Teaching Demoracy

As we are all aware, Tuesday was Election Day. The kids and I had been discussing the elections for weeks. There were a few election signs planted on our front lawn...mostly to piss of my ex. He and I were always and will always be on opposite sides of the political fence. On the plus side, we have been canceling out each others votes for 25 years. Anyway, I had this rosy idea of taking all of my children to vote with me. A chance to speak to them of the responsibility that comes with living in a Democracy. After all, I was raised by my parents to believe that if you didn't vote you couldn't complain...for four long years. And it had been several years since I had taken them with me. I now remember why! We parked at the polling place and most of my children piled out of the car. The exception being my 14 year old daughter who asked if she could remain in the car and read. I shot her my "Get your ass out of the car NOW look.". She whined. And moaned. Before I knew what I was saying this popped out of my mouth: "I'm disappointed in you." To my horror, I was channeling my mother. All of children, some under duress, followed me into the building. Immediately my son needed to use the potty. As luck would have it an old friend was signing voters in and volunteered to take him to the boys room so that I could vote. First hurtle cleared. The rest of us took my two ballots to one of the voting nooks. Gone are the days when you entered a booth with a curtain. In Maine you vote on one side of a four sided booth the is open to the "elements". My youngest was interested in the cool black magic marker that Mommy got to use. And wanted to use it herself. A firm "No" almost did the trick. The 12 year old was interested in the process. She and I discussed my choices in what I thought was a whisper. My 14 year old daughter decided that she was going to die a messy death on the spot if she did not have a Ginger Ale. And could she have some money for the vending machine. The first "NO" didn't take. The fifth "NO" didn't take either. My son was delivered back by my helpful friend and added his begging, pleading, whining voice to his elder sisters'. MY voice was becoming increasingly shrill. It was at this point that the Election Police Woman approached me and asked me to be silent. Apparently I was disturbing my fellow voters. No shit! I was disturbing myself. I was so rattled that I forgot to turn over my ballot and vote on the all important referendums. I just wanted to get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. My head was pounding and they were trying to kill each other as we got back to the car. It will be a cold day in hell before I do that again.