Is it time to write or time to talk to a friend? Obviously, I decided it was time to write. I missed writing yesterday when this would have been timelier. I have been complaining that I didn’t get my absentee ballot that I requested back in May. When I called the Board of Elections I was told that it had been processed back in May so I should have received it. They couldn’t do anything about it there, but I should call the local BOE to find how to proceed. I wasn’t sure that I would even be able to vote in person they had it on record that I was sent an absentee ballot. When I called the specific person at the Bronx BOE I got a voicemail saying that she wasn’t in but would get back to me as soon as she received the message. She didn’t get back that day or the next. I called again; she didn’t get back to me. As the election is on the 23rd I was getting nervous. I called yesterday morning and got the same voicemail. While all this was going on I was getting frustrated by UPS. I wanted to return a watch I bought on Amazon and my printer is on the fritz and I couldn’t print the address label. They were supposed to bring me an address label and pick up the package. Instead they just put the label under my door. I called and was told they’d come back the next day to get it. They didn’t nor the next day or the next. I finally realized that I could use the label they gave and go to a UPS drop-off. Without the label I would have to go to a UPS store and there are none in the Bronx. So yesterday I walked over to the store on the other side of Mosholu parkway and dropped it off. It was easy and I had no physical contact with anyone though one person working there was not wearing a mask over his mouth and nose. On his chin does not count. On the way there I looked in my mailbox and what was there? My absentee ballot! Good thing I stopped to check as that’s when I realized I didn’t have a mask on. I was on the phone with Katrina the whole time I was getting ready. That led to another idiot story. I was on the phone as I was getting dressed. I was ready to leave and grabbed my keys off my night table, but my wallet wasn’t there. I looked all over the house, every room it could be in, and on the floor in case I dropped it, and couldn’t find it. I accused Katrina of eating it. Katrina always eats my things, at least she tells me she does when I can’t find something. I was exasperated and anxious and patted myself down, and discovered it was in my pocket. I don’t know if I put it in my pocket before my keys and forgot about it or if perhaps I left it in the pants pocket when I last took them off. Either way, I’m an idiot.
Last night I filled out my ballot and went to drop it down the mail chute right outside my door. It was too big! That meant finding a real mailbox. When I lived in City Island that wasn’t so easy. Here it is. I checked online and found there was one at the end of my block. Today after therapy I walked down there and cast my ballot. It was the first time I have ever voted by mail. I like being a good citizen. I even did some research on the down ballot offices. How do I know which judge to vote for? That ended up being easy. One worked for Legal Aid, in New York they handle the defense of most indigent defendants, what the rest of the world calls public defenders. The other was backed by Ruben Diaz. I just realized I made a terrible mistake. There are two Ruben Diazes in Bronx politics, father, and son. The father is a socially conservative, strongly pro-life minister who compared abortion to the holocaust. That’s who was thinking about. His son is the Bronx Borough President who is good. Oh well, if it were the father that endorsed him I chose right. If it was the son I still like the idea of voting or the anti-establishment candidate who worked for Legal Aid.
For president I pulled the metaphorical lever for Elizabeth Warren. I have supported few candidates as whole-heartedly as her. She would make the best president of all the candidates. Biden has it wrapped up so there was nothing on the line, there was no need for a strategic vote, I could vote my conscience. It felt good filling in the oval by her name. The two major candidates I liked least were Biden and Sanders, the two old white guys. As I march to the beat of a different drummer, they ended up being the two leaders. I will support Biden with all my energy as choosing a president is not about virtue-signaling. The good of the country is at stake, the good of the world. The gap between Trump and Biden is an order of magnitude greater than that between Biden and Warren. Those that don’t see that are looking at a reflection from a funhouse mirror.
Today is Juneteenth, something that has gone from being an odd fact I knew into a holiday of importance. When I first read about it, it was as an interesting piece of trivia, that Blacks in parts of Texas celebrated the end of slavery. What makes it odd was that it wasn’t the date of the Emancipation Proclamation or the passage of the 15th Amendment. It was the date that a horseman arrived in Galveston and announced that the Civil War was over and by the Emancipation Proclamation, the slaves were now free. The proclamation only freed slaves that lived in the states in rebellion and was toothless until they were defeated, and the states came under Union control. It is the date that the slaves in and around Galveston were freed. That’s why it was a local holiday. There was of course a huge celebration that first Juneteenth. It was repeated on the anniversary and became a local tradition, and so it remained for a long time. There is no official national holiday marking the end of slavery so over time it grew to fill that need until now it’s recognized at some level by almost all the states, and now people are discussing celebrating it, and even making it a national holiday. I’m all for it. It is to be celebrated not just by the descendants of slaves but by all Americans. It’s part of cleansing America of one of its original sins, a national baptism. We are by no means clean as a look around America shows, we are still in the process of cleaning, but that’s how things always are. We are not perfect, but we are more perfect than we were. We strive to be yet more perfect in the future. I can get behind that. I can also get behind Juneteenth’s idiosyncratic local origin. It’s as if we celebrated Independence Day on the anniversary of the news of its signing reaching Boston. There were celebrations all through the south when the slaves were liberated but in Galveston, they kept up the tradition of celebrating its anniversary and remembered it for the rest of us.
Wise Madness 