And Now, Politics

My sister lives in New Jersey. (I no longer hold that against her.) Her youngest child is the same age, give or take a week, as my oldest; she has a kid in high school and one in between. Despite our age difference, the physical space between us, and the fact that we only have one child to link our day-to-day experiences, we remain very close. As in, on the phone 4 or 5 times a week close. I love my sisters, both of them, but me and she do the grunt work of living together. We check-in.

She checked-in today. It’s election day, after all, and in our family, casting a vote starts as a right of passage and become as natural – and important – as breathing. In my sister’s district, there were a few piddly seats to be filled, all mostly unchallenged, but there were also a handful of important ballot questions. (Oh, how we love ballot questions!)

She admitted to having researched only two of them beforehand: an open-space initiative (she’s for it) and a stem cell research bill (she’s for that too). The open-space question would preserve undeveloped landscapes in her town. The stem cell bill would allow New Jersey to commit tax payer dollars (and lots of them) to the controversial research (bias coming) that could save countless lives.

She was psyched to fill in those affirmative circles, and since she had time, she figured she would read and digest the other questions and make her decision on the spot.

The third question read (in part) as follows:

"Approval of this amendment concerning the denial of the right to vote would delete the phrase 'idiot or insane person' and replace that phrase with 'person who has been adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting' in describing those persons who shall be denied the right to vote."

My sister told me she read it twice, laughing out loud both times behind the curtain. She is normally the kind of bleeding heart liberal my husband has come to distrust. She said, “I usually vote yes down the line.”

But in this instance, the “idiot” instance, my sister voted no. She voted for the word idiot to stay.

She said, “We’re talking about a cure for diabetes or cancer or MS and quibbling about language at the same time? What the fuck? Yeah, keep “idiot”, keep it.”

I reminded her that if I lived in New Jersey, I could technically sue the state to prove that my own husband has “idiotic” political ideas that are sometimes “insane” and that he shouldn’t be allowed to express them with a vote.

She thought for a minute, and said “Cure for cancer, or your idiot husband? No brainer.”

I love my family.