[Continued from the last blog...]

My cousin pointed out, with time zone differences, I am already in “tomorrow” while he still lives in “today...” a situation he thought might give me scoops for betting on horse races and/or playing the stock market and maybe even advance information on the election results. Luckily, he was just kidding... I think. His reminder, however, did act as a catalyst to get me out of bed much earlier than usual to check out election results on the local network broadcast of CNN, which was late Election Day night in cousin-time.

Since mass media can’t seem to cover a big event without raking-over minutiae, there was a short segment every hour about the “big problems” with the election that may have kept voters away: long lines at the poles and people getting turned away without proper identification being asked to return with their ID. I became increasingly disgusted every time they announced that some celebrity waited for a whole HOUR to vote or that the incumbent Governor of some state was sent away and told to come back because he didn’t bring his driver’s license (what, you don’t KNOW who I am? TELL them who I am, darling!) The news announcers managed to insinuate just enough antipathy and irritation over such trials for good Americans.

I guess while I have been living overseas, there was some sort of something passed that said voting was supposed to be faster than a trip to McDonalds. Maybe my nausea over the waste of news time on such reports or that anyone would even be complaining about such things is because I have bore witness to some monumental elections where people re-wrote the book of inconveniences for the privilege of voting.

In South Africa for their second post-Apartheid election, I saw people walking for hours to get to a voting post, singing and dancing to entertain themselves while waiting all day to cast a vote, shivering in the dark cold until midnight without so much as a sigh until it was their turn.

A few years ago, after twenty-three years of single-party dictatorship, Kenyans rushed to wait in line to vote in the first true multi-party election in their history as a nation. The anecdotal stories of the “big problems” with elections there were of voters’ doors being chained shut with them inside and men with guns wandering around and trying to force people to vote one way or another. The majority of the population was stalwart, though, in their determination not only to cast a vote, but to vote their conscience. Even though, like in South Africa, Kenyans waited sometimes all day and well into the night to cast their ballots, I don’t remember most people complaining or the media making a big deal of it other than to be amazed that people kept waiting regardless of how long it took. On that day, no matter what had happened before or what would happen after, the people of Kenya were enlivened by hope, excited by the future and making things right. There were no complaints.

We Americans feel burdened by the very things that others fight for … and against. Many of us rue the day we get called for jury duty and can’t make voting a priority in our busy lives just because it’s not as convenient as an ATM machine at midnight. We might, however, sleep in line for good concert tickets or line-up for hours for the next trendy Christmas toy du jour for our children. To each his or her own, but I wanted to remind all of us, me included, that America is a democracy that is only as good as its voters. If only half of us show up, I guess that means it’s only half as good.

To me, a long line, some inconvenience and having to identify our fabulous famous (or perhaps infamous) selves with ID cards isn’t too much to ask for the privilege and responsibility of voting.

Voting is a good thing ... good things come to those who wait. Just ask African expats living in America.

To all of you that also made the time to vote without complaint, I would just like to say thanks.