put up or shut up time

This is it.

The big day.

Election day 2009.

Our chance to make history.

Our chance to march to Selma.

Here in the Dowling-Fortune household, we're starting to get twitchy.

We slept in and rested, but I think we've had just about all of that we can stand. We need to get to campaign headquarters soon or Laura might explode.

I've made my big tracker board thing with all the towns in Hancock and Washington Counties on it so we can write down the results as they come in. I made two dozen cupcakes that are now cooling in anticipation of frosting. And I made lunch, which we are eating. I will shower soon, get dressed, and we'll head out.

Before we return home, the voters in Maine will have decided whether we should be allowed to get married. I expect we'll have enough of the results in before midnight that it will be called one way or the other. That makes my stomach just a little bit sick, to be truthful.

Tonight we'll be watching the results online. I know some of my readers are not here in Maine, so here are some links to Maine television stations so you can follow along if you are so inclined.

WCSH TV Portland

WVII TV Bangor

WABI TV Bangor

WMTW TV Portland

WLBZ TV Bangor

WGME TV Portland

And here is a link to the Bangor Daily News, where all election results are called in by each town clerk. I presume they will be doing some sort of live update thing through the evening.

Bangor Daily News

And here is the link for Maine Public Radio, which I also imagine will be doing some kind of live update thing throughout the evening.

Maine Public Radio

and here is the link for the campaign website, which will also be doing live updates all night:

Protect Maine Equality

And finally, for those of you who are familiar with her, Louise from Pam's House Blend will be live-blogging from the party in the Maine Ballroom at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland. I don't know if everyone can join the live chat or not, but she'll be keeping us all up-to-date on what's going down at the statewide campaign headquarters.

I have no idea if I will be able to write anything later tonight or not. I'll have my laptop at the party, but chances are good that I'll be kinda busy tracking returns and such.

I will report in as soon as I am able. In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed for us. We've all worked awfully hard on this for it to not go our way now.

The next right thing

So I was burned out. Perhaps I still am. I am less inclined today to post something clever and sarcastic and snarky about what the Republithugs are doing/planning/saying/fucking up and more inclined to see what difference I can make in my own world.

When I am jammed up and feeling blocked and paralyzed by fear/anger/frustration/etc., my recovery community tells me that the thing to do is the next right thing. I do not need to win the war today. I just need to do the next right thing in the long list of things that need to get done.

So this is it for me for today. I seem to be out of coherent words with which to rail against the powers that be, so tonight after work, I report myself to the local Democratic party office to volunteer. I'll do what needs doing, be it stuffing envelopes, assembling yard signs, data entry, whatever. They need bodies willing to help, and as far as I can see, that is the next right thing to do.

Volunteering tonight also brings me into better alignment with my own oft-repeated ideas about "put up or shut up." Often I complain that this campaign or that effort is not being run to my satisfaction. I don't help those campaigns, of course, which makes it easy to sit back and criticize. I don't like the person who is in charge of that group, so I don't join, no matter that 99 percent of what happens is of benefit to me or in support of things I support. No, I prefer to fancy myself superior and sit back and judge and be an ass. This year, in this election, there is no room for my ego or my judgment. The people running these things might not be doing it as I would, but so what? They're out there, working their asses off, doing the best they can. I'd say it was a safe bet to think that they do not lie awake nights thinking of new ways to piss me off. They've got far bigger and better things to do. So I suck up my ego and my attitude and offer to help. Even if that means cleaning the office coffeepot. Whatever needs doing. The next right thing.

Blogging is good, talking and making points and speaking the truth are good. But truly, up to this point, what have I done besides run my mouth? Not much. I made a donation once. It wasn't really very big. And I wasn't terribly gracious about it. I have been working lately with a woman who cannot vote (she is a French national, not a US citizen) but who has volunteered more at the local Democratic party office during this one election cycle than I have in years. My lack of effort is not something I am particularly proud of. She seems to care more about the politics of my country than I do. That puts me somewhere in the company of those losers who don't even vote. Ouch. That is not comfortable for me.

So now it is put up or shut up time in my world. It is time for me to do the next right thing, to show up and volunteer, and to put my body where my mouth has been these long months. Time to do the next right thing. Join me?