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Marna Nightingale
| Sep. 6th, 2004 11:09 am For those competitors in the game of "Where's skud?" ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) damned_colonial is taking the 11:00 bus to Montreal, not the 10:00, and shall be lunching there. Also, she intends to take her evening meal and sleep in Quebec City, for those as need to know. Everything is fine, just an hour behind the original theories.
(posted by kd5mdk), as a service to a disconnected friend.
1 comment - Leave a comment | |
| Jul. 20th, 2004 05:46 pm The Tallest Ship Of All ... and her brave crew ...
Arrived at the farthest shore yet, 35 years ago today.
To celebrate, some music:
http://www.prometheus-music.com/space.html
Especially:
http://www.prometheus-music.com/audio/hopeeyrie.mp3
and the accompanying video, for Windows Media:
http://www.prometheus-music.com/video/Hope_Eyrie.wmv
Go, Listen.
And tonight, maybe go outside and look at the moon for awhile. 1 comment - Leave a comment | |
Jun. 29th, 2004 03:45 pm There's no rockets flaring, there's no loud display ..."...the world doesn't care about our little federal election. In fact, there is only one time that the world cares about Canada. It is when some poor, desperate human beings become driven enough to pack up their family and look for a land where they will be safe from torture, oppression and racism and where they can prosper at whatever they do, be taken care of if they're sick, and educate their children to their full potential. When that day comes, then they care about Canada.
Be careful how you vote. You wouldn't want to let them down." ~~ Bob Robertson, from Double Exposure.
Election days are a bit like sunsets. Or first kisses.
It's hard to say anything good about them without sounding sappy or cliched, and terribly terribly easy to make cynical jokes about them.
So yesterday, I scrutineered -- for the NDP, though that is not the main point of this post.
For those following from home, this is what an Inside Scrutineer does:
-- keep track of who has voted so that Outside Scrutineers do not visit people who have already voted.
-- represent the candidate in disputes about correct procedure, specifically wrt whether or not a person is eligible to vote.
-- observe the counting of the ballots, and phone the results into the committee rooms.
If you're having a crisis of faith, feeling cynical and despairing about the political process, if you're inclined to think that people are stupid and apathetic, if you're thinking of giving up on your fellow citizens -- I recommend working an election day.
Come to it in as cynical a spirit as you wish. But do it, at least once before you die. Just be there, at a poll, and see what really happens.
My day:
At one point I had five polls, ranging from one with 27 voters registered (5 voted) to The Hell Poll -- slightly over 1000 voters.
So I hared around madly from table to table updating voter's lists and handing number sheets off to the NDP runner.
Bright spots:
1) Whenever someone comes in and says "this is my first time voting" or "this is my first time voting in Canada."
Tim Horton's take note: there ought to be a free coffee and doughnut for that. Or something. There really should. It's an important rite of passage.
2) We had one woman -- I had met a few before, never expected to meet another such -- who voted in the first Federal Canadian Election in which women were permitted to cast ballots:
In 1917, Parliament passed the Wartime Elections Act and the Military Voters Act. The right to vote was extended to all British subjects, male or female, who were active or retired members of the armed forces, including Indians (as defined by the Indian Act) and persons under 21. Some 2,000 military nurses, the "Bluebirds" became the first Canadian women to use this right. Civilian men who were not landowners, but who had a son or grandson in the armed forces, were also temporarily granted the franchise, as were women with a close relative serving, then or previously, in the Canadian Forces.
She is 106 years old. This will almost certainly be the last vote she ever casts. She may be the last such woman in Canada. I'm glad I was there. I think the 18 year old woman in line ahead of her is, too. Maybe she'll be telling this story on Election Day 2100.
3) The Deputy Returning Officer at one poll rejected a voter because she felt that the voter was not mentally competent.
We, by which I mean me and another scrutineer, raised hell. We won. I'm proud of that. And no, I do not know or care who she voted for.
4) I challenged two ballots, and upheld one. Won two, lost one.
5) I challenged one vote count, and on recount it was in fact off by 7 votes. Nothing underhanded; the DRO was very very tired.
6) People came in who had obviously spent the entire campaign thinking, reading, researching, worrying. People came in who still needed the process explained to them. People came in who might have for all I know gone back there and flipped a coin.
7) I have once again seen this with my own eyes: our elections are as clean as we can make them.
We have paper ballots. We use pencils. We have cardboard ballot boxes with paper seals. We have cardboard voting booths. You show your voter registration card or your ID, they find your name on the list or register you, you take your ballot, you go and mark it, you fold it and bring it back, the DRO rips the number off and you put it into the ballot box with your own hand. And that's your vote.
At the end of the day, the DRO takes them out, looks at them, passes them to the poll clerk, who looks at them, shows them to the scrutineers, and places them on a pile. Then the DRO counts them, in front of all of us. Anyone can stop the process at any time to take another look at a ballot or to ask for a new count.
It's low tech as hell; go ahead, just TRY to mess with it.
Yes, things happen. Mistakes are made. Our voter registration process is not always as transparent and fair as it needs to be.
The odd bit of Jesuitry and sneakiness occurs. Everybody cheerfully ignores the rules about Elections Canada staff and scrutineers coffehousing and sharing tables and helping each other out, but -- generally, not when it counts.
