway, I want to let you know that it is no longer necessary to send me email forwards trying to persuade or convince me to vote a certain African American candidate. As a matter of fact it was never really necessary in the first place. You see, if I recall correctly, I think I was the one that introduced you to the candidate in question and I was the one that taught you how to pronounce his name correctly.
Oh and mom I was the one that corrected your mistaken beliefs that he was a Muslim not that there is anything at all wrong with being a Muslim.

And while we're on the topic family and those of you that are still reading, I was an early supporter of my presidential pick, not because of the color of his skin but because I agreed with most of his political platform and I appreciated his international perspective on American politics. It should be noted that I am more likely to not vote for someone based on a complexion connection than the reverse as bad as it may sound. I can think of a number of times when my father invited me to Harlem to meet some representative, hoodwinked me into volunteering my time at a phone bank or encouraged me to attend fundraisers and to donate to specific candidates but I always had a moral conflict because I usually had no idea what their political platform was all about.

So, to bring this post to a close for those of you that are still reading, I encourage all expats to follow up the appropriate contacts to ensure that you receive your absentee ballot on time if you haven't already. Those of you currently residing in the US I urge to get out there and register to vote if you haven't done so already and I urge all of you to get out there and vote on Election Day, November 4th. The results of this election will be historic regardless of who wins however, the results of this election may determine whether or not I ever decide to move back to the United States. So if you don't vote I think the maternal unit will hold you all personally responsible.