i almost didn’t exercise my right to vote yesterday. A just convinced me. i thought i’d already lost my faith in the electoral process in this country.
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our family voted in our old neighborhood in cubao, at the ramon magsaysay high school. though we haven’t lived there for fifteen years, we’re not registered elsewhere, so we think it’s ok.
the neighborhood is unchanged, but the houses are more run-down than the last time i was there–in 2004. i keep forgetting how many years i’ve been away. it still always surprises me how much time had wrought damage to the place. and the end of the street where we used to live is so densely populated, not to mention very polluted now. i cannot imagine living there anymore.
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there were the old familiar faces milling about in the polling place. funny how easily you can still pick them from the crowd despite the years, the added pounds, wrinkles and grey hair. i think you recognize somebody by the eyes.
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yaya took a leave to go home to batangas to vote so we had no choice but take anton to the polling place with us.
i cast my vote with him sleeping soundly in my arms, unmindful of the noise, the heat. his brow was relaxed and not knitted like when he is awake; his eyelashes gently rested on his flushed cheeks (like butterflies, i remember from a poem).
what compelled me to exercise my right to vote was my responsibility to anton. how many times i’ve heard it said that we get the government we deserve by the way we vote, and i say now that we get the government we deserve by the way we frivolously waste our right to vote. hopefully someday anton will appreciate the choices i am making for him now.
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my dad and i have our differences in many things, especially in political opinions. our discussions always inevitably end up in bitter arguments. he hates politicians from UP, which is funny because he allowed three of his kids to study in UP. he thinks UP grads are obnoxious. when my sister and i were younger, we always got an earful from daddy whenever we argued because we were from UP and he thought us little rebels. (the youngest of us three UP grads was luckily spared.) now my sister and i are better at parrying shots from daddy by merely ignoring them.
my wish is that anton will know that A and i will respect his beliefs no matter what, that we will never be judgmental and overbearing, and that he can always discuss with us.
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i will respect anton’s opinions, no matter how different they will be from mine. and i hope someday he will respect my opinions, too.
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after voting i actually felt good. like it was a catharsis of some kind. as the initial election results come in this morning, i am optimistic again for the outcome of this election. at least for my baby’s sake.
i just do hope nanette castelo daza doesn’t get another term as congresswoman.
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