I went canvassing yesterday, where the temperature hovered around 40 and it
drizzled. Unlike 2008, where it was 72 in Minneapolis! A couple of
things struck me:
-- A reminder of how transient and vulnerable much of our country still
is. The first street we were on is a
block away from Park Avenue, where some of the first mansions built in
Minneapolis now house social service agencies. Many of the apartments had
different names on them then in the voter registration lists we had, some
looked boarded up; a lot had five or six names on the mailbox for each floor of
a duplex. These are the folks that would
have been most effected had the Voter ID amendment passed. I would bet many of them did not have ID with
their current address on it
-- One of the conversations I had was with a man—I would guess 60, who came
out with just pants and no shirt on. Even
though he told me right away that he was voting for Romney and not Obama (for
whom I was working, in case you wondered!), we had a nice conversation about
the amendments. We were freezing, and he
was there bare-chested! The info that he
had received from his landlord was so wrong, and he was worried that he would
lose his right to vote, because he doesn’t have a driver’s license. But he was determined to vote, and I hope he
did!
-- At one corner house, with six names listed, I talked with a Somali woman,
who with the English she is learning told me: “we can’t vote, but next year we
become citizens!” What a great smile she
had!
-- The election returns come slower to Chile, judging from my phone call
with my wife last night, because I was updating her on which states were being “called”. Everyone in her house was super interested in
our elections, and up on the candidates and positions. My hope is that someday we will be in the
same category about elections in Chile and a lot of other places.
-- Perhaps I am an old fogey, and not realistic, but I would like for us to
have experiences now like I had growing up.
Most every Sunday, we went to Mass as a family, then watched Meet the
Press, and then with my Dad cooking breakfast (eggs fried in bacon grease—hum!
Not healthy, but tasty!), he would lead a discussion of the sermon and the
presenter on the TV. I remember people from the two major parties actually
discussing in detail issues of the day—and often really trying to find some
common ground. I’m not sure who the
partners for that would be—the Republican moderates, like Olympia Snowe and
Dick Lugar are not in the Senate next year, and the House leadership is so
beholden to the tea party, but I do think it would be possible.
-- Finally, I think that while the fiscal cliff is huge, the real deficits
we are facing are a deficit in compassion for those who are struggling, a deficit
of commitment to invest long-term in education, health and infrastructure and a
deficit in understanding how the world has changed. The networks hit the note of how the
electorate is changing—more Latino, younger, etc. I think we also need to look at how the world
is changing. We will not be the one
superpower forever, and we will need to understand the interests of other
nations and peoples much more than we do now. I hope that we can work on these
deficits as well.
I love the November sunlight, with the trees bare and the ground not yet
covered by snow. So if we ever get a
sunny day here in Minneapolis, I’m going out to marvel at God’s creation as it
turns into its deep, deep rest.
Be beauty. Be justice (even if we've only gone part of the way we want to go)
Patrick
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