Thursday, November 06, 2008
Election brought out best in many
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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Dr. Stephanie Nagy-Agren's e-mail popped into my mailbox Tuesday afternoon.
It read almost like a physician's shorthand on a prescription.
"Calling HQ until got thru. did it. got to drive voters early this morning."
At 5:47 p.m., Tina Williams kept one eye on the clock at Dyon's Barbershop on Peters Creek Road in Roanoke and one eye on her client's hair. She had exactly one hour and 13 minutes to drive to her precinct and get in line to vote.
Later, as election results suggested Barack Obama was on his way to a historic presidential victory, Del. Onzlee Ware slid an Obama poster across the conference table in his Gainsboro law office and asked the small group of guests to sign it.
The tentacles of the momentous election touched Roanokers in different ways as they eagerly participated in democracy. Tuesday was no ordinary Election Day because this was no ordinary election.
We know the results.
We're only beginning to discover the longer-term meaning. But you could catch brief glimpses of it in the palpable excitement and touching stories that originated in circuitous lines and polling places across Southwest Virginia.
Nagy-Agren fired off her missive to me shortly before 1 p.m. Monday. She had a van and wanted to volunteer to drive voters to the polls. Did I know where she could volunteer?
I forwarded a number to her and didn't hear anything else until she e-mailed me Tuesday afternoon.
At 6:30 that morning, before Nagy-Agren went to work, she picked up an elderly woman and her 24-year-old grandson at Seventh Street and Dale Avenue Southeast. She shuttled them to Fallon Park Elementary School.
Then Nagy-Agren drove a woman from Gilmer Avenue to Lincoln Terrace Elementary to vote.
The physician downplayed her effort. She deemed it minimal compared to her passengers, who were determined to not let their lack of transportation deter them from voting.
"Driving people to the polls felt more important with regard to their future health and health care than writing prescriptions," Nagy-Agren said.
That kind of commitment was evident elsewhere. In the pre-dawn hours, voters waited in the drizzling rain for precinct doors to open at 6 a.m. It happened in Obama territory, and in McCain territory, too.
As I drove around, I saw people spilling out of doors as they waited patiently to exercise their civic duty. A second trip past a precinct at 24th and Melrose found the line even longer, stretching deep into the parking lot.
The energy was obvious to voters at Ruffner Middle School at midday Tuesday. Two clean-cut teens assigned to hand out sample ballots nearly raced to approaching voters to see which one of them could get there first.
One woman I know told me she and her husband arrived at Ruffner at 5:20 a.m. By the time they left two hours later, they waved goodbye to another couple as if they'd known them for years. They had met in line.
The energy and the buzz about the history-making election made Tuesday different. Voters jumped out of bed in the dark to line up in long queues. Strangers became friendly. The brave broached the subject of politics. Folks burned with motivation to help strangers.
That is community, folks.
The question is, can we sustain that energy and excitement and camaraderie and commitment? And if we're able to, where will it lead us?
I don't know the answers. But they're pretty powerful questions.
