Red Sky in the Morning, Sailor Take Warning

Melissa's and my run this morning around Berkeley Lake was both blanketed and reflected within the lake by a sky brushed with a thousand strokes of fire-orange wisps of elongated clouds, hanging there just out of reach and whispering what my Irish-Italian mother truly, in her heart, believed: Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning; an ominous whisper ... for a sailor.

Or, perhaps for other matters.

A friend asked me at a party the other night if I truly believed John Kerry was going to win the Presidency. I was not surprised that I didn't immediately answer, Why, of course. I paused for a moment, collecting my thoughts, putting together those things which, intellectually, give comfort to a wish, a belief, a yearning for the election of John Kerry. What I told my friend -- after my pause -- was that, yes, I have to believe he will win.

"The polls aren't very indicative that Kerry will win."

"Well," I said, having already formulated my argument, "look at who they're polling: most likely voters. Now, understand that a most likely voter is someone who voted in the last election; is probably someone who always votes."

A most likely voter is not one of the 180,000 newly registered voters in Colorado alone; or the 187,000 newly registered voters in Arizona; or the 633,000 in Florida; or the 225,000 in Pennsylvania; or the 231,000 in Nevada; or the 101,000 in New Mexico. No, and I told my friend that amongst those newly registered voters there are so, so many of those who, in the past, were simply disenfranchised by their own volition because they had no interest; or believed their vote wouldn't count; or thought the corruption of the American politic was so thorough and overwhelmingly entrenched that it was useless to even try to exercise their franchise. Many, if not most of those folks are people of color. "Blacks and Hispanics, Latinos," I told my friend, "they're the newly registered along with so many young people who have become so enthusiastically interested and involved in the election this year."

The Rocky Mountain News (AP story) reported this morning that the majority of newly registered voters are Democrats or Unaffiliated rather than Republicans ... except in Florida. (Way to go, Jeb! Considering the disgusting imbroglio in Florida of 2000, should we be at all suspicious of those newly registered Republicans in Florida?)

So, yes, I do believe John Kerry will be elected President. I believe there is a true, newly spirited and inspired electorate out there who will understand the importance of this year's vote.

And, as I write this post, do I recall the whisper of the sky and the reflection of that sky in the water as Melissa and I huffed our way around our wonderful lake, amongst the turning of the leaves and the early-morning, unmistakable hint of the big freeze just around the corner reflected in the hunkering down of the ducks and the geese who inhabit that space? Do I recall my mother's belief in the magic of the sky; of the morning fire of the sky?

Take warning, it whispers.