voting, part 3 …

… as a teenager, barely old enough to register: Wanting to express my opinion so badly, I actually went to the county clerk’s office in the court house on my birthday to complete the paperwork and be ready when the next opportunity came along. As a hard-headed, argumentative, oppositional teenager, a person with an abundance of opinions about the way the country should be run. Given the chance- what sort of mess would we have been in had my ignorant self been in charge, right?

Here might be a good place to insert the confession of walking around with a forged driver’s license in order to appear old enough to purchase alcoholic beverages. Without a single nod to scruples, or even the tiniest measure of guilt: changed the year of birth on the paper-and-ink copy of the permit that would prove me of the age to be in the liquor store and buy the beer those under-age patrons were not allowed to purchase. In another century, during the era of hand-printed paper (about the weight of card stock) where the GSP officer who was doing the driving test completed the form. The man in the uniform would fill in the blanks, handing over the small slip of paper to the grinning sixteen year old. No photo attached, nothing laminated, no copy on file, just tuck that little ratty little piece of colored paper to slip into your wallet that would prove you’d done the work to pass the test.

When old enough to register to vote, as a college student, living in dorm space far from the county of residence, I had to get an absentee ballot. Available now for nearly any half-baked reason: or none at all as some states send written ballots in the mail to every registered voter who is a resident. In Colorado, for instance, where I have realtives – who report everyone who is is a registered with the state to has received a printed ballot. In addition to being able to appear on election day with proper documentation and be allowed to vote.

Not so easy for Tennessee voters who have to meet criteria like being over a certain age, living out of state, being in the military, handicapped/disabled or one of several other claims that would disallow attendance on election day. Curious now, all these years later, to know how many of the eighteen and nineteen year old students far from home actually cared enough to request and return the absentee ballot.

That paper ballot received as a student in middle GA at a small community college, also required a signature by a witness to confirm the vote was done by the person it was addressed to. It seems like the ‘official’ who had to sign was maybe the comptroller? A person with some degree of authority, for sure.

The ballot, for a once-every-four-years general election was huge: bigger than a double page spread of the average newspaper. Filled with candidates for local office, as well as county-wide, state and national positions. Wishing now for precise measurements, but really having no frame of reference for the size of the paper the detailed options of candidates was printed on, only that it was so being quite large. It might have been the poor-quality newsprint found in actual newspapers, something that is getting scarcer by the day: it’s all on line, provided by the internet, or on electronic devices. With that sheet of printed paper fully opened, completely unfolded, it seems like the size was a wide as my arms could reach – and now: on a little tablet for the voter to easily access, make a decision and put a slip of paper in a slot as they walk out the door, back into the world.

voting, part 2 …

One hundred percent of my choices: Females running for office at local, state level.

… should be a ‘rite of passage’, although it seems like many who are eligible are not interested, shirk, don’t care about what goes on enough to register and express an opinion when the opportunity arises. Which is interesting as there are so many ways, opportunities for people to get the relatively small task accomplished: it only has to be done once and the voter is established until there is a change of residence.

You have to be a citizen: proof would be a government issued photo Id, or that certificate you would be handed when you swear and are naturalized, giving up your citizenship of another country. You also have to be a resident of the state in which you are attempting to register: GA, TN, FL -which that government issued ID would also prove by having your address along with name, birth-date, etc. And you have to be eighteen years old.

Lots of options for getting oneself on the eligible voter list: You can register when you go to the DMV and get a driver’s license. You can register at your local library. You can register on line. You can register at the County Clerk’s office in the courthouse. You can register at the Health Department. You can register with the Human Services Department, or the Department of Mental Health. You can register at Public Safety, or at the Veteran’s Affairs office. You can actually pick up the form you need to complete when you are still in the courthouse after swearing your allegiance to the US: complete and mail it in to the county clerk’s office, and receive the little card that proves you are now officially a registered voter.

Remembering where I was when hearing President John Kennedy had been killed in Dallas Texas, causing vice-president Lyndon Johnson to step into that position. When Johnson was elected, I was not old enough to register. Which seems fitting- as all the men (WASP) who have been there in the white house since have not been qualified to judge a pie-eating contest. Although some have appeared corpulent enough to have been participants….

voting …

It is safe to assume the American Civil Liberties Union paid for the air time to display this banner across the metro Atlanta area.

