Oh, well, since my daughter insists that because she blogged today, I must, I will.

To the best of my knowledge, the oldest living member of my family is my mother’s older brother, Bud, who lives in Virginia. He called to tell my Mom a story about my grandfather.

Back when, Mississippi had a poll tax of $2.00. It was meant to keep out the riff raff, especially the “colored” riff raff.

But, my grandfather was quite poor. He was a plumber (Andy and not Joe) and had a passell of kids. He didn’t have the $2.00 to be able to vote.

So, he made an arrangement. He worked an entire day for the county commissioners to earn $2.00 so he could vote.

After that, he never missed a vote.

Bud recalled that people would pass “Pop” in the streets of Laurel, MS, and ask if he “voted right”. He always said yes, but he told his oldest son that as long as you voted, you voted “right”.

Today, I voted about 10 a.m. and the line was fairly long, maybe 100 people. There was a very high number for that early in the day for my precinct, 1488 was my number and most presidential election years, I would vote at 10 a.m. and be about 450, so about 3X “normal” turnout. I saw many more younger voters than normally. I saw that my mother had voted before I got there, which is pretty much the norm, and I dutifully cancelled out her vote as is also pretty much the norm.

Tonight, I’ll join a group of my friends at an election watch party. Pretty unusual — normally, I’m about the only one politically motivated enough to stay up just to watch election returns, even among the high educated, issue oriented crowd I run with.

Whatever the outcome tonight, it would please me if 130 million Americans went to the polls, a greatly enlarged electorate from 4 years ago.

If you don’t vote, don’t bitch — you didn’t earn the right.

God Bless America.

We really are the land of the free, a beacon to the world.

I hope we act like it today.

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