The ringleader, a slinky, middle-aged African-American woman, began to approach me. As she walked toward me, her crew stared at me with dismay.
"Why don't you want to register to vote?" she asked.
I was appalled that she'd walked over to me just to ask why I didn't want to register. It's not like I told a dying Girl Scout I didn't want to buy her cookies.
"I just don't want to," I hissed.
"Why don't you want to?" she snarled. "Don't you want Obama to win and help us out?"
What made her assume I would vote for Barack Obama?
"Help us out how?" I asked. "As a matter of fact, why should I vote at all?"
She looked at me puzzled, twisting her face. "This election is very important," she said. "Obama can do us good."
"Hmmm," I hummed. That wasn't very convincing, I thought.
"Are you a college student?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Well, you definitely need to register and vote for Obama," she said.
She still hadn't explained why I should vote and why the election was so very important.
Is Obama the right candidate in her eyes because they have this one thing in common, like race? Obviously, in her eyes, it's important for me to vote because I'm African-American.
People keep telling me that this election is so important. But no one has actually told me why. What makes it so important? OK, it's a historical landmark, but I still don't understand why this vote is more important than any other.
Is 2008 about putting an African-American - or a woman - in office?
"Hey, they're just like me," won't cut it when the economy is crashing.
