Election Day in Chicago

I arrived at the polls this morning at 6:50 a.m. There were 50 people in line ahead of me. I live in one of those Chicago neighborhoods that over the last dozen years has seen an exodus of mostly Latino residents and an influx of McMansion builders, yet we still vote at Christopher House, a 100-year-old community center that provides “integrated social, educational, and human services that help families thrive in an environment that nurtures and values diversity,” largely to a community that has been forced to move away because of yuppie development and accompanying property tax hikes. Inside the voting place, the usual cadre of fussy election volunteers was lumbering through the motions of trying to move too many people to some eight badly lit porta-booths, where we used a felt-tipped “special pen” to mark our ballots before feeding them into a machine. Suddenly, one anxious woman pulled herself out of line and addressed the rest of us. “Voters, voters, um, um,” she stammered, “my daughter has a test at eight o’clock. Does anyone object if I go to the front of the line?” I wanted to tell her that my job at the American Library Association, waiting for me at 8:30, was every bit as important as her daughter’s test. But I didn’t; no one else said anything either. Instead, I amused myself by wondering at the contrast between this over-eager mother and the antiquated voting system I was about to use. So here I am at work now, trying to complete an article for the December issue of American Libraries that sums up Laura Bush’s eight years as the librarian in the White House. We’ve been told that we can leave work early today to avoid the traffic and congestion that is likely to ensue once the Barack Obama camp starts gathering in Grant Park to learn the election results. But I don’t want to avoid the crowd; I plan to get lost in it and begin here and now to plan for ALA’s engagement with the new administration, whatever the outcome. Emily Sheketoff of the ALA Washington Office says, ““No matter who wins and no matter what happens in Congress, this is going to be a very tough year. It’s going to demand of library supporters that they pay attention and be very active in talking to their elected officials, both local and federal.” Indeed. ALA has recommended that Congress appropriate $100 million for libraries in stimulus funding, and the Washington office has briefed both presidential candidates’ staffers and talked to members of both the House and the Senate, but no matter what the outcome of the election, ALA must work across the aisle, and one of things I’ve learned during 20 years of observing ALA’s aisle-hopping is that there is no basis to the assumption of some that libraries fare better under a Democratic administration. It’s going to be a struggle, with a lot of unknowns ahead of us, especially when it comes to things like McMansion building and antiquated voting procedures. What I do know is that at five o’clock this afternoon, I’m heading downtown to witness a historic moment, with an eye toward what this means for our profession and our Association. More later.