Voting Season

 

“God, I can’t believe it’s already been four years. I feel like I did this last week.” Miss Laurel stretched her neck as the line took one collective step forward, “God I hate voting.”

“Who are you voting for Miss Laurel?” That was the problem with small towns, everyone knew your name and felt like they had to know everyone’s business.

“Senator Joshua Brooks, I think he’d make a fine president.”

“But Senator Joshua Brooks is a black man. Do you really think this entire country is ready to elect a black president? I should think not Miss Laurel. Why not vote for someone that at least has a chance at winning the election. You don’t want to waste your vote.”

“You know, it’s people like you, thinking like is was still the twentieth century, that are holding our country back from progress.” Miss Laurel huffed at Mr. Bender, the man who stood behind her in line. “And who, may I ask are you voting for then?”

“Why, I’m voting for Senator Carl Grot. He’s an upstanding gentleman if I ever saw one.”

“Then you obviously haven’t seen many,” Miss Laurel retorted as she spun to face Mr. Bender. “Senator Grot is a crook! When he was elected the Mayor of Minnesota do you know how he won that election? He went around all the towns, him and his people, handing out free booze to all the drunks and homeless. ‘Free beer, wine and whiskey for those of you who vote Grot!’. Then, once he had them drunk and too stupid to think he brought them to the voting polls and had them vote for the nice man who gave those poor people some good old alcohol. Do you think that’s upstanding?”

“That’s not true. No one could get away with that in today’s world, the Media watches everything! If that was true, more people would know.”

“The media, Mr. Bender, only gives a s**t if you’re a republican who does something questionable. God forbid that anyone question the democratic party!” Miss Laurel was so worked up that the line had moved forward and she hadn’t even noticed. She couldn’t have anyone trying cut in front of her, she had to be back at work in half an hour! “How can you vote for someone that you know nothing about? The actions that people commit say more about them then the words they say, and Senator Grot does not have a squeaky clean, or even passably clean,  past.”

“And what, is so wonderful about Senator Brooks?” Mr. Bender asked.

“Why, he’s going to renovate this country! He has plans, plans to turn the failing economy around, he has plans to help more people receive health care without those of us who pay for it being punished, he has plans to get us out of this horrible war that we can’t win. He has plans Mr. Bender, and plans are the first step in fixing a problem.”

“Plans,” The horrible Mr. Bender laughed, “he says he’s going to do all these great things but he has no idea how to accomplish any of it. He may want to fix the economy, but he doesn’t have a plan on how to do it. He may want to make health care more accessible but he can’t do that without making health care national and a responsibility of the state, not the individuals. He can talk and wish all he wants, but he can’t do any of the things that you’re basing your vote on. The only thing he has going for him is that he’s black, and people are afraid that if they don’t vote for him they’re be called racists.”

“Yeah, well at least he wants to change things! Senator Grot doesn’t care about the problems of this country or the issues that are going on. All he wants is to be a celebrity, to go down in the history books. He’s too worried about being liked to actually do anything! And no one in Brooks’ campaign has even brought the word racist up so you cannot blame them for people being small minded like you.”

“Just because they aren’t saying it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. It’s in his entire attitude! Just look at how he lectures people about how we should act, and what we should do. He’s like a raging preacher!”

“Where do you come up with this drivel?” At that moment Miss Laurel’s phone rang, happy to have a reason to stop talking to the horrible Mr. Bender she answered the phone, “Rebecca, where are you? Why aren’t you at the polls voting?”

“Why should I vote? You know I know nothing about politics, and what I do know about the two candidates I don’t like so why should I vote for something that I don’t understand and don’t agree with?”

“But people died and fought for the right to vote. How can you not be down here?”

“Simple. I don’t believe in settling for the lesser evil, and choosing not to vote when you have the power to vote, if done for the right reason, can be just as powerful as voting. At least I’m doing something that I believe in. Anyway, that’s not what’s important. I didn’t call to talk politics, I was wondering if today around six you wanted to grab a cup of coffee? I haven’t talked to you in ages and it would be a great way to catch up.”

“Yeah,” Miss Laurel mumbled as she took another step forward in line, “coffee sounds good. I’ll talk to you later.”

As she put her phone back into her purse someone touched her shoulder, “Excuse me miss, it’s your turn to vote. Please walk down to the monitor on the far end of the row, and when you’re done don’t forget to take an ‘I voted’ sticker. After all, don’t you want everyone to know the patriotic act you committed today by voting for our next President of the United States?”

            

 

 

Author's Note

Political pieces are not usually my thing, but this was an assignment for one of my module's this term.