Certified Fact True Story
Any class that I have comes from my friend Pam, one of the classiest women I know. Pam was among some of the first African Americans admitted to the University of Texas. I am honored to call her my friend. We have been known to get into trouble together.
Pam is a voter registrar for the League of Women Voters, where she has met “some characters” she has come to love. Today she forwarded me an email from one of her fellow registrars, a woman Pam describes as a little, tiny, blue haired lady from Houston. Pam tells me that this lady, who we will call Mary, might be 5 foot tall if she got up on a step ladder.
Mary registered voters yesterday at Texas Southern University, a Historically Black University in Houston. She had some parking difficulties and called Pam for help. Pam made a few calls and got her a place to park near a dormitory. She reported back to Pam as follows. Enjoy!
Pam,
What an interesting day today turned out to be! After a confusing beginning, I stayed at the boys side of the dorm (I had gotten in that side by chance). Oscar, the young man who let me in and my new best friend, helped me register some of the guys who came and went. He explained that he had worked with Tony the day before going from room to room registering voters. He was terrific at rounding up some who hadn’t registered yet. There was also an enthusiastic young man in a Hillary tee shirt who helped for awhile.
Then I went to the cafeteria for awhile and registered a few people there, including Carlos, the chef — at least he was wearing a chef jacket and had some kind of authority there. Then I went back to the dorm side and registered some more, including Bob, the Security Guard (who insists he is moving to Canada if Trump is elected). (No, I did not talk partisan politics with him.) Finally, Tony arrived and gave me 132 completed applications that he and someone named Robert had registered. It turned out that they had had their own deputy voter registrar training there in the dorm. Tony is a campus activist. (I forgot to ask if they were working the girls” wing of the dorm.)
So — then I went to the Harris County substation near me and turned in my 19 applications plus 132 that Tony had gotten the day before. I stood in line with a voter registrar from Mi Familia Vota who was turning in applications. They are working so hard — following up to make sure these people actually vote and teaching them the importance, etc.
So — now I’m taking a nap. I have two registrations for Battleground Texas tomorrow (Art Institute and a local HS) and one Friday.
Then I will go to Everest Institute – Hobby for the League on Monday! Jim Adler Law Firm Tuesday — will you send me contact info there? And Naturalization Wednesday.
Mary
Mary drinks a cup of spunk for breakfast every morning. When I grow up, I want to be Mary.
Thanks to Pam for the heads up.
Gotta love Mary! And Pam sounds like no slouch either.
Loading the taco truck after I die my hair a little bluer.
1I think blue hair just agitates the shit outta’ Trumpettes.
Mary is one busy woman doing fantastic work. Kudos to you, Mary! Sounds like there is a lot of GOTV activity in Texas these days. Yay!
2Now this is a real Texan
3Kudos to Pam, Mary, Kaleb and all the other hard working Americans helping to get out the vote.
4BTW, after my Clinton/Kaine yard sign was stolen, I ordered 2 more and plan to put them in my front windows.
Patriotism isn’t a flag pin or car magnet. Patriotism is “doing something” like Pam and Mighty Mary.
5Hats off to her and all the other true Americans that work to keep this country great. We don’t need to make it great, We just need to keep it great.
6Right on!!!!
7Great work on registering new voters! I wish my bad back would let me still go around and do that. My only pause is the help from the guy in the Clinton shirt– in Maryland we were told we couldn’t look or sound partisan while registering people. But maybe I misunderstood or it varies.
8Thank you, JJ. I needed cheering up.
9Me too. I want to be Mary when I grow up.
10I love them old ladies. Tougher than nails.
11Where can I get some Marys and Pams? They sound like some great people!
12During the 30+ years that I worked at UT Austin, I always voted at the Undergraduate Library, now Flawn Academic Center. Nearly all of the election officials were little ol’ retired African American ladies. It made me so proud to vote there I would have to fight back the tears. There were more than a few elections where their example overcame my apathy and compelled me to turn out to vote. The guilt of knowing that when they were my age, they weren’t allowed to vote was some powerful guilt. And now they are proctoring the election!
Dana de Beauvoir is the Travis County Clerk, and let’s just say, she ain’t Kim Davis!
13Lovely!
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