The next blog will happen to fall on Election Day.
Many years ago, employees in the County Clerk’s office were offered the opportunity to work during election night as ballots were tallied. Our County Clerk is also the Registrar of Voters. We’d sit at tables grabbing handfuls of paper ballots, checking for rough edges, straightening them out, making sure they were all facing the correct way before passing them along to the next group who would feed them into the machine to be accurately counted. It was exciting to be part of this important process, knowing there were many more like us doing the same thing across the country in general elections.
As I write this, my “inner critic” is perching on my shoulder, warning me not to offer political commentary. You’ll get to meet her soon.
So, to tiptoe around that, I’ll tell you about the first trip my husband and I took to Ireland. I won’t mention the year, but it was during a certain president’s administration. On our flight over, a passenger had a medical crisis which necessitated an emergency landing in Winnipeg. The pilot explained that he had to jettison fuel to lighten the load for landing, and once on the ground, we would need to remain in our seats for about an hour while the plane refueled on the tarmac.
This detour was useful to us on a couple of occasions in Irish pubs when friendly folks would ask where we were from. We would say we’d just flown in from Canada, sidestepping any assumption that we were Americans who supported our then president. Once that was said, they felt free to offer their opinions of American politics which were (unsurprisingly) very similar to our own.
We had hoped to return to Ireland in March this year but decided to postpone our plans due to the pandemic. Just as well.
Brenda Bellinger 