Who knew the road to the White House had an On-Ramp in Indiana?
Ah, Its Wednesday, The Indiana Primary is over, I thought I would take a minute to post my thoughts about the whole shindig.
I’ve lived in Indiana (or Michiana) my entire life. In my twenty three and a half years I’ve never seen the state as abuzz about a primary or even a national election as it was yesterday and for the last few weeks. Constant TV commercials, people knocking on my door every other day, unsolicited mailings, even old fashion loud speaker vans driving around neighborhoods on
the eve of the election, blaring political messages. Its really quiet a site to see. This sleepy little state, often forgotten except during basketball and race season on national news. News trucks set up camp around downtown Indianapolis yesterday and Hillary set up a HQ at the Murat Theater just North of downtown.
On a side note, I think the last time I was in the Murat was about 6 or 7 years ago to see System Of A Down. Then to watch Hillary take the same stage were SOAD sang about “Fucking The System” and “Beyond the staples center you can see America - with it’s tired poor avenging disgrace - peaceful loving youth against the brutality - of plastic existence” was a bit strange.
Back to the subject at hand. Indiana has not had a race like this one since 1978 or 1962 depending on which party you are talking about. We haven’t seen activism like this in this state in years. We haven’t seen Democratic voter turn out in traditional Republican counties like this in years. We haven’t seen attention like this in years. Will it continue? I already know the campaign offices are closing down or packed up yesterday. The satellite trucks are all packed up and moving onto the next state. The local news has switched off their 24 hour election coverage feeds. But will any of this excitement carry on past last night? Will people still feel this passionately when their vote might not be quiet as loud on a national level? Will they still feel their civic duty to stand up and try and change something or do something for the betterment of mankind? Will they still fight for their convictions? Or will we go back to our sleepy state. Mow our grass, watch some little league baseball, complain about the smell of cow manure as we drive through the country, and go back to being a shoe in Republican state year after year. I hope not. I hope people realize even though we don’t always get as much attention, our vote counts just as much, or rather should count just as much, but I dont want to get on the issue of the electoral college today. Stand up, do something you believe in, vote, empower yourself. Apathy will be the death of our society.