The Family That Votes Together…

Well, it has sure been a doozy of a year and, for most of us, saying goodbye to 2020 will not be a hard thing to do. The two most important things I’ve done this year have been to wear a mask, despite how uncomfortable it may be, and to vote. Last week, I did both simultaneously.

On Tuesday afternoon, my husband, my sons, and I walked over to the Joseph Miccio Community Center in Red Hook to cast our ballots, voting early for the first time ever. Surprisingly, there were none of the long lines we had seen on the news. We met some of our neighbors there and were greeted by some extremely pleasant poll workers who thanked us for coming. I, in turn, thanked them. There was a feeling of good will and anticipation at the Miccio Center, even a full week before Election Day. For me, this vote was the most important of my lifetime and that’s why I wanted us all to go together, to vote as a family. It took me all of half a minute to complete my ballot but I have to say that I blackened the oval next to my presidential/vice presidential choices three times just to be on the safe side. I’m surprised I didn’t put a hole in the paper.

As I fed my ballot into the scanner, I said a little prayer, something I have never done while voting. This election, however, is different. Truthfully, I have been praying for four long years. When I was little and my mom took us with her to vote, she always left us outside the voting booth. When she emerged through the curtain and we would ask her who she had voted for, she would answer that “that was private.” I always respected her seriousness and privacy when it came to voting. And while I’m not naming who I voted for last Tuesday, I did vote for decency, honesty, and integrity. I voted for normalcy. I voted for competency. I voted for healing. I voted for the protection of our planet. I voted for a return to humanity and empathy. I voted for someone who will hopefully make our future a little brighter and the dreams of our children a little more attainable. As stated in the Prayer of the Faithful today at Sacred Hearts-St. Stephen Church, I voted “with my conscience for the greater good of the country.” I would hope that everyone will be united in voting with—and for—such positive expectations.

I read in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago that after this election we may be looking forward to a reconstruction period. Reconstruction is usually something I think of as a post-war occurrence. There was reconstruction in the U.S. after the Civil War and reconstruction of Europe and Japan after the World Wars. To think that our country may require reconstruction after a presidential term helps to define what we have been living through these last four years. This pandemic alone may be staggering enough to warrant a reconstruction. I am not sure, however, if everything that is damaged will be able to be “reconstructed” or, perhaps more aptly, be “repaired.”

How do we repair the racial tension; the widespread license to speak out freely with hateful rhetoric; the rise of white supremacy and armed militia; the lack of regard for and belief in hard facts and science; the unwillingness to do a simple thing like wear a mask during a pandemic by huge portions of our country; the damage to our environment; the lack of confidence in our government to work effectively; the deep divisions between neighbors, friends, and family members; the lack of respect, civility, and understanding between roughly two halves of our population? What kind of country has this become that the owners of Macy’s feel the need to board up their Herald Square windows in anticipation of election results? I have no real answers to these questions, but I do have hope that with the right leadership we can start slowly moving in the right direction, even if it means doing so by taking baby steps.

I guess I will keep hoping and praying for good election results, an end to, or at the very least a containment of, this coronavirus, and better days in general. After we voted, we posed for a photo while wearing our “I Voted Early” stickers. I can’t explain how much that little sticker means to me and how proud I felt to wear it right above my heart. And the family that votes together also eats together so before returning home, my husband took us out for an outdoor dinner at Frankie’s 457. It was the first time we had all eaten out together since before the pandemic. I wouldn’t call it a celebratory meal, but a hopeful one. As the incomparable First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Hope is the most neglected word in our language.” I will be trying my hardest to keep hope alive for my family and for all our families.