… where the citizens express their opinions. This banner was seen in the sky over downtown Decatur on Friday, Oct.30.

Overheard a couple of people talking today about voting next week – discussing the fact that historically the option to vote prior to the actual election day in November was not a choice. You either requested an absentee ballot, or showed up on election day.. One of the pair had received an absentee ballot and actually returned it, hoping it would be received in time for the vote to be included in the totals. The other was planning to go someplace nearby, often a community center or a church that will open a fellowship hall to the public, for twelve hours to be used as a polling place.

Listening to the talk about going to vote next week, on Election Day, caused some reflection about the first time I voted in a national election. Most high school students by the time they are ready to graduate are of the age to register to vote. That does not mean they will do it: No guarantee they will take their ID and go to register to be eligible for casting a ballot in local, state, national elections – just that they are eligible, and need to take that first step.

If you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain, right?

It is more than likely my desire to become a registered voter was influenced by seeing the value my parents and grandparents put on exercising their rights at the polls. When just a small kid, there was an awareness that both of my parents were involved in the process. My mom went to the courthouse, expecting to be there at the central polling place for the county for twelve hours. From the time the doors opened for the first voter at 7 am, until the last voter had the door closed and locked behind them at 7 pm.

When those doors were closed behind the last voter in line, and the ballots secured: my dad would hand off children to my mom who went home after an exhausting day on that hard marble floor. He would, along with several other citizens would start the process of counting votes that had been deposited in the ballot box over the past twelve hours. Boxes would also be delivered from a number of precincts across the geography of the county, most were located in small country churches. Buildings that remained open for those hours when people who lived out in rural areas on farms would stop their work and take the time to go and cast a ballot. Each one counted, tallied, added together, with results reported to the capitol in Atlanta, where statewide numbers were totaled.

did not see …

… the latest version of the footwear that is universally agreed upon as hideous: the newest crocs can be purchased already decorated with girl-y flowers! There are all kinds of additional trim that has been designed to add on to those holes across the front: cartoon characters, plastic jewels for adding color and sparkle, personalized photos of family, pets, any subject of your choice. But recently seen in the internet: these with the colorful posies already applied, ready to open the box and hit the streets!

We thought the floral design was printed on – but it looks so much like actual embroidery, it’s hard to say: it almost appears that part that has the specialty detail added is a separate piece that was sewn on. More cushy on the inside, on the top of your foot as well. It is hard to believe there are people who work in jobs that require hours of being up-right who have the tolerance to wear them all day – but who knows?

You will also notice, the shoe appears to be more waterproof than the older, standard model: no perforations around the edge of the sole. Good for keeping socks dry, but not so great for people who want ventilation, those who go wading or wear them at the river/beach. For some, it might just be standard, daily foot-wear. For others, with a long history of employment that requires being vertical for hours: there just is not the support feet, ankles, legs, muscles, tendons, ligaments need to maintain health.

book review: “Code Name: Sapphire”…

… by Pam Jenoff. Jenoff is an attorney, a law professor teaching at Rutgers University. Living in New Jersey with family, she finds time to write, as an author of a number of best-sellers of historical fiction. Judging from the titles of other books she has published, many have to do with events during the WWII era in Europe. It seems reasonable to think that once you start doing the research, digging into events recently declassified and made available for public perusal, there are any number of directions a story could take.

The two main characters are Hannah and her cousin Lily. They are both Jews, living in Europe in 1942. You see what’s coming, right? Terrible terrible things that happen to millions of innocents due to the demands of a psychopath who wants to take over all of Europe. Hannah is from Germany, after loosing all her family, hoping for asylum in America. The US refuses to have the boat come into port, it is diverted to Cuba, then sent back to Europe. Hannah cables her cousin, whom she has known since childhood, to meet her when she disembarks in Belgium.

Lily is a native of Belgium, feels safe from the Nazis, a mother of a young child, wife of a beloved medical professional. The Nazis slowly put more pressure on civilians, citizens of Belgium, forcing Lily’s husband to quit his practice. Hannah begins to volunteer as a Resistance worker after a chance encounter with Mateo, then meeting his sister Micheline, the head of a cell. Micheline’s code name as the organizer of the group of Resistance workers is ‘Sapphire’, thus the title of the book.

