Memoirous

Readers of this blog, both of you, know that I worked the polls in Chicago for 20 years. By mistake I signed up to do the same here in Michigan . (I thought I was registering to vote.) After the last major presidential election poll workers and officials have come under attack and increased scrutiny. Listen, no system is perfect—that’s how America planned it. We have juries made up of one’s peers, same goes for the folks sitting at the tables at your local polling precinct. Human error is inherit, but that doesn’t mean the system is rigged. I worked an eighteen hour-day and tried my best to make sure everyone was welcome and the process went smoothly. We saw sooo many people. Close to 500 voted—this in addition to those who voted absentee. I was also impressed by the diversity of the electorate. Voters of all backgrounds, age ranges (several first-time voters), and those differently able (a few wheelchairs etc). If anything, it buoys my belief that things do work. That we’re all d...

In the land of the midnight sun, there was a midnight moon, full over Lake Sommen. And, the trees, tall, dark pines, stood out against an indigo sky. In a land of runes and ruins and standing stones, there is a deep faith--and a sense of well-being, in which when two cars approach on a narrow bridge each will wait for the other to go first. In the past there have been pillages and pilgrimages. And now Swedes, on the brink of an election, struggle with questions of who can come to this land of the midnight sun and what might the next generations of Swedes look like.