My Obligatory I Voted Selfie.
My obligatory I Voted selfies! I usually don’t have one of these pics because I tend to vote absentee. But there was a clerical error/kerfuffle with both mine & Sis’ absentee ballots not coming for some reason, so by the time we got it sorted, it was too late. We ended up squeezing in our votes in-person between the drs & the dentist. Upside, I got a sticker this way and like, James Marsters (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is offering a personalized reply over on Twitter, to anyone who tweets their voting sticker selfie at him. I mean, I’ve met the man, that should be enough, but I don’t care, I’m tweeting my selfie at him anyways! Also, I could not have been representing the nerd & geek communities any harder, because I showed up to vote carrying my Rogue One bag and wearing my Jayne Cobb ‘Fighting Elves” shirt & my Gryffindor hat!
Sadly, I’m not wearing the hat here, you can’t see my bag, and you can’t tell that is my Fighting Elves shirt
Then I saw my cousin’s 23 year old daughter - who is super into astrology - posting on FB like, “Everyone here posting about voting but I’m like, Hey the north & south nodes are coming!” Idk what that is but I replied, “But did you vote?” She answered that she does not vote, then asked if I know what the nodes are. I said I do not know about the nodes and I’d love to know more, but for today the nodes don’t control my healthcare. I said I understand it can be easy to get disenfranchised, that I didn’t vote at her age for that very reason. But I also stated that as a poor, disabled, queer woman, my life is literally in the hands of our elected officials. That means my life is in the hands of those who vote. And by not voting, it says to me that you don’t care what happens to people like me or to other marginalized persons like children, poc, etc. The thing is, she herself is queer, poc, poor woman whose mother died of cancer, so these issues should matter to her. I tried to frame it respectfully, but I told her as her ‘aunt’, I was gonna keep on her & we were gonna revisit this conversation before the 2020 elections. She told me she doesn’t vote “for other reasons, but not because she doesn’t care” and that she respects my feelings on the matter. I asked her to tell me about the ‘nodes’, and that if she felt like explaining her reasoning on not voting to me, I would listen with an open mind. I just can’t imagine what reason someone has to not vote that isn’t disenfranchisement, laziness or lack of access. I could believe if she had said ‘lack of access’ but she made it clear not voting was a *choice* for her. I know at her age I didn’t vote because I didn’t think my vote mattered & because I felt like since I don’t pay taxes, I didn’t have the right. My sister taught me it’s not a right, it’s a duty. I want to teach my cousin this too.
Anyways, that was my Election Day ramble. Excuse me while I go see if James has gotten to my tweet yet!
This entry was originally posted at https://dodger-sister.dreamwidth.org/247293.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Sadly, I’m not wearing the hat here, you can’t see my bag, and you can’t tell that is my Fighting Elves shirt
Then I saw my cousin’s 23 year old daughter - who is super into astrology - posting on FB like, “Everyone here posting about voting but I’m like, Hey the north & south nodes are coming!” Idk what that is but I replied, “But did you vote?” She answered that she does not vote, then asked if I know what the nodes are. I said I do not know about the nodes and I’d love to know more, but for today the nodes don’t control my healthcare. I said I understand it can be easy to get disenfranchised, that I didn’t vote at her age for that very reason. But I also stated that as a poor, disabled, queer woman, my life is literally in the hands of our elected officials. That means my life is in the hands of those who vote. And by not voting, it says to me that you don’t care what happens to people like me or to other marginalized persons like children, poc, etc. The thing is, she herself is queer, poc, poor woman whose mother died of cancer, so these issues should matter to her. I tried to frame it respectfully, but I told her as her ‘aunt’, I was gonna keep on her & we were gonna revisit this conversation before the 2020 elections. She told me she doesn’t vote “for other reasons, but not because she doesn’t care” and that she respects my feelings on the matter. I asked her to tell me about the ‘nodes’, and that if she felt like explaining her reasoning on not voting to me, I would listen with an open mind. I just can’t imagine what reason someone has to not vote that isn’t disenfranchisement, laziness or lack of access. I could believe if she had said ‘lack of access’ but she made it clear not voting was a *choice* for her. I know at her age I didn’t vote because I didn’t think my vote mattered & because I felt like since I don’t pay taxes, I didn’t have the right. My sister taught me it’s not a right, it’s a duty. I want to teach my cousin this too.
Anyways, that was my Election Day ramble. Excuse me while I go see if James has gotten to my tweet yet!
This entry was originally posted at https://dodger-sister.dreamwidth.org/247293.html. Please comment there using OpenID.