I got to the polling place (City Hall) at 9:20 AM to vote today.
And found the line out to the parking lot! That's the only time since I have lived here that I can remember such a turn out, and that's just excellent!
It only took 40 minutes total to wait and vote though as the poll workers were doing a great job of keeping the line moving, and there were plenty of booths set up this time.
I hope and pray that all of you have had, or will have the opportunity to vote today, please do so for the sake of all those who have sacrificed to give us the right!
By the way, if you are disabled, and cannot go into the polls, they will come out to your vehicle at the curb if the person who drove you to the poll's will just go in and tell them you need the assistance ( I witnessed that while I was waiting in line.)
Please tell us about your experience if you will.
Tom Ford
NO. 565
It only took 40 minutes total to wait and vote though as the poll workers were doing a great job of keeping the line moving, and there were plenty of booths set up this time.
I hope and pray that all of you have had, or will have the opportunity to vote today, please do so for the sake of all those who have sacrificed to give us the right!
By the way, if you are disabled, and cannot go into the polls, they will come out to your vehicle at the curb if the person who drove you to the poll's will just go in and tell them you need the assistance ( I witnessed that while I was waiting in line.)
Please tell us about your experience if you will.
Tom Ford
NO. 565
posted by Crestwood Independent at 13:34
2 Comments:
Tom
I am sorry about changing the topic, however I feel I do need to add this little comment. I believe you have sons that are police officers and I have a son that is a fire captain. I feel we all need to say a very special prayer for all of these young men and woman that serve our communities for our protection.
GOD BLESS
Jim Silvernail
OT: This is a very good article by an African American writer and talk show host! This came to me this morning in an E-mail, enjoy his wisdom.
"I believe that Larry Elder has a talk radio program but if he does, it's not carried in my area. I found this column and wish to share it. It says a lot about the values he was raised with and he displays an attitude that, coming from a black man, you'll not find talked about in the big media. See what you think."
Regards
Do You Need Obama to Believe?
Larry Elder
"Does Obama's victory, as a black man, make you feel that you can do anything?" Someone asked me that on election night.
It is a caricature of America that, pre-Obama, major obstacles blocked achievement. It is equally a caricature that Obama's win suddenly creates opportunity that did not exist before.
Hard work wins, my dad always told me. My Republican father, who disdained Democrats who "give people something for nothing," taught my brothers and me to work hard, stay focused, live within our means, and at all times avoid self-pity. My mom and dad always said, "Ninety percent of the people don't care about your problems. And the 10 percent are glad it's you."
Born in Athens, Ga., and eventually raised in Chattanooga, Tenn., my dad never knew his biological father. The only father figure in his life was harsh, distant and cold. His mother, because he made "too much noise" for her then-boyfriend, threw him out of the house at age 13.
So this penniless boy, living in the Jim Crow South as the Great Depression loomed, started knocking on doors. He finally got a job running errands and tending the yard for a white family. One day, the family's cook failed to show up. But my dad, having watched her in the kitchen, whipped up a passable meal. The family let the other helper go, and a cook was born.
Seeking more money, my dad applied for and got a job on the railroads as a Pullman porter -- then the country's largest private employer of blacks. He traveled all over the country, making a mental note of California because, he says, its beauty and warm weather seemed open and inviting, and the people seemed more fair.
World War II broke out. My dad enlisted as a Marine. He served as a cook and became a sergeant. The military ultimately stationed him on Guam as we prepared to invade the islands of Japan, an invasion that never took place because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
My dad returned to Chattanooga, where he went to an employment office. The lady at the desk told him he walked through the wrong door, directed him back out to the hall, and told him to enter through the "colored only" door.
"That's it," he angrily told my mom, whom he had just married. "I'm going to California, and in a few days, I will send for you."
My father arrived in Los Angeles and went from restaurant to restaurant to find work. "Sorry," he was told, "you have no references." "Sorry, you have no credentials." "Sorry …" He, of course, knew why.
He went to an employment office. The woman said, "We have no openings." My dad said, "I'll sit until you do." He sat in that office from opening until closing for a day and a half. Finally, the woman called him to the desk and said: "I have a job. It's for a janitor. Do you want it?"
My dad worked at that job for nearly 10 years, while working a second full-time job for nearly as long and cooking for a white family on the weekends. He somehow managed to go to night school to get his GED and save enough money, while in his 40s, to start a small cafe near downtown Los Angeles.
He ran the cafe, which provided my brothers and me weekend and summer jobs, until he was in his 80s. One day, my dad and I decided to clean out the garage. We found a letter he wrote to my older brother, then 2 years old. My dad said he feared that if something happened to him, my brother would need guidance:
May 4, 1951
Kirk, my Son, you are now starting out in life -- a life that Mother and I cannot live for you.
So as you journey through life, remember it's yours, so make it a good one. Always try to cheer up the other fellow.
Learn to think straight, analyze things, be sure you have all the facts before concluding, and always spend less than you earn.
Make friends, work hard, and play hard. Most important of all remember this -- the best of friends wear out if you use them.
This may sound silly, Son, but no matter where you are on the 29th of September (Kirk's birthday), see that Mother gets a little gift, if possible, along with a big kiss and a broad smile.
When you are out on your own, listen and take advice but do your own thinking and concluding, set up a reasonable goal, then be determined to reach it. You can and will, it's up to you, Son.
Your Father,
Randolph Elder
Dad is now 93 and, thankfully, still with us.
So, yes, Obama's historic victory makes a statement about the long, hard, bloody journey. Obama makes people believe. Some of us always did.
Tom Ford
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