I realize that an "I voted!" story from Massachusetts isn't all that thrilling in and of itself. Although I prefer to stand in line and participate in the ritual at the polls, I voted absentee at City Hall last night because I'll be spending election day (and the five preceding days) in NH to GOTV. When I casually mentioned that to the clerk, she laughed and said that, from her perspective, it seems about half the town will be in NH on election day. Way to go, Team Obama!
But that's not why I'm writing. I want to share why I voted, why I lingered over my ballot to savor the Obama-Biden line, and why I cried at City Hall.
Over the last few weeks, we've been treated to eloquent, moving diaries about former felons, special brothers, ailing grandmothers, and others who are deeply invested in their vote for Obama. I've choked up at their stories and pledged to cast my vote in part to support them and their hope that "a brighter day will come." So I said a quiet "thanks" and "this one's for you" as I completed my ballot.
But I had also spent the previous day in Camden, NJ, and I cast my vote with the belief that Obama will bring his promise of a brighter day to blighted communities across the land. I'm currently working on a pollution-reduction project in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood, whose 1,700 residents live with the toxic legacy of industrial activity and decline. The 723-acre area is bounded by two busy port terminals and a congested interstate highway, and it contains two federal Superfund sites, 25 state-designated contaminated sites, numerous scrap-handling facilities, the county’s waste combustor and sewage treatment plant, the world’s largest licorice processing plant, and a cement manufacturer. Approximately 77,000 trucks a year run through the neighborhood spewing diesel exhaust, the soil and wastewater are contaminated with PCBs, and children in the schools have to drink bottled water because lead pipes make the water in the fountains toxic. The list of environmental problems (lead paint, mold, dust contaminated with heavy metals, etc.) and their health effects is lengthy, and the degraded environment is just one facet of an impoverished community enduring the entire catalogue of urban ills--substandard housing, spotty city services, crime, drugs, prostitution. My first response to this community was that no one in this great country should be living in such appalling conditions and that for too long we have failed to ensure life, liberty, and happiness for our most vulnerable citizens.
And yet, in this bleak landscape I found the most impressively hopeful, generous, dedicated people working to make life better for their families and community. Within a few visits I had met people who serve as loving foster parents to special needs children, who host fundraisers to help neighbors with medical problems, who have for years actively campaigned for housing dollars and street improvements, for lead abatement and odor control, for emissions monitoring and designated truck routes to move the traffic away from their homes. They have used every strategy--from petitions to suing the state--to halt or reverse destructive activities (like relocating the city's methadone clinic to their neighborhood) and have organized to sponsor health fairs, cleanups, and awareness programs.
On Wednesday I toured a community garden and greenhouse established by a dedicated young woman to bring healthy food and, yes, a message of growth and empowerment, to neighborhood youth. The kids grow vegetables, harvest seeds for the next year's planting, and cook healthy meals in the outdoor clay oven they built. Recently they developed a short documentary about the program, which has been included in an environmental justice toolkit for the Philadelphia schools. The excited kids in the video have the hopeful expressions we've all seen in the adorable faces from the crowds at Obama's rallies.
The garden now shimmers with marigolds, and someone planted an Obama-Biden sign near the sidewalk, as if to say that hope grows here, on one beautiful lot on a dilapidated block in a distressed but not dispirited city.
So last night I cast my vote through tears for the children with hope, for the elders who never gave up, for the communities that have waited so long for a leader who understands that as a nation we cannot succeed unless the rays of a brighter day reach into every corner.