Odd Bits
Stopping for a Moment to Count My Blessings
It’s Thanksgiving here in the United States, and I’m trying hard to count my blessings. Several years ago in my Thanksgiving post I wrote: “As is true of all the best traditions, it is always the same and always different.” My first reaction when I read that was “Not this year. This year it is…
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The Thrill of the Vote
This post first ran on election day in 2008. My feelings on the subject haven’t changed: It’s election day in Chicago. I just walked home from voting for a new mayor and a new alderman–and I miss my old neighborhood. For ten years I lived in South Shore: a white graduate student/small business owner/writer in…
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From the History in the Margins Archives: You Can’t Vote Because…
If you’ve been hanging around here on the Margins for a while, you may have read this one before. I think it’s worth repeating. From sixth century Athens on, who has the vote and why has been a touchy and evolving subject in democracies. People who already have the vote have hesitated to extend it…
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