Hannah gets entangled in a relationship with Mateo, only to later discover her cousin Lily knows him from a past relationship. Plot has twists and turns as the Resistance plots to help downed airmen escape, travel across France to freedom in Spain. Germans make more demands, limit movement, as the civilians and especially Jews are confined, deported, taken to work camps.

The book is a set of CD’s at found at the library, although available in print. It is a well written story, with much detail about life in dire circumstances, horrors of work camps, deprivation, brutality of Germans. The author has other books in print that focus on this era, including “The Orphan’s Tale”. Having worked in the Pentagon, and served as a diplomat with the State Department, she has devoted time to reading and researching life in Europe during the WW II era.

book review: “The First Eagle”…

… by Tony Hillerman. This author, deceased, (1925-2008) wrote a number of books that follow the same characters, a pair of law enforcement workers who live in the southwest US. The copyright for this title printed inside the front coveris1998. The number of books listed here by Hillerman numbers twenty, although there are likely more from his prolific pen over the years. Googling indicates the total is near thirty, including some non-fiction, compilations and books for youngsters.

There is a large population of Indigenous people in this area, where they live on property set aside as reservations for the Native Americans. As usual, the US government provided these tribes Hopi, Navajo and others with land that is practically useless: rocky, mountainous, infertile, dry sandy desert, unsuitable for growing crops or sustaining livestock. Though the terrain is harsh, often foreboding, the natives acclimated to lack of rain, stony landscape, desert conditions, they carry on with traditional ways as they have done for centuries.

Details about the land, people, life-styles demonstrate the authors’ knowledge and familiarity with the indigenous people: relationships and genealogy, acknowledged to keep families intact. Influences of ancestors, historical oral traditions passed from one generation to the next as the elders teach and train younger tribal members. Prayers and blessings observed by the traditionalists with the goal of maintaing their folk-ways and ceremonies handed down over the centuries.

The geography of the landscape with hundreds of miles of barren lands, mesas and mountains at the edge of the horizon, rough unpaved roads leading to remote homes, hogans, abandoned farm/ranch land prove the author’s love for the raw land and inhabitants.The retired Joe Leaphorn, and the acting Lt Jim Chee take on another in a series of challenges. Traveling to remote trading posts, abandoned homesteads, climbing rocky cliff faces, following nearly invisible tracks across the rocky landscape in search for evidence.

Actually not the first time I read this book. But reuniting with the main characters was like rejoining old friends. I might not have read all his books, especially the few published as non-fiction, but think all ones with the pair of law enforcement men are familiar enough to be able to guess the outcome by the time I would get half way in.

book review: “Catch Me If You Can”…

… by international scoundrel and thief Frank Abagnale, with the assistance of Stan Redding. The book was copyrighted in 1998, optioned to become a movie and languished for years before actually becoming a screenplay, with Tom Hanks cast as the FBI Agent tasked with the capture of the as the pursuer of the blatant impersonator. Cast as the imposter, ner-do-well was Leonardo di Caprio as the man who became known internationally as one of the most daring con men in modern times.

Abagnale was a high school drop-out. His parents separated, he chose to live with his dad,while siblings stayed with their mother. Starting down the slippery slope when using a gas credit card of his father, to fund his outlandish life-style, he assured his dad he would pay the debt. But found a life-style of excess to be so tempting, he became addicted to luxury, always having cash on hand, beautiful women to woo and escort, living in style in New York City, unable to reign in his desires.

Surprising to discover how easy one might slip into another dimension, impersonating people with education, skills and experience he had no knowledge of: becoming a Pan Am co-pilot, with all the benefits that accompany such a position of prestige. He hitched rides across the globe, endeared himself to other employees, took advantage of their payroll with bogus, doctored payroll checks. Eventually having checks printed for his personal use, taking them to banks, wearing the uniform of the pilot, letting people assume he was a pilot. Kiting checks across the US and Europe, bankrolling a lifestyle he could never afford. The true definition of ‘paper hanger’, as he used the stolen uniform, false identification to enjoy the life of wealth in exotic locales across three continents.

