Caucus
So last night I rode the five blocks to my caucus location, on streets that were dryer, if a bit colder, than they had been that morning. I was able to find the place easily, even in the dark, because of the crowds heading toward and lined up outside it. By the time I joined the line, it was spilling out the front doors, down the stairs, around the corner, and a quarter of the way down the block. Even though it meant I waited in line for 45 minutes (a good 25 of them outside), it was really exciting and encouraging to see such an amazing turnout, and to feel so connected to my neighborhood.
Also, were I in the market, it would totally have been the place to pick up guys. Young, local, socially conscious and involved, with their politics in the right place... Gold.
As it was, I ended up between a friendly hippie-type there with his young son and a couple with their one-and-a-half-year old, and had a fun time talking about the neighborhood, the candidates, the turnout, and the Green Party, before filling out a tiny square of paper (which still included Kucinich--so tempting!--and Edwards, among others) and dropping it into a plastic container that looked as though it had been an animal cracker jar in a former life. I didn't stay for the the town hall meeting and caucus; a Turkish friend and neighbor who was there with her (citizen) partner stayed but said it was pretty boring. Another classmate, though, regaled us this morning with tales of her precinct's: she said there had been a motion submitted and passed to impeach Bush (merely symbolic, but inspiring), as well as one for restrooms for the Airport Taxi employees ("Let 'em piss!" cheered one supporter).
Apparently 206,559 Minnesotan Democrats turned out last night, and 62,418 Republicans, which bodes impressively for the general election. (The hippie was explaining to his son at one point that the latter would take place in November; I shivered and thought of how it would be winter then, and for just a split second had to remind myself that it wouldn't actually remain winter in the meantime.)
When we got in the door, a woman was offering homemade chocolate chip cookies from a Tupperware container. "Cookies for Caucusing!" she called, and then, "They're not organic or vegan! Cookies for Caucusing!" I had to laugh: where else but to a congregation of Democrats would one even offer that disclaimer?
Sometimes I love America.
5 comments:
ahhh, that was a great little post. had i known you were heading to such a potential meet (meat?) market, i would have had some cards printed up for you to pass out on my behalf ;-)
You should have been picking up guys, Ceri! Where's your head?
Seriously, I love the part about the cookie lady. That sounds like such an Ithaca thing to say. I'm sure in Ithaca, however, they would have been vegan and organic.
I love that disclaimer as well. So funny.
that cookie thing is so funny. also, have you just recently added your side columns with the "currently reading", etc., or have i just been blind until today? i need to figure out how to do that.
Oooh, the cookie comments are making me hungry!
And the side columns are a couple of weeks old, I think; I ended up setting up a book blog with a feed to the main site.
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