little teapot

little teapot, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

Walking in today, I got to see a bunch of people who usually accost me with a survey or a cause (they all had their clipboards down and I didn't catch which group they were with) doing a rendition of "I'm a little teapot" on Broadway.

Team building exercise or just a tad of whimsy, I'm not complaining. I was amused...

voting

i voted!, originally uploaded by Matt Westervelt.

Today was the day to vote, and the last chance we get to vote at our local polls.

I'm bothered about the move to mail-in only ballots. Voting is one of those things that I remember my parents doing when I was young, and bringing my son to the polls is something that I enjoy and looked forward to in the future.

Voting shouldn't be like sending in a bill, or filling out a survey.

There's something special about going to vote, filling in the bubbles and watching your vote go into the machine. You're there with your neighbors, you talk with the volunteers. You leave feeling like you've taken part in the process, and I just don't understand how this mail-in thing is going to give me that same feeling. Will this move really improve turnout?

I understand that it's cheaper to do mail in voting, and I understand that the only inevitable thing in this life is change. But it saddens me to see this piece of our democracy go away.