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I Voted.
- It is November. Yet still 70 Degrees F.
- Like many other Americans, I voted this morning. (Hopefully, like many many many other Americans) It was an amazing experience and, to be honest, I think my hands shook the entire time that I filled in my chosen ovals.
- Also like way way too many Americans, I checked my Facebook profile page this morning. All of my friends, except for one, had some sort of pro-Obama message. There was only one person, someone I knew, barely in high school, when I was living in the tiny town of Kearney, Nebraska.
- I am reading a really great book: The Big Sort: Why The Clustering of Like-minded America is Tearing Us Apart. The authors present the argument that the economic mobility of the last 30 years has allowed us to sort ourselves into homogenized communities of like-minded individuals. The evidence they present is really gripping: comparisons of landslide counties in elections since 1976. Back then, there were very few landslide Republican or Democratic counties. Today: the exact opposite.
What does this even remotely have to do with me?
When I was standing in line today, I looked around and became convinced that I am a product of the Big Sort’s invisible ordering. I live well inside the city, yet everyone around me is very similar. Caucasians mostly. Similarly dressed. With a similar sense of wealth. It was bizarre.
Does this mean that I am at a disadvantage? Am I missing the wealth of diversity that is present in truly urban environments?
Or does the security and similarity of my current surroundings indicate that I simply chose to ensure… my comfort?
