Mission Accomplished

Both my boys have voted!  One of them received his ballot on Thursday, three weeks after requesting it, and mailed it Friday morning, so it should make it in time.  The other received his today, and went off with one of his roommates to learn how to overnight something.  ("It cost me $15.00," he muttered.)

I was feeling particularly badly about their inability to vote, not just because the candidates are neck-and-neck in our state, but because of the circumstances under which they registered last spring.  Our community was involved in some stage of a gay-rights issue -- I can't remember exactly which stage, but I think it had to do with our domestic partners' registry -- and two young men came through the neighborhood looking to register new voters.  My sons were extremely proud to complete their registration forms in the context of a meaningful issue.

Then when the President began to promote the Federal Marriage Amendment, one of them looked at the morning paper one day and groaned that he was going to have to be sure to take the trouble to vote and do what he could to evict that man from office.

I'm pretty proud of my children with respect to FMA issue. It seems that the main thing that my daughter got out of her AP American History course last year was a passionate conviction that, not only are the pro-Amendment folks engaged in a discriminatory and mean-spirited effort, but they are doing the Worst of the Worst -- trying to undermine the basic tenets of our Constitution to effect their goal.  Too bad she's not old enough to vote.

Meanwhile, at the very small and very conservative school where I teach, I had the pleasure of running our student mock election today with my government class and watching Mr. Bush win by a landslide.  A mountainslide, actually.  A Grand Canyonesque-slide.

I spent at least part of the day reminding the kids that, regardless of the outcome tomorrow, we will all have to continue to live together the next day.

Walked: 3 miles, and worked out at the gym.