And Now, A Word From My Mother

My mother’s encounter with the election seems to occuring through the celebrity exhortations to vote. That’s what happens to people with landlines and listed phone numbers. She emailed me this perspective from the Boomer Generation today.

A young woman doing telephone solicitation for NOW called and painstakingly explained to me how many women died before abortions became legal. Wow, did I feel old. How odd. Perhaps, she being young, assumed everyone was young and I was too young to remember when people got abortions secretly, or maybe she just had a script she needed to cover bit by bit if I didn’t offer money. The next day I came home and there was a message on the answering maching from the actor Ed Harris explaining about Supreme Court justices being appointed by the next president and women’s right to choose being on the line and how I needed to vote. I was driving home from the Bronx on Monday and I heard a tape of PuffDaddy (or however you spell it) explaining that it’s a matter of life or death for young people of color to vote in this election and how the politicians count on them not voting. I really hope that Ed Harris, Bruce Springsteen, PuffDaddy, the young woman from NOW and everyone else makes a difference next week. Even gaunt Clinton, who looks like he’s aged a few years in a few months, inspired hope on the front page of the Times. I am truly beginning to understand how following sports provides relief and belief in the seemingly impossible. I’m pretty jaded, but have to admit, if that fucking son of a bitch wins again, I will be very depressed.