Got up this morning and walked down the street to Riverside Elementary School and fulfilled my civic duty. I waited about an hour, and was surprised at how smoothly everything was going. People were in a good mood and joking around. I spent most of my time in line talking to the various people waiting around me. There was no sign of the anger and nastiness that seemed to prevail in parts of this campaign. It didn’t matter who you were voting for, we were there together, as Americans, taking part in something special, and we all knew it.

The PTA even had a bake sale set up in the gymnasium, and the whole thing had a very small town feel to it, never mind the fact that I live in a major U.S. city within a battleground state. (The next closest polling station, located just down the same street, was littered with news vans and reporters.)

My favorite thing that I saw this morning was the 10 year old Muslim girl, complete in hijab,  handing out “I Voted” stickers to people as they left. So to anyone who still seems to think that you can’t be both a Muslim and an American and patriot, you can shove that up your ass.

All in all, I left feeling very good about democracy, and surprisingly patriotic for such a cynical ass as myself.