Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Doing The Right Thing

From an email sent to Ben Smith of Politico:

I voted today. I'm a 33 year old, white, criminal defense lawyer in southwest Kansas. The early voting is at the courthouse. I arrive to find 12 old white people occupying all the voting machines. I wait. A machine opens up. The 80 something white male who had been using the machine is now up at the front table asking if he can vote again. The lady running the table says "no, one person, one vote." He replies, "well, I just want to make sure we don't have some terrorist running the country."

This obviously catches my attention so I look at the old man. Our eyes meet. He points a bony finger at me and says, "Don't let it happen." Thinking this old man could one day kill someone and need my services, I don't say anything and proceed to vote.

As I'm leaving the voting room, the young black janitor is in the hallway in front of the room with his cleaning cart. "Did you do the right thing?" He asks me. "You know it." I say and we exchange a terrorist fist jab.

No comments: