VOTE

I have always taken my right to vote very seriously, and exercised it in as many elections as I could. Today I cast my vote in what I believe to be the most important election in my lifetime. This was not Little Omi's first time to visit our polling place (I bring her every time I vote), but this was her first presidential election, and the first time we ever had to stand in line. Our wait was relatively brief—20 minutes or so—especially compared with that of voters in the tossup states like Florida or Virginia. Still, it made my heart swell with pride to see all my neighbors who were willing to stand in line and wait their turn to make their voices heard in this Democracy, and to see our good friend from across the street, who has now moved into a nursing home, coming in by wheelchair to cast her vote.

Will Little Omi remember all this later on? I can't say. But I do wonder what kind of nation we can become if the very first President my daughter remembers, and the first President a whole generation of children knows, is Barack Obama. Behold, the possibility!