My Thanksgiving was uneventful.
Uneventful in that I was confined to bed for the 12 hours before to the 12 hours after Thanksgiving with the quick striking flu (the flu from which we could not get immunized this year). I did manage to make it up and remain vertical for a couple hours to go to my aunt and uncle's house with Dad, who drove up from Kansas, for a couple bites of a Thanksgiving meal. But that was short lived.
However, I managed to sleep my way through most of the first half of the extended weekend, wake up in time for my Friday night performance and not pass out for the three hours of Sondheim melodious and murderous merrymaking. A slow Saturday (with preventative care nap thrown in). And now I seem to be much better.
I would have preferred to enjoy a sleepy Thanksgiving from the traditional All-American source: overeating/football watching (yes, I would have even endured the football watching to avoid the flu/foodless fatigue).
Hope everyone else's Thanksgivings were better than mine.
The second week of Sweeney Todd is over and I am finally feeling a little rested. After closing The Father and almost immediately going into tech for Sweeney, I can say that I don't think I ever want to schedule my shows that close together again.
But then again, it was nice to not have that downtime of seemingly purposeless inactivity that invariably comes with the closing of a show.
Next up: The Gondoliers with The Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company.
Eleventh hour of the Eleventh day of the Eleventh month
Was to be an everlasting peace.
Veterans' Day
Remembrance Day
Armistice Day
President Wilson said:
To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nation.
I remember hearing a couple years ago a rationale for returning to calling today Armistice Day.
"Remembrance Day" places the focus on those who died during war and "Veterans' Day" places the focus on the wartime work and service.
"Armistice Day", however, instills in us that ideal and the goal given to us and fought for by those who we can only remember as well as those who lived and continue to work for the peace after declarations are signed, guns silenced, and bombs shelved, always with the renewed hope that we will never need to do it again.
Today also marks the death of a man, a complex man who like all of us was not perfect, but today I want to remember him for his efforts which were honored in 1994, alongside Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. Yasser Arafat worked for an armistice in his homeland.
In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. But if the enemy incline toward peace, do thou also incline toward peace, and trust in God.
[...]
Your Majesties, ladies and gentlemen, I emphasize to you that we will discover ourselves through peace more than we did through confrontation and conflict. I am certain that Israelis will find themselves through peace more than they did in war.
Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, and good will toward men.-Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
So today, on this Armistice Day, whether at the eleventh hour, the twelfth hour, a couple hours, all day, or just for a moment, please remember the peace that our veterans fought for in 1918, in 1945, in 1953, in 1975, in 1991 and every day up to the present, as working for peace does not end when the shooting ends.
Well, it looks like the Minnesota Get Out the Vote campaign(s) were successful. We had the highest voter turn out in the country!
(Edit: And here is a more official count of the voter turnout in Minnesota. Note that the over 100% in some counties is because of same day voter registration laws in Minnesota. The "Total Number Registered Voters" listed is the number of voters registered before the polls opened.)
And even nation wide, the percentage of voter turnout was the highest in four decades!
We had an election where both the candidates garnered the highest number of votes in American history. I think that counts as a success for the Get Out the Vote campaigns.
The president had the most number of votes cast for him of any previous candidate. He also had the most number of votes cast against him of any previous candidate.
Of course this also means that 23% of eligible Minnesotan voters and 40% of eligible US voters still didn't feel motivated enough by these two candidates to cast a ballot (or were turned away from the polls). GOTV campaigns can only do so much. Is this a question of apathetic voters? Or uninspiring candidates? Or is this the result of the Electoral College system where people in non-battleground states don't have an incentive to cast votes? Or do we just come to accept that Americans will always allow around half of one half of the eligible voters to decide their government?
Quick notes about my November 2.
Voted in the morning.
Grabbed brunch at my favorite restaurant/bar/bowling alley around the corner from my polling place.
Volunteered at a non-partisan Get Out the Vote campaign.
Witnessed the best and worst of the American voter mentality.
More on that last point.
We went out in a group of three, knocking on doors, urging people to vote and giving information as to where the polling place is and what counts as proper ID for same-day voter registration. Most people were not home, so we left a flier with the information. We started out going to the doors as a group. But as the afternoon went on, we started covering more ground by dividing up on alternate doors/alternate sides of the street. As I approached one of my fellow volunteers to check in, she had just knocked on a door.
Now, before I explain what happened next, I must give some background. She is a young Muslim woman, who decided to wear a headscarf that day, because she thought that since we were going into a neighborhood with a high Somali Muslim population, dressing conservatively would be less offensive to potential voters, and make our work easier. Unfortunately, this was not really the case.
As I reached the gate outside house, she knocked on the door. I could hear from the sidewalk:
"Hello, we are with---
"WE DON'T VOTE FOR MUSLIMS!"
And the door was slammed in her face.
Slamming the door is disheartening, but religiously motivated hate coupled with a door slam is terrifying. We tried to carry on for a while. She tried to laugh off the encounter, but we were all shaken and felt less safe than when we started.
We took a break and recounted out encounter to the volunteer coordinators. This helped to get over the shock, and emotions started to show through the facade of laughing it off.
We did not let this one house deter us. We went back out and finished the route. And I am glad we did. (Unfortunately, we were only two, because the woman who had faced the comment had to go to work)
We only had positive encounters on the second half of our route. Every one we talked to had already voted, but one woman thanked us for providing information to people in the neighborhood and asked us some questions. She wanted to bring her sister to vote, but the sister didn't live in the same precinct. We talked to her for a while, giving her information about where to call to find her sister's polling place, which she transmitted into her cell phone. She had stopped her phone conversation with her sister to talk to two random people about voting! And then helped her sister find the information she needed!
That felt like I was actually making a difference in someone's life. Helping people to do their civic duty. And she thanked us!
The volunteer day started with the singing of the national anthem. All of us. No one knew the political persuasion of anyone else. Singing the national anthem in a small gym in an inner city neighborhood. With a flag rigged up over one iron ceiling beam. All of these people here to work on making sure that everyone could participate in the American election process, irregardless of political affiliation. Seeing all of these people who were only connected in that they all shared the same belief in voting. By "what so proudly we hailed", I was already tearing up. And by "broad stripes and bright stars" I could only squeak out notes between chokes of emotion.
Vote.
Because we are all in this together.
The past week has been fairly stressful. No one thing has been really bad, but lots of little things adding up to cut my fuse even shorter with each subsequent irritant, exasperating annoyance, and frustrating problem which shouldn't even be my responsibility to fix.
So I apologize for the silence on this blog over the past couple weeks, but I have nothing of note (or proper for posting in a public forum) to say.
Guess all I can say is, "Get out and vote".
At this point I am making a non-partisan plea. Just please educate yourself about the candidates, make an informed decision, and vote!
If you can, volunteer to help others get to their polling places. I'm volunteering at a non-partisan (ie, they aren't picking just houses likely to go to one candidate or the other) get out the vote campaign. Of course I have my own political thoughts on this election, but more important to me right now is that neither side pulls dirty tricks (legal or otherwise) to get their guy selected.