What's done in the dark...

I had a conversation with my grandmother, who I've nicknamed LouLou, yesterday morning. A little about LouLou - she's 80, moved from South Carolina to New York when she was 17, is the oldest of 9, and the matriarch of my family. Nothing goes down without her having a hand in it or an opinion on it. Our convo went a little something like this:

Me: Hey LouLou.
LouLou: Hey baby.
Me: Why do you sound so tired?
LouLou: I stayed up all night.

*shaking my head because she's normally in the bed by 8:30pm*
Me: All night? Why were you up all night? What's wrong?
LouLou: I had too. I was watching the CNN channel and listening for 'dem election numbers.
Me: Lou, but why did you need to stay up all night?
LouLou: Well, I stays up all night for every election now. You remember what happened the last time I went to sleep. I laid down and felt good that the Gore man was gonna be the president and woke up to dem saying it was Bush. So, I stay up now and watch the CNN to make sure they ain't doing nothing funny.

All I could do was shake my head and laugh. I laughed because her interpretation of shady politics was funny to me. I shook my head because at times, like in the aftermath of the 2000 election, the state of politics in the U.S. is sad. I remember waking up the morning after the election and hearing that contrary to earlier reports, George W. Bush had actually won Florida and was now the President Elect. I was shocked, horrified and disgusted all in one moment. I was 24 at the time and my trust in the political system was irrevocably shattered. I'm going to become more politically active. Yeah, I voted, but there's more to be done. It's time for me to put up or shut up. Long live democracy!!