Your Vote Makes a Difference

I voted!

I'm so proud of myself that I taped my

"Nonpartisan
Official Ballot
County of Los Angeles
June 3, 2008"

voting receipt on my shirt alongside my official, "I Voted" sticker.

I'll admit, I have zero tolerance for people who don't vote. As in, if I find out you didn't vote, I sort of lose respect for you. I reminded everyone I saw today, "Don't forget to go vote!" and I heard some real b.s. responses from folks:

"Oh, is that today? I don't know if I'll have time to get to the polls."

Polls open from 7 AM - 8 PM and you don't have time?

I also heard, "Well I don't know who all the folks running are."

So go educate yourself about who they are. Use the internet for something other than reading gossip blogs.

"My vote doesn't really make a difference."

Oh, OK. You go on ahead and let rent control end in California. And if votes don't make a difference, why is Barack Obama about to be the Democratic Nominee? Let this election be a sign that votes do indeed count.

Voting is such a sacred responsibility and my not fully executing that responsibility would be a total dishonor to the memory of all my ancestors who could not vote, either because of their race or class. But especially in California if you don't vote, you're an idiot. And here's why: California's GDP is larger than all but eight countries in the world. That's a lot of power and influence. And it's why the saying is that so goes California, so goes the rest of the nation.

Wow, as I type this, Barack Obama just officially got enough delegates to be the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States. They just said on MSNBC that he is the first person of color to be the nominee of any major political party for the top office of any country in the Western world. Wow.

It is a great moment. I'll tell you, I never thought this would be something I'd see in my lifetime. Let me wipe the tears off my cheeks and bring myself down to earth because despite the awesomeness, we still have a white supremacist, Bill Johnson, running for Superior Court Judge out here in LA.

Bill Johnson believes that all non-white folks should be deported from the United States. I'm not sure if he's looked around to see who actually lives in California, but, ahem, this state is over 50% non-white so I'm not sure how he thinks that will go down, but I think he is counting on low voter turnout, voter ignorance and, quite frankly, voter prejudice to get him elected.

You see, Johnson is running against a guy by the name of James Bianco. Johnson probably thinks folks will be more likely to vote for someone named "Johnson" instead of a Latino sounding name like "Bianco". And the sad truth is that certain people likely will go down that road, which is what makes the victory of a black man named Barack Obama all the more significant.

My brother-in-law just called and said, "I just got my 40 acres and a mule."

And with that, I'm going to go cry some more. Yes, our votes do make a difference!