There will be recounts after this election, probably, because several ridings were very very close. We may find errors. I will be ASTONISHED if we find dishonesty.
And all this care, concern, and hard work -- gets done for $200 for a fourteen hour day, if you're working for Elections Canada -- or free, if you're a party vounteer.
And that is also what democracy looks like: like a bunch of ordinary people bent over a table, at 11 at night after a long day, making damned sure that your personal vote, the one you dragged your arse away from whatever you were doing yesterday to cast -- really truly did count.17 comments - Leave a comment | |
| Jun. 20th, 2004 06:41 pm Father's Day I was going to post a recent picture of my Dad that I really like, and tell you some things about my Dad that really happened, and talk about some things we have in common and some things we don't.
Except I can't find the picture at the moment. One of the things we have in common, you see, is that we tend to mislay small objects.
If it turns up, I shall post it.
Another thing we have in common is that we both like fiction. We like stories.
So here's a story. Happy Father's Day, Dad -- I hope this is as much fun for you to read as it was for me to compile :-)
Ten Things About My Father That Aren't True
(even though all of them are true and all of them are about George Nightingale)
1) George Nightingale was in the US Army.
August 2003, Hammond, Indiana:
"In addition, Ken Orze, Dan Buksa, George Nightingale, George Panchinsin and Tom Yamada were present at Riley school for a Veterans Day Celebration.:
* * *
2) George Nightingale Lived In East Africa:
George Nightingale (1901-1986), the son of a London insurance agent, arrived in East Africa in 1914, and settled in Kenya. He worked at first as a farm assistant, and thereafter had a variety of different jobs. From 1932 to 1947 he was employed in the Agricultural Department. During the Mau Mau troubles he built Home Guard posts. Through his work Nightingale was involved in different aspects of the life of the settler community.
His memoirs are here: http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0115%2FRCMS%20113%2F44
* * *
3) George Nightingale was made Mayor of Kingston on Thames in 1846.
* * *
4) George Nightingale was born in Newport on the Isle of Wight in March of 1815.
* * *
5) George Nightingale shot 969997949694576 for Great Britain in the 2003 Youth International Prone Rifle Team Match.
* * *
6) Also in 2003, George Nightingale, as President of the Almonte Tennis Club, sent a rather stiffly worded letter to the Recreation and Culture Committee of the Town or Missisipi Mills, Ontario, in June of 2003, regarding Vandalism at the Tennis Club.
* * *
7) in 1905, George Nightingale was 43, and a farmer in Vaughan, Simcoe County, Ontario.
* * *
8) In 1862, George Nightingale received a letter from Charles Lowell Nightingale, who was at that time a Private in the 29th Massachusetts Volunteers.
* * *
9) George Nightingale worked at Carnforth Rail Station, opened in 1846 by the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway Company as a roadside "second class" station, during the days of steam.
* * *
10) In 1992, George Nightingale directed "Move Over, Mrs Markham", by Ray Cooney and John Chapman, for the Multipart Players.
AND ...
One Thing About My Father That Is True:
I love you, Dad.
Your,
Kid.Current Mood:  loved
3 comments - Leave a comment | |
| May. 30th, 2004 07:04 pm Rupert's Land Ok, normally fannish stuff goes over on commodorified
But oddly, this particular movie review is most likely to interest my Canadian friends, most of whom have friended this journal.
Those of you who just got spammed 4 times, well. Sorry. :-)
Also, this movie is easiest to find in Canada. I rented it from Elgin Street Video.
Three reasons to squee about this movie, for me.
First: Obviously. Samuel West.
Secondly, Canadian Road Movie. An underappreciated genre.
Thirdly: Set on BC's Sunshine Coast.
This movie is SO HARD to find outside of Canada, and even in Canada, I've been a bit loose about spoilers. But only a bit, I promise.
So. Rupert
returns to Canada -- 20 years after his mother left his father and went home with her son to England -- to attend his father's funeral in Prince Rupert, B.C.
His older half-brother Dale picks him up at Vancouver Airport
And suckers him into skipping the train trip and doing the three day roadtrip to Prince Rupert.
( Wacky Antics Ensue ) Current Mood:  amused
Current Music: Tom Cochrane & Red Rider: Good Times
2 comments - Leave a comment | |
| May. 3rd, 2004 07:25 pm false but exciting alarm No email for an unknown period of time.
the server just fried.
well, boiled, by the stench. which was eeerily reminiscent of a wall fire.
so the fire department just left.
the tenants will want to know why their house was jogged through by a small commando team.
and the cat hath unseamed me. or at least tried.
off to check for fresh smoke.
so, that was fun. 2 comments - Leave a comment | |
| Apr. 29th, 2004 02:48 pm A Peaceful Army of Lovers Cannot Lose Once again, the personal is even more political than I expect it to be.
The State of Virginia has declared war on queers.
Including my Virginian lover.
And therefore, despite my great fondness for staying out of US politics,
On me.
You want to take away our rights? Negate our citizenship? Shove us into the ocean?
Bring it the fuck on.
YOU WILL NOT PASS.
(Edit: and yes my friend, my loves, my fellow Amoeba members, this IS a call-out. Not that any of you really need it, I suspect.) Current Mood:  angry
Current Music: Legalize Our Love -- TimBuk3
26 comments - Leave a comment | |
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