NOT TAKING THE VOTE FOR GRANTED

I'm here in a PENN computer lab waiting for my training as a MyVote1 volunteer to begin. What's MyVote1? Well, soon I'm about to find out, but essentially my government school, Telemundo, and others are collaborating to provide a national hotline for voters to call in to report any problems or ask any questions.

But the project isn't just about getting out information, but also to collect it. My job, among other volunteers, will be to help transcribe all of the phone conversations and sort them into various buckets. NBC will be broadcasting live right next to our call center, reporting on trends that are pulled out of the mounds of data we'll be accumulating. MyVote1 could help break a huge story on voter intimidation in Ohio or confusing ballots in Florida.

With the race as close as the pundits are saying it is, voter turnout should be up a healthy tick. Still, I think about places and times where voter turnout was practically 100%, people were so grateful for the opportunity to have their voice count. Whatever political party you are or whichever candidate you think is an idiot, remember to make it to the polls next Tuesday.

NBA PREDICTIONS

Division realignment + major free agents moving all over the place + I’ve had no time to research the upcoming season = your guess is as good as mine. Although usually my predictions stink, so maybe two wrongs make a right. Anyway, here goes.

Eastern Conference:
Atlantic – Philadelphia 5
Central – Indiana 1
Southeast – Miami 2
Wild cards – Detroit 3, Cleveland 4, Boston 6, Chicago 7, New York 8

Western Conference:
Northwest – Minnesota 2
Pacific – Phoenix 6
Southwest – San Antonio 1
Wild cards – Denver 3, Houston 4, Dallas 5, Sacramento 7, New Orleans 8

First Round:
East – Indiana over New York, Miami over Chicago, Detroit over Boston, Cleveland over Philadelphia
West – San Antonio over New Orleans, Minnesota over Sacramento, Denver over Phoenix, Houston over Dallas

Conference Semis:
East – Indiana over Cleveland, Detroit over Miami
West – San Antonio over Houston, Denver over Minnesota

