Such an eventful day yesterday. Wearing my chair judge hat, I came back from an afternoon break to my 6-3 polling station at First Christian Church. Voters had been giving us news bulletins all through the day and I had gone home to watch TV for that bit of time. Approaching the church parking lot upon my return, I saw the two American flags that I had put up before the polls opened, working together with a judge from our neighboring 6-2 polling station there at the church. The flags were in full sun and snapping in the breeze. I worked within sight of the World Trade Center construction site in the late 1960s as an equity clerk in an AMEX back office operation. Yesterday afternoon, I saw those towers collapse into rubble, bringing death to many thousands of innocents. With that grim juxtaposition on my mind, those flags looked like battle flags - symbols of my beliefs, emblems of my community, reminders of my military service, reminders of the ancient American Civil War veterans I saw marching in our centennial parade in Portage, Wisconsin, in 1949, reminders of all the military veterans I've seen or been acquainted with over the years, reminders of my country, warts and all. Well, soldier no more and now a senior election official, I'm proud of what we did yesterday. Familiar old faces, fresh new faces, all manner of race, ethnicity, education, income - we chose our preferences among sterling lists of candidates for mayor, city council, and school board in 6-3, park board in some other parts of town. I myself had voted absentee because I live in another precinct now, but the voters in 6-3 and I have known one other for a long time and we did our thing. Hooray for the winners, condolences to the losers, and hope our national leadership do right by all those victims and their survivors and those military veterans past and now serving who know the terrible prices we pay for our way of life. Fred Markus Horn Terrace Ward Ten _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
