It is Election Day here in the United States, and it is a day that I always get super excited about. I truly appreciate the ability to vote and exercise that right whenever I have the chance. I always think about the men and women of the armed forces and everything they have sacrificed in order to give every American this right. Regardless of political affiliation, one should take a ton of pride in the fact that they have the ability to vote for the leaders of our country.
This morning, I headed over to my local polling place to vote. Luckily, there wasn't too long of a line, so I knew that I would be able to get my voting done and not cut in to my work day at all. I quickly made my way up to show my voter registration card and collect my ballot, and then the line stopped moving. That is because the man in front of me had was berating the volunteer worker because his ballot was not in the master booklet. She was so sweet to him, and offered to call the other nearby precincts to ensure that he was not at the wrong polling place. However, this did not pacify the man, and he kept pouring it on by calling the woman inept and saying she didn't know what she was doing. It got to the point where the entire room had stopped voting and were just staring at the interaction. Finally I had enough of seeing this woman being shouted at by the man. So today, for my random act of kindness, I stood up for the woman and told the man he needed to calm down. I sarcastically told the man that the woman had a vendetta against him and manufactured the booklet so that he couldn't vote. I told him that this woman had taken time out of her day to volunteer here, and she didn't sign up to be verbally harassed by someone. The man left the polling place, and the woman thanked me for stepping in. Within 1 minute of a phone call (a phone call the man said not to make), she found out that he was in the wrong location and could have told him the correct one to go to if he had just settled down. There is way too much misplaced anger in this world, and people need to stop, take a breath, and put themselves in others' shoes before losing their mind.
Before I go today, and in the spirit of Election Day, please go to the 366 Random Acts Facebook Page and vote on what Day 316 should be! Thanks!
There needs to be more people like you in the world
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for helping that woman. As a very passive person myself I appreciate your willingness to step in and help an otherwise hateful situation. :) Displaced anger is the very best way to put it and I am grateful for you today!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I totally agree with you, people just get insanely crazy for the simplest little things. I can't tell you how many times in the past I've been berated like that poor woman and no one stepped in for me! I hope today someone watched what you did and will pay it forward and step up for someone else someday, I know I will! Thank you! Not all heros wear uniforms.
ReplyDeletethe world desperately needs people like you...job well done...hope i can make such a positive difference to people's live's
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Although I think that stepping in for the woman was an honorable thing, I'm not so sure if sarcasm was the way to go. If this was an act of kindness, could you not have defended the woman without being sarcastic? It seems to me that maybe you could have told him firmly that the woman had taken time out of her day for people like him while leaving the sarcastic bit out.
ReplyDeleteThe sarcasm was my way of trying to just diffuse the situation in a joking way at first. When I saw that he wasn't going to laugh at it, that is when I took a more serious tone.
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