If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,<\/p>\n
‘Twould not be you, Niagara–nor you, ye limitless prairies–nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,<\/p>\n
Nor you, Yosemite–nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,<\/p>\n
Nor Oregon’s white cones–nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes–nor Mississippi’s stream:<\/p>\n
–This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name–the still small voice vibrating–America’s choosing day,<\/p>\n
(The heart of it not in the chosen–the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)<\/p>\n
The stretch of North and South arous’d-sea-board and inland-Texas to Maine–the Prairie States–Vermont, Virginia, California,<\/p>\n
The final ballot-shower from East to West–the paradox and conflict,<\/p>\n
The countless snow-flakes falling–(a swordless conflict,<\/p>\n
Yet more than all Rome’s wars of old, or modern Napoleon’s:) the peaceful choice of all,<\/p>\n
Or good or ill humanity–welcoming the darker odds, the dross:<\/p>\n
–Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify–while the heart pants, life glows:<\/p>\n
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,<\/p>\n
Swell’d Washington’s, Jefferson’s, Lincoln’s sails.<\/p>\n
Walt Whitman\u2019s Election Day, November 1884<\/i><\/p>\n
Okay, I\u2019ll lay it out: I don\u2019t believe that my vote for President of the States matters. No way there\u2019s a lottery \u2013 that I might win \u2013 where my colored in circle makes me the king-maker for a day. I don\u2019t think that scenario every existed \u2013 especially for people like me.<\/p>\n
My annual read of W.E.B. Dubois<\/a> and a recent column<\/a> by Gail Collins has got me fired up. I\u2019m not going for the bait this year \u2013 that my vote matters.\u00a0 Instead of a vote, I\u2019m going for modish civic expression. I\u2019m getting dressed nice; walking in up to the table with style; splurging on the coffee I drink while waiting on line; going to bring some good chit-chat to the people on line with me; and, filling in the circles without going outside the lines. If that\u2019s not voter expression, then I don\u2019t know what is.<\/p>\n I just hope they<\/a> notice.<\/p>\n Peace.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the playlist<\/a> I\u2019ll rock to get me ready for my civic duty. Get together to watch the vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show, ‘Twould not be you, Niagara–nor you, ye limitless prairies–nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado, Nor you, Yosemite–nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing, Nor Oregon’s white cones–nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes–nor Mississippi’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3766],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4201,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions\/4201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}