Why I Didn't Get To Vote

[The Sage Nabooru]

I was at work on voting day, had a special plan for my mother to pick me up from work to take me to the polls because like a lot of other places we got time off just for the vote. As I sat down to eat my lunch, I have a cold now, and I blew my nose, which made it bleed (again). My nose bleeds the way chimneys smoke. I'm willing to bet I've lost some dozens of gallons of the red stuff through my nostrils within my lifetime. Because I'm so used to it, it's no big deal to me. But of course everyone at work, shocked at the sight of blood, panics.

 

I'm rushed to the bathroom, subjected to various backwater remedies recommended by my rural coworkers (ice on the back of the neck.....what the fuck for?!), and the ambulance is called and of course my concerned associates tell them I've lost at least a pint of blood and I'm dripping out egg-sized clots (which I didn't know was physically possible). However, it does have a nasty tendency to not stop bleeding easily, to go like a faucet, and leave me shaking and pale. Luckily, the paramedics know better than to assume that I'm dying but still recognize a problem (given the bloody-nose history and its reluctance to stop), and I get a nice, peaceful trip from the back of Wal-Mart to St. Anthony's, which amazingly took about ten minutes, so I assume they used some kind of space-time warp to transport me so quickly. And I wasn't even sick; at least they didn't blast the sirens.

 

I got into the emergency room where I was treated right away; luckily there wasn't a big line to get in as usual. The doctor recommends a blood test just to make sure I'm not running low or platelets or iron, and I agree. I've never had blood drawn or an IV in my life. I've often thought of donating blood but I would rather they simply punched me in the face and held a bag under my nose than stick that damned needle in. I'm scared, very scared, even though I get a shot in the butt for birth control every three months. (Trying to get myself sterile.) Anyway, my blood gets drawn, and I managed to live, but the nurse leaves the plastic needly thing in, in case I have to get an IV. For a nosebleed.

 

My mother did meet me at the hospital, and we're stuck in the emergency room for over an hour and a half with a rather poorly-receiving TV with a nonresponsive volume level watching election coverage that I will now not get to be a part of since my fucking nose had to act up at work. As everyone knows American emergency rooms are not pictures of efficiency; and of course as the evening wears on people sicker than I am come in and I am stuck with a god-damned pointless IV needle in my arm with no IV, while the worse-off folks get all the attention. I ended up waiting forty-five minutes for the sole purpose of waiting for someone to come in and take the totally unneccessary needle out of my arm. My mother is a nurse and I know the annoyance of whiny patients, especially when they're not critical patients, but I'm pissed that I don't get to vote (I didn't get out until 7:30) and I can't figure out why the doctor didn't just take the damn needle out when he brought back the bloodwork that said I was alive and normal.

 

I finally left, with - thank the gods - a referral to an ENT, who will hopefully cauterize my nose for all time and leave the nosebleeds in the distant past. Did I mention the doctor sprayed some special medicine on a cotton ball, to shove up my nose, and then instructed me to not blow it the rest of the night. And I have a cold, a really bad one. I was stuck with a snot-soaked cotton wad in my face and I could feel the disgusting diseased mucus swimming around in my head all night.

 

I'm pissed. Stupid nose. I hate my nose. I'm about thisclose to going to Iran and committing adultery just to have it cut off. Now I won't have the right to complain about the government.

[Guest exodus]

Now I won't have the right to complain about the government.

 

Sure you can complain. It wasn't your fault you couldn't vote.

 

But I understand why you're upset. I would have wanted to vote too if I was an American. You have much more interesting elections over there than here in Finland. In my opinion. Here it's who ever wins doesn't matter everything stays the same. SNORE

 

Not that I think we need a big change or anything.. it's just.. blah

 

exodus

[woodsmoke]

I would have wanted to vote too if I was an American. You have much more interesting elections over there than here in Finland. In my opinion. Here it's who ever wins doesn't matter everything stays the same. SNORE

 

You've been deceived by the pretty lights and shiny glitter. That's exactly how our "elections" work, too.

 

Personally, Sage, I don't buy into the line that abstaining from the electory process invalidates one's right to criticize. I don't have to masturbate with sandpaper to know it's not a good idea.

