Catching up.

I know everyone already hates me for this, but I was lucky enough to spend the last week in Hawaii with my family. It was wonderful: warm weather, swimming in the ocean and pina coladas by the pool. And since I was there with my parents, I was fed pretty well, lots of eating out at nice restaurants. But now that I'm back in the real world (aka doing homework in rainy Portland) I am so behind! I was able to get some work done in Maui, but weight restrictions on luggage kept me from bringing all my school books (thanks a lot Marketing!) I checked email sporadically, but still have over 50 unread messages in my box (thanks a lot Channel!) And Google Reader is clocking in at 140+ unread items (thanks BGIMGT566sx! Just kidding, I love you guys.) So now I'm desperately trying to catch up.

After watching our assignments on YouTube, I'm really looking forward to tonight's class. The first video I watched, Why Would Anyone Want to Stop You From Voting? was a great example of how I occasionally feel at odds about my position in society. I knew about these voting snafus while they were happening, but I was so far removed from them that it made little impact on me. But if I had been in the middle of it, I would have been enraged! 6 hours in line?! They only had 2 voting booths?! How is that okay?

I remember being in elementary school and having to accompany my parents when they went to the high school to vote. That was in a comfortable, upscale suburb where the wait to vote was max 30 minutes. We drove out there in our minivan after dinner. I was ignorant of it at the time, but now I wonder about another side of the population: a single mom living in the bad part of an urban city, working two jobs and not really having the time or means to get to the voting booth. Or if she has the time, she doesn't have the energy. Getting home to relieve the sitter and feed her kids dinner takes priority.

All of my voting experiences have been easy and hassle free. I don't know if I've even ever had to vote in a booth. I think I've always filled in a ballot that was mailed to me, then dropped it off or mailed it in. I'm not sure I would have been able to wait 6 hours. And then what would happen to my vote? The part of the video that was most powerful to me was the pyramid, showing how voting gets narrower and narrower until only a small part of the population actually has a voice. It's not right.

The videos assigned this week were very effective in stirring that outrage. They distilled the message into a short bite. Now we just need to get more people to see videos like that.