balmofgilead

Dear Election Judge,

In 2007 and 2008 we are faced with three important elections.  On September 11, 2007 and November 6, 2007 we will be holding elections for the Mayor of Baltimore City, [et al.] and March 4, 2008 for President.

I've always known that the folks running the board of elections aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, but...did they totally forget about the general presidential elections?  I mean, I know Maryland usually goes to the Dems, and the whole electoral college dealie pretty much makes our individual votes moot, but...you'd think they'd at least stand on ceremony and still have general presidential elections.  I assume they will, but it's a strange oversight for the people that run the elections. 

The area surrounding Hopkins Hospital is pretty run-down and distressed; it's basically made up of boarded-up rowhouses and housing projects. It's the kind of area where it's not a stretch to think that many of the residents know people who've been shot or died of AIDS or drug overdoses. There's this dumpster behind one of the housing projects with stuff spray-painted onto it: RIP Tommy, RIP some-other-name-that-didn't-sound-like-what-you'd-name-a-pet.

Having your name spray-painted onto the side of a rusty corrugated metal dumpster--what a memorial.

There's this joke I heard ages ago about a woman who asks to be cremated and have her ashes placed in a box in the shoe department at Saks Fifth Avenue--that way, she says, her daughter might come visit her sometimes. This is like...the totally opposite end of the spectrum.