Sunday, November 4, 2007

No one's perfect (my political aspirations)

I have no idea if I am registered to vote. Moreover, I don’t even have the desire to google this question and figure out if/where I am registered.

This is a weighty confession.

I google to solve absolutely everything. Ashley Olsen’s height? Googled (5'1"). Any original Nickelodeon Guts Agro Crags for sale on ebay? Googled (not right now). MC’s jail status? Googled--biweekly (still pending). I am trying to be honest with you (Cara and Julia and whoever may read this in the future). When it comes to politics—local, state, national, international, ALL OF THEM—I know very little, and what’s worse, I don’t really care. It's not that I don't care about people or society or how life's institutions are carried out. I care a lot about these things. And if you would like to discuss gay marriage or abortion, I am not completely dispensable. But Iraq, Iran (!?), Nutterformayor, Hillary vs. Obama, etc...lord, am I ignorant.

And this is going to change. Why exactly is this the year this is going to change, you ask? Because I am out of school. The imposed intellectual reading has now vanished. Without obligatory scholastic opinions, I need to shift this focus (something many of my peers managed to do as early as high school - HOW?). I am going to become decently politically literate.

Need: Knowledge.

I need to be invested. It’s a little late to get invested in the Philadelphia Mayoral race (and I’m 99.9% sure it’s too late to register to vote in Philadelphia by Tuesday, nor do I want to do that because I am hoping really really hard that Philadelphia won’t notice that one week when I paid my citywage tax, and then promptly changed my address back to Elkins Park), but I will be invested by this time next year. Because it’s the big one. And I know that. And I’m going to have opinions right and left (pun obviously intended).

Good night.