My Vote.
Well, I walked into the polling place, showed my license and magically was able to vote. I stared down at the huge ballot, looked at Kerry, looked at Dean, looked at Edwards, I even looked at Sharpton because he’s a good man and I would love to give him support. After about five minutes of staring at Dean and Edwards’s names, I took a deep breath and completed the arrow so it pointed towards Dean. I realized last night as I was surrounded by the darkness of my room, battling inside for whom I should choose, that Dean and I fit better than Edwards and I. Both are great men. I would love to see either of them lead, but I can’t vote for someone just because he is leading when the polls close in other states. I tried, really I did, but I couldn’t. I like Edwards platform, it’s tight, he believes in good things, many of the same things Dean does, but I just couldn’t abandon the good doctor in the end. Maybe I will be surprised tonight and Dean will come out on top.
What happened is I stopped checking myself. I sit here and absorb all of these articles on websites and news sites and in newspapers and usually I have a good filter and can stop that from swaying my opinions, but somehow the election fear seeped in. All of the media saying Kerry is the front-runner (even with 75 percent of the delegates still out there) got to me. I received a dose of how the Kerry people must have felt when they were being told that Dean was going to win in a landslide. And it got to me. I’m ashamed of it because it is exactly what I fight against everyday. It is what makes me sad every single day, thinking of people as sheep to the media maelstrom that determines public opinion. It makes more sense than ever for me to vote for Dean, because he is the ONE candidate that stood up for my issue, the very one that is costing him the election. Break up the big media conglomerates. Dean said he will break them up and the first step to taking back our democracy is doing just that.
Now pardon me, I have to go direct college students to their polling places.
