One more day

DSC_0093, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

9:44 a.m. CST – Somewhere over Colorado

The fields below me look like Tetris gone strange. Or maybe a series of art deco boxes stacked on top of each other. I am flying over the high plains of Colorado and the weird patterns of agriculture that exist there. I have two more days with the Rock the Vote road trip crew, both of them in Denver. The bus drove from Minneapolis and will meet us when we land. The Beastie Boys will perform at the Filmore tonight and then election day is tomorrow.

Newspapers are all writing their ‘this election is terribly significant’ article and even the long-procrastinating papers have issued their endorsements. The candidates are pushing themselves to exhaustion and their young staffers are pushing themselves towards total nervous breakdown. It’s the fourth quarter, the ninth inning, the tenth frame, or the shot on the eight ball. You can basically choose your favorite sports-related cliche.

The crew just told us that electronics need to be extinguished in preparation for landing.

4:38 p.m. MST – Denver

After 52 days on the road, the final bus tour concert is tonight and the vote is tomorrow. This afternoon the gang on the bus passed out voting information fliers on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The atmosphere was explosively political. In one section of sidewalk, I saw a preacher waving a bible and preaching the evils of abortion, two neo-hippies arguing with a kid claiming Obama is a communist, a group of Obama supporters doing their best to ignore the argument, and several passersby who were trying a little too hard to pretend they weren’t listening to the various political advocates around them.

Personally, I like a good political fight. I am that one of your friends who will really not shut up if you are out for a drink and someone brings up US government policy. I have been told that I am a little difficult to deal with at such times. Sometimes, I have - not altogether unfairly - been called a name rhyming with gas bowl.

This trip requires me to be devoutly non-partisan, so I have avoided such arguments. But I got to argue vicariously this afternoon. It was lovely. Even if you don’t enjoy the barbs and strained-civility of a political argument, it’s a sure sign of social health to see a full campus of young people fighting about the right direction for the country. And you’d think it’s a sign that these young people will put their vote where their mouth is. No one is sure what will happen tomorrow, but I’m predicting extraordinary young voter turnout and the bus tour crew is doing it’s best to make sure that prediction comes true.

One more day.

--Nick Brown