Rock the vote

I voted this morning, and despite the dire warnings about long lines, I was in and out of there in about 10 minutes.

While I’m pretty informed on the national issues, I had no idea who I was voting for in some of the local races. I had about 5 choices for a seat on the appellate court, and I just eeny-meeny-miny-moe’d it and picked some guy. I hope I didn’t vote for some crazy liberal judge who wants to set all the child molesters free, or some crazy conservative judge who wants to give the death penalty to pot smokers. Hopefully I picked a level-headed, moderate jurist, like Judge Judy.

There was quite a commotion outside my polling place, with several Atlanta TV station trucks parked nearby, and a huge semi-trailer with “Respect My Vote” written on the side of it. The hubbub was being caused by the presence of T.I., who is a rapper/actor from Atlanta. I believe his actual name is Clifford. I don’t blame him for changing it.

“Respect My Vote” is a campaign run by something called the Hip Hop Caucus, which says it is a non-partisan group. That reminds me of an episode of All in the Family, when Archie and Edith were watching the TV news and there was a story about Richard Nixon voting in the 1972 presidential election, and Edith says, “I wonder who he voted for?”

Isn’t this nice, I thought, this young man giving back to the community like this. He’s a big star, and here he is on a cold morning in a sleepy little Georgia town, urging people to vote. Of course, he was doing this in the parking lot of the voting precinct, so it would seem he was preaching to the choir. Everybody was already there specifically to vote.

I was so impressed by this that I went back and did some research on T.I., since my knowledge of rap music doesn’t extend beyond Run DMC, and I discovered that he does a lot of community service. Yes, it is all court-ordered, but that’s just nitpicking.

T.I. apparently originally thought he was not going to be able to vote, because he is a convicted felon, stemming from a conviction in a 1998 drug case. He had some more trouble a year ago when he was arrested for trying to buy illegal guns in a Publix parking lot. In downtown Atlanta. In the middle of the afternoon.

He was buying, according to the police, machine guns. With silencers. Something tells me these weren’t for hunting. But who am I to question?

Anyway, the young man says he’s turned his life around, and he wants to be an inspiration to young people. According to his lawyer, as quoted in an Associated Press story, “Until he is sentenced in the federal case, he doesn’t have a conviction yet. Even though he is a convicted felon, he has a right to vote since he is not serving probation and hasn’t started his prison sentence.”

I wonder who he voted for? I assume whichever candidate favors less gun control.

Some women in the polling office were wondering if they should go out and get his autograph for their kids. Seems like maybe a bad idea, since he doesn’t appear to be a great role model, but hey – we all deserve a second chance, right? He’s done with the bad stuff and now he’s all about a positive, self-affirming message.

He has a new CD out, but I don’t have it, so I went online and randomly picked one of the song’s lyrics, just to check it out. Granted, it doesn’t have the same effect without the monotonous drum pattern and the music stolen from another song in the background, but here’s what I found (I’ve redacted certain parts, since my kids read my blog.):

Hey I'm so raw, and I'm so rich
And you so flawed niggaz ain't 'bout sh*t
I'll take yo' broad, I can f*ck yo' b*itch
Know that I'm gon' ball every chance I get
Every chance I get, real talk, no sh*t
Every chance I get, make money on this
I'll take yo' broad, I can f*ck yo' b*tch
Know that I'm gon' ball every chance I get, every chance I get.

Now, who wouldn’t be inspired by that? Well said, Clifford. Well said.