The book is about the size of a paperback,less that three hundred pages.

At the end of the publication, there are several pages of questions posed to the author, with his responses. If you believe what is printed, you will find him repentant, having mended his wayward behavior and happily settled into a family lifestyle. Hard to believe someone who spent years jet-setting from Miami to the Mediterranean and partying with the beautiful young airline employees who traveled the skies would be content as a husband and dad. Although he was recruited to work with the Treasury Dept., and also an in-demand public speaker, for him to settle into a life of raising a family some where in the mid-west does seem like a stretch of the imagination. Abagnale is also the founder of a secure documents company based on the east coast.

book review: “N is for Noose”…

… by Sue Grafton, inventor of Kinsey Millhone, fictitious private investigator. Grafton hit upon the idea of using the sequential letters of the alphabet to generate the titles of the numerous books written with the lead character living in southern California, getting herself into various scrapes in the course of her employment. After becoming an orphan at age five when her parents were killed in an auto accident, and being raised by a no-nonsense aunt, Millhone applies for training to become a police officer. Eventually disillusioned, and after a short stint of working for an insurance company as an investigator, Millhone decides to become self-employed, developing skills to work as a PI after fulfilling licensing requirements.

Living in the fictitious town of Santa Teresa near the Pacific coast, Millhone rents a small apartment from a friend, who is a retired baker. Currently, she has taken an assignment working for a woman whose husband, in law enforcement, recently died. In a small remote town up in the mountains, miles from her comfortable space and friendly faces. Where she is a stranger, and all the townspeople are suspicious of an interloper. The wife is not satisfied with the official autopsy/claim his death was ‘natural’ and feels there must be details she insists upon knowing. The plot thickens when the townspeople refuse to share information as Millhone asks questions, reveal personal data about the dead man and circumstances surrounding his last days.

Grafton writes in a way that provides small details guaranteed to leave the reader with a feeling of being ‘unsettled’, dark overcast days, slick icy roads, being followed by questionable vehicles, breaking-and-entering in Millhone’s personal space, cold icy winds and spitting snowflakes. Little things that make the reader look over a shoulder, anxiously wanting to pull a collar up high around the neck for warmth, protection, safety. Creepers who follow along the street at a slow rate, keeping a close watch, but not near enough to identify…

Concerned for her own safety, and nagging paranoia about the effects those people who seemed to be protected by law enforcement could have on others. She is accosted in her motel room, leaving little doubt she is being watched and warned, with the ones that should be willing to protect seemingly doubtful of her motives. Attempting to gain the support of the police, they seem to close ranks and be unwilling to provide the support needed to resolve the problem.

The reference to ‘noose’ in the plot:how two men were killed, found in a remote wooded area with ropes around their necks, the other end tied to a rock that was thrown over a tree branch, causing the victims to strangle.

book review: “Silence”…

… by Sue Grafton. The author of the ‘alphabet’ series, a set of 27 books, all identified by the sequential letters of the alphabet as the author assembled the story line for her plot. With the lead character a fictitious female private who lives in the fictitious town on Santa Teresa in southern California. After working with law enforcement for several years, then as an investigator for an insurance company, Kinsey Millhone chooses to go into business for herself. Fulfilling the requirements to become a PI, fully licensed and independent.

The main character, consistently present through out the series is Kinsey Millhone, self-employed as a private investigator. Living in a fictitious town in southern California:close enough to the Pacific that she can go for three mile run along the beach front. With fictitious neighbors, friends, geography and a few truisms thrown in to anchor the stories. Millhone’s parents died when she was a small child, causing her to be the ward of an unmarried aunt. After a aw enforcement, and working an investigator for an insurance company, she apprentices herself to qualify as PI.

In the “S” book, she is hired to investigate the disappearance of a woman, Violet, who vanished decades ago. Talking to family, friends, neighbors, police she becomes convinced of foul play. Violet’s daughter, seeking closure, struggles with the idea that she was abandoned, although the title of the book comes from the idea that the mother just ran off, simply vanished, leaving no trace, no note, never making an effort to reconnect, after being gifted a new automobile. The unlikely discovery of where that vehicle might be found leads to someone thinking Millhone needs to be silenced as well….