2008 Caucus-- A lot like the 1600's

I attended my caucus Tuesday night. Of course I wanted to cast my vote, but I also wanted to present a resolution for increased funding for Alzheimer’s disease research. Maybe the government keeps forgetting…

America is great. We have gadgets and gizmos the size of rice and yet, at our caucus we were greeted by a man inching into his 90’s who ripped small bits of green paper (pilfered from the high school English room supply drawer?) and handed them to each of us. We wrote down who we wanted and he put our votes into an envelope, which he held in his other hand.

A substantial sneeze would have sent that envelope up in the air like a Roman candle. We would have all jumped to help clean up, snatched the candidate votes we didn’t want and shoved them in our pocket. I was waiting for that to happen. The guy had a cold.

The entire event was very secure and technical. At this level, hanging chads would have been a relief. It simultaneously worried and amused me.

The caucus started and we were called on the take positions. Asking us to do the downward facing dog would have been more productive. Not a lot of hands shot up. Luckily one of the neighborhood boys volunteered to lead the rest of the meeting. I think he was 11.

It was a great turnout. Someone even brought muffins, which says a lot about my district. I think the job got done.

I hope the one with the most votes won.