{ i voted 2000 }



Four years ago, after I helped elect Bill Clinton to this nation's highest office, I felt a strange queasiness. I mean, I liked Clinton, I guess. But the fire and passion that we all felt four years prior seemed absent that year.

I sat there staring at the voting stub in my hand and decided to post a small note about it here in fray, and ask what everyone else was feeling. The response was amazing.

Now it's the year 2000 and here we all are again, on the eve of another great shift in power. Election 2000. I have a suspicion that the next four years may be as surprising as what transpired during the last four. And, somehow, that queasy feeling is back.

So I asked some dear friends, fray contributors, and other smart folks to tell us some stories about the personal side of electoral politics. Under all the buttons and behind all the politics are real people, making tough choices.

The following pages hold 14 different voices telling 14 different stories about politics, elections, and America. And, of course, you're encouraged to tell your story, too.

But you won't find any political diatribes or partisan rants here. These are stories about the thing that connects us to the talking heads on television, the thing that makes it all work, the thing that keeps us coming back to the polls year after year.

The thing otherwise known as hope.


{ begin }

     
{*} Gimme a "V"!
Lance Arthur
{*} We Are the Ones
Rebecca Blood
{*} My Vote Doesn't Count
Sarah Bruner
{*} Close Encounters
Heather Champ
{*} A Message
John Hodgman
{*} The Score
David Hudson
{*} Learning the Process
Greg Knauss
{*} Dreaming of Greener Pastures
Dori Mondon
{*} Three Scenes
Derek M. Powazek
{*} Absentee
Magdalen Powers
{*} Acts of Faith and Finger Foods
Adam Rakunas
{*} Resident
Luke Seemann
{*} More Than One Vote
Tarin Towers
{*} The Poster Wars
Shauna Wright