nothing like it

This morning when I went to (well, attempted to) vote, I wish I had my camera. The line went out of the school building where the polls are, down the block, around the corner and almost all the way down a full avenue block. I've never seen anything like it... the last presidential election I was able to go right into the building, right away.

I like to vote early in the day to get it out of my system, but I had to come in to work. If I had waited, it would have taken almost an hour and a half just to get to the door of the building.

What I wonder is this: why isn't election day a national holiday? It's such an important event. Many people have off for Columbus Day, honoring someone who didn't even really discover America -- he thought he was in India for goodness' sake. But on the one day where people get to exercise one of their greatest rights, a right that was literally fought for by this country's founders, by the suffragists, by people of color, many people cannot wait on a long line because they have to get to their jobs.

It's just not right!