My neighborhood in Nashville is sometimes referred to as “the Little U.N.” because it so diversified. It’s something I’ve taken pride in and enjoyed. One supermarket has signs in seven languages – and I can’t read any of them!
We have a large Arab population here and I wasn’t surprised when I found out that Iraqi ex-patriots are going to be voting in my neighborhood. Then I learned that they were coming from all over the Southeast to my little corner of the world.
Amazingly, they will have to make two trips. The first is to register and the second is to actually cast the vote on January 30. It will be interesting to see how many turn out.
I had planned to take photos of the historic event until I remembered that I will be out of town for my mother’s 92nd birthday. (That’s not the sort of thing one misses either.)
Then my husband drove by one of the polling places which is two blocks away from our house. The barricades have gone up. This suggested a scenario that had not occured to me:
Coming to a block near you: the Iraqi War.
It was only two months ago that we grumbled about the possibility of having to stand in line for a couple of hours at the library to vote. As it turned out, we waited less than fifteen minutes. We had the convenience of choosing one of several days to place our votes. This was the first time my husband had cared enough to vote, but registration had been a snap.
I think that every Iraqi who shows up to vote on January 30 – whether it’s here in Nashville or in an Iraqi village – has more courage than I could muster.
Would you vote if you had to travel several hundred miles twice and/or possibly put your life in jeopardy?
I’m guessing that there are barricades around the polling places, to deter/prevent car bombs. Jersey barricades, and the like. You’ll see them in front of many federal buildings these days.
Sorry if I didn’t make it clear that the barriers are to protect those who are voting from car bombs and the like.
ruadh, your correction on expatriates is appreciated. I’m a terrible speller and that is particularly humiliating for a retired English teacher. I had no idea that the other spelling was wrong. Still learning. Thanks for fighting my ignorance. (I think that I remembered that the verb form was spelled expatriated. I don’t know why I didn’t put the two together.)
I’m still curious about how many Dopers would vote under these circumstances.
I *hope" would vote under those circumstances. I haven’t heard of barricades being put up around here for this purpose. Not sure what, if anything, that indicates.
Well, my friend, if you’ve been around for 4000+ posts and don’t know an ironic jest when you see one (especially when it’s accompanied by a smiley face), then i pity you.
If you had read even two or three posts that i have made in political threads here over the past few years, you’d know how silly it is to suggest that i’m calling those Iraqis traitors.
And if you had stopped to think for more than three seconds, you would have realized that my post was nothing more than a grammatical pun.
ex-patriots = quislings
Get it? Get it? ex, i.e., former patriot. So, if you’re no longer a patriot, you must be…
Oh, i give up.
I swear, it’s times like this when i understand conservatives’ complaints about liberal offenderati.
You didn’t read what I posted, did you? I said “…not even in jest.”
Still not cool.
If you’d been paying attention yourself, you’d know that I am not one of the offenderati, and I am far from liberal. If you managed to offend me, you’ve gone rather far.
Nice, you’re a real piece of work pal. She’s proud of our ethnic diversity, not the fact she doesn’t happen to know every language in the world, genius.
Anyway, as to the OP, I guess it’s impossible for me to truly imagine what this must be like for the Iraqis voting for the first time. However, I certainly would vote. I wouldn’t fear any potential violence here in the US, and the distance involved - hell, I’ve driven a hell of a lot further for things much less important.
And if you’d actually read what i wrote, and read the post to which i was responding, you’d understand that my post was merely about Zoe’s grammatical faux pas, and was intended to be in jest on that score.
It was not designed to say anything at all about the people being discussed in the OP. It was nothing more than a minor hijack to make a joke about usage.
The fact that it offended you actually seems to say less about your political persuasion than about your level of reading comprehension.
Would it assuage your self-righeous indignation if i stated, clearly and unequivocally, that i harbor no ill-will at all towards the Iraqis in question, i do not consider them to be anything other than good people trying to participate in the democratic process, and that i certainly don’t consider them traitors? Yes? Good!
Now, aren’t there some other windmills out there for you to tilt at?
I’m surprised–I did not know that Nashville was so diverse, or that people would be voting in foreign elections there. What are the qualifications for an Iraqi-American to vote in the Iraqi elections, I wonder?
If I sensed that someone was trying to prevent me from voting, through threats of violence or otherwise, I’d be damn certain to do whatever it took in order to vote.
If it was mearly a huge inconvenience like driving a couple of hundred miles twice to vote, I’d probably skip it if I couldn’t mail it in.
Sounds screwed up, but that’s just me. Besides: “Death by Misadventure” looks so cool on a coroner’s report.
