On Voting

Tomorrow I will wake up and it will be election day. I will wash my hair and eat my Cheerios in the dark like usual. I'll pile on wool tights and a wool skirt and suede boots and a wool coat and hat, and when I walk out onto 104th street I'll be able to judge how many minutes it is before 7 by the strip of pale that shows above the East River. I'll buy a medium cup of coffee with milk and no sugar from Cesar on the corner. I love this routine. It is always one of my favorite times of the day.

For my kids, these same minutes are probably drudgery. What they wear and what they eat has been forced on them. They have not gotten to choose yet what river they want to live next to, or even how they take their coffee. And then they have to come look at my face all day.

I wish I could mark tomorrow for them like it will be marked for me. I will be pulling a lever for a presidential candidate who is making history. I have scrupulously avoided telling my students who I am voting for, even my party affiliation--but they know no matter who it is, we will be reaching our hands into history with that vote.

It's not our job to read the future or figure out who is the REALLY BEST candidate. Our job is just to buy into the process, to vote so we will remember that we bear responsibility for our government's actions, and then fight to put those actions right. No matter who gets voted in, our work keeps going.