iVoted

My lovely brother over at believe your voice can mean something has been urging me to begin blogging again. His blog name is fitting tonight at I watch 2012 Election Results after casting my vote this morning. I believe that voting is important probably because I watched my parents participate in the their civil duty and because I spent 2 years in Americorps. If Americorps does anything other than put young people to work in domestic civil service it engrains a life practice of civil participation. So, today, voting wasn't just an errand on a long list of to do, but it was an event of its own. My husband and I woke up early, filled our travel mugs with coffee and walked the 2 long blocks to our local United Methodist Church slash polling place. Now to my more city-folk friends this may seem perfectly normal. But, I would bet that in my suburban Texas precinct there were maybe a dozen people all day who walked to the polls...and it was a beautiful day. Needless to say I live in a state, county, city where I have to constantly remind myself that my voice can mean something. The little church behind me may be the the most offensive display of politics and faith that I have ever seen, but my voice can mean something. The kindergarten classes at my church may disagree with my presidential choice, but God Bless 15 of the 40 little voters for standing their own ground. I am thrilled, not annoyed, to see the banter on Facebook which means that people are engaging in public discourse. Yes, I wish that discourse was a little more educated. I am most grateful that for the most part today, no matter what side folks are on the key message today was go vote-believe that your voice can mean something. Now I just wish Christians could get the same way about faith...but that's for my next post when I hop on my church soapbox.