You know you're a social studies geek when....

...voting almost makes you cry.

Now - let me explain. For those of you who don't know, we live in what could technically be called "the hood." In fact, I often call it that myself, mostly to alleviate the concerns of people who think we own a half-million dollar home. There are houses in our larger neighborhood in that price range, so when people hear where we live, that's what they imagine. We live in the not-quite-as-nice portion of the area, which we actually prefer, since our neighbors are: a) friendly; b) not millionaires; and c) the kind of people that do their own yardwork. (I just returned from a work event at the Ritz-Carlton on Lake Oconee, and let me tell you, I have ZERO desire to ever lead that lifestyle. It was ridiculous, but I digress.)

Back to the almost-crying. I don't know how it works elsewhere, but in Georgia, polls are traditionally staffed by civic-minded retirees. They take their jobs very seriously, and some of them look old enough to remember when women got the right to vote. Since we vote electronically, it's very impressive how tech-savvy some of these ladies can be!

Anyway, our neighborHOOD is very racially integrated, and the voting lines today were no exception. What made me almost cry was the thought, though, that most of the people running the polling place were not able to vote until they were well into adulthood. Thanks to the wonders of Jim Crow, the ladies running my precinct would (I'm guessing) probably not have gotten to vote for President until 1968 - at best. And since some of them probably could have voted for FDR in his first term, that's really terribly sad.

Now, you might think, if a system has disenfranchised you for that long, & generally only worked to hurt you for no reason other than the color of your skin, you would probably disengage & say, "forget it." But for these ladies, that didn't stop them. I would love to know about the changes they've seen during their lifetimes, and if they realize how important it is that they are doing the job that they did today. Instead, I just smiled & joked with them. The oldest lady was teasing everyone about having filled out their verification forms wrong, & that we were going to break her fingers off because she was having to do extra writing. I thought that was hysterical, and when she got to me, she started singing, "Mrs. Brown has come to TOWN." That got a big laugh, of course, even though it's not the most original joke in the world.

Moral of the story - if you haven't voted yet, go do it! (And if you don't know for whom to vote, call me & I'll tell you. :) And I hope, L & M, you noticed that I didn't end that last phrase with a preposition.) Should you need more convincing, head over to Amy's, & read her thoughts on voting, too.