 

Were I criticizing one party to the exclusion of the other, the sticker-sporting sheeple might have a point, but I'm not. Everyone knows there's no real difference between the Tweedle Ds and Tweedle Rs. The system itself is corrupt and broken, and I believe I'm fully justified in taking shots at the whole rotting heap.

[Poonis]

I can't vote because I got a felony for computer hacking about 10 years ago. So now I just sit and smoke pot and say "fuck it" =D

[Lycorth]

You can complain all you like about the government, Sage. As long as you have breath in your lungs, you can complain about anything you like.

 

And don't worry about not voting. You didn't miss anything, trust me.

[Amethyst]

You've been deceived by the pretty lights and shiny glitter. That's exactly how our "elections" work, too.

 

Personally, Sage, I don't buy into the line that abstaining from the electory process invalidates one's right to criticize. I don't have to masturbate with sandpaper to know it's not a good idea.

 

Were I criticizing one party to the exclusion of the other, the sticker-sporting sheeple might have a point, but I'm not. Everyone knows there's no real difference between the Tweedle Ds and Tweedle Rs. The system itself is corrupt and broken, and I believe I'm fully justified in taking shots at the whole rotting heap.

 

I don't buy into that line either. We live in a country which supposedly has free speech, although I'm afraid that's quickly becoming a thing of the past.

 

I did vote, but I voted third party because I didn't like either the Republican or the Democratic candidates who were running for office in my state.

[roman]

I would have wanted to vote too if I was an American. You have much more interesting elections over there than here in Finland. In my opinion. Here it's who ever wins doesn't matter everything stays the same. SNORE

 

Everyone knows there's no real difference between the Tweedle Ds and Tweedle Rs. The system itself is corrupt and broken, and I believe I'm fully justified in taking shots at the whole rotting heap.

I disagree. I believe that there is some difference between some of the Republicans and some of the Democrats. I believe you are over-emphasizing Nader's term "Republicrats," which was clever, but not altogether accurate.

[Curtdude]

Sorry about the nosebleeds, Sage. I have had them regularly since I was 5 years old. They come on daily during allergy season. My ENT told me that, since I've had electric cauterizations so many times (probably 6 or 7 times as a kid), they won't do it anymore to avoid actaully destroying the tissue and making it worse. He said there is a structural deformity in how the interior of my nose is (even though it looks completely normal to me), and the deformed cartilage forces the blood vessels to the surface. Give it some mild allergy, and Presto! Nose bleeds. Fortunately, they only last 5 minutes or so. Sounds like yours are much more severe. You have my complete sympathy. They are a total drag.

 

He also told me the only way to fix it was surgery: basically they would break my nose and reform it. Sorry - I took a pass on that. The cure sounds worse than the sickness.

 

Not a particularly sexy story, I admit. But something I can relate to. Take care.

[woodsmoke]

I disagree. I believe that there is some difference between some of the Republicans and some of the Democrats. I believe you are over-emphasizing Nader's term "Republicrats," which was clever, but not altogether accurate.

 

Put that way, I can agree with you. There is indeed significant difference between some Republicans and some Democrats. Most of them, however, are only distinguishable from one another by whether they bray or trumpet their obnoxious political drivel from the pulpit podium.

 

I don't believe the term is overemphasized at all. Look at the history of our nation in the past hundred years and ask yourself; excluding events which motivated the populace itself enough to necessitate the government actually do something about it (i.e. the Great Depression, women's sufferage, the civil rights movement, etc.), how many positive changes have come about as a direct result of the balance of power shifting from one party to the other?

[roman]

Of course we can't say what we think might have happened had one of the minority parties come into power, but we can definitely see that more progressive, civil legislation "for the people" has come about with Democrats in power. The Republican Party has come to symbolize White people with money, I believe...and White people who like to hang around with people with money.

 

You are correct to say that it takes the people pushing politicians to make things happen, and without the pushing not as much happens in either camp. The big difference is the people in the parties, and what they stand for personally and individually. So the difference comes in who gets put up and who gets elected. I'm saying that the differences lie more with grassroots members, and by extension, with whom they put in power. I am having some difficulty explaining myself, as this is tricky. The People change the Party, and the Leaders change the Party.

 

For me, Nader's term "Republicrats" referred to the pols who seek only personal aggrandizement and are committed neither to the will of the people they claim to represent, nor to the Nation and its Constitution.