This election galvanized voters of all parties. Everywhere I went yesterday, people sported “I Voted” stickers and were eager to discuss the election. My husband and I went to West Springfield High School at 7:15 AM to vote and found that the line was already snaking its way out of the building. But despite the early hour and the long line, people were upbeat and talkative, energized (in part) by the coffee and baked goods volunteers were selling outside, but mostly by a keen awareness that we were taking part in a historic election. Our long line moved swiftly, and in less than an hour, my husband and I were inside the school and voting. The use of scannable paper ballots made it possible for more people to vote at once, and this new voting method kept the line moving and frustration low. What about you? What happened when you went to vote?
On Mason’s campus, the weather was dreary and damp, but spirits were high.
Student Government ran vans to the Woodson High School polling place, and volunteers promoted this service by becoming “human advertisements.”
Rain apparently, does not damper revolutions!
This guy stole my heart!
Our university was not without its own drama. Yesterday morning, a hacker broke into the Provost’s email account and sent out a fake message announcing that the election had been moved to November 5th. Rumors circulated that Mason students who voted could lose their financial aid.
But such lame attempts proved ineffective against the smart and savvy youthful voters who went to the polls in record numbers. Your demographic – voters between the ages of 18 and 25 – voted overwhelmingly for Obama and helped power him to victory. Now it’s your turn to act upon that mandate and consider how you will help him guide our nation toward economic recovery, energy reform, and improved security both at home and abroad.
How will you meet the challenge Obama made to all Americans in his victory speech last night that change can’t happen without “a new spirit of patriotism, a new spirit of sacrifice?” How has this election influenced your outlook on the future and the role you will play in it as a working professional?
5 comments:
The night before I voted, my radiator decided to explode while I was on my way to the Obama Rally in Prince William County. I was about a mile away from the festivities so I could clearly hear all of the music and the shouting and Obama himself addressing the crowd. Since I was so close, they even closed the road I was stranded on so his motorcade could drive by. I waved as the parade drove swiftly by my smoking car. It was exciting, but it took three hours for my tow truck to come.
Anyways, after crashing on my parents couch, I woke up in the morning and went to our polling place with my mom. We were able to walk straight to the people with the name-lists and directly to a machine. It was weird. I didn't get to go into a private booth I was standing in front of everyone although they couldn't see what I was doing. I cast my vote, but then was upset that for the senate I couldn't change my vote because I accidentally touched the wrong thing with my stubby fingers.
When I got off of work, lets just say that I celebrated maybe a little too hard. It was difficult to contain my excitement. At the bar I was at, everyone was hugging and were were all moved almost to tears when we saw, because we could not really hear Obmama give his acceptance speech. He just looked so presidential, and I am so very excited to having at least 4 years of what he says are going to be his policy's.
I was well prepared for a long line I had a book and an article from one of my classes. When I arrived there was no line and it took maybe five minutes. The news always turns everything in to a disaster, they make it sound like the world is coming to an end every other night.
I am willing to do what it takes to change things in our country. At work a few of the guys are always talking about their taxes being raised. Well if you want to fix our schools, build roads, bridges, heal the economy and anything else you can think about you need money. The money has to come from somewhere. As a nation we have to be willing to invest in our country.
I was prepared for lines going out the door when polls opened on Tuesday. I was in and out within 5 minutes, with surprisingly no problems.
As for "a new spirit of patriotism, a new spirit of sacrifice?" I feel that we have already accomplished a new spirit of patriotism by electing Obama, and that sacrifice would have been mentioned whether Obama or McCain won. Our country needs help, and if we can't can't help it who will?
With Obama in office hopefully teachers will have higher (not merit-based pay)salaries, which is something I look forward to in the next 4 years.
With Obama proposing for a "new spirit of sacrifice", I would try to conserve as much energy as I can, aka I would "go green!" While conserving energy, I would try to recycle more, and would try to re-use items that I think would be too wasteful to throw away. I think that by all of us sacrificing little by little, it would sum up to a big amount of improvement. This election made me feel like our votes actually do count. Before, I thought that one vote wouldn't make a difference and that it was the electoral vote that impacted the most. As a working professional in the future, I feel like we'll be more stable when it comes to lowering taxes. I feel more comfortable having Obama as the new president because he is looking to change our nation in the long term. I believe that the future holds a great deal of improvements and a better supply of jobs to the jobless. With those improvements, I see progress happening.
I am glad this election is over. Although it proved to be exciting and ground breaking, it was tedious and daunting at the same time. Many people had strong opinions on both candidates and the amount of interest that took place in this election was overwhelming. It almost got to a point that you couldn't help but want to shut out all the election buzz while knowing full well how extremely important it was.
So Obama is our president, however I didn't watch his speech. I've seen parts of it but haven't sat down to actually interpret the point he is trying to make. Basically I'm sure he said stuff about how running against McCain was tough, its time to fix what Bush did, and "change."
As a working professional about to enter the world, I hope that Obama will rise to the occasion and make things better for our economy. A lot of us are scared that we are going out into a work environment where finding jobs is extremely difficult. As an American I feel as though it is our duty to back our president at all costs,due to the fact that he was elected by a majority of our nation (and we can't change the outcome even if we want to) Therefore, I welcome the change that Obama speaks of, and I hope that "the new spirit of patriotism, and new spirit of sacrifice," is a positive one.
P.S. When I went to vote I went straight through the line in 2 minutes and voted via scan tron thing.
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