I just realized what a sad irony the "I voted " avatars are...

when we put them up we thought they were making a difference. Now it just seems like a bad dream turned into a waking nightmare. I remember phonebanking up until the last minutes at our hdqtrs in Oregon-calling registered voters in the middle of the night somewhere in the Iowa and Hawaii, trying to get the last person to vote-all the time watching the TV screens describing the futility of what we were doing. The person next to me was excited because he just got a ride to the pols for someone in Waterloo, Iowa. I have had hopes and dreams crushed many times before in my life but this was something different and I'm still not sure how to explain it. It felt like losing a loved one you had known from childhood through adulthood. I guess many of us felt that way but it is still hard to deal with. When you lose a loved one in life you suffer through your grief knowing that you will never see them on this earth again. But in this case, the country you loved has not gone but changed in to some grotesque creature which mocks all the principles it stood for. I have fought against injustice for many years
at my workplace as a union member and despised the increasing cooption by corporations of workers that I have seen take place over the last 30 years. In all the setbacks I have had over that time I vowed to fight back even stronger, knowing that the powers that be wanted us to give up. Now I know what I should do, but right now feel the monster that has stolen our country is holding all the cards. I guess hope is something that keeps us going but right now it's pretty hard.

We are in mourning.

...I have been jaded by the whole process.

I voted- God only knows for whom....

It wasn't only the idea of voter fraud, either.

Either the vote was rigged, or the American public actually voted for more of the same with GW Bush. Either way, I had the same feeling as when I buried my dad. Like something beloved was just gone.

I Voted...I Think avatar?

You could model one on a button that my own party (the New Democratic Party of Canada) put out some years ago:

... damn, can't find a pic of one on line ... goes like this:

I THINK
THEREFORE
I AM
NDP

or "A Democrat" in your case, of course. ;)

(edited the format to make it more obviously Cartesian, as it is on the actual button)

Thanks NDP.

i can still say i voted, but i will always wonder if that voted was counted.

that's why I'm not using one. I find them painful to look at, they are a reminder that hurts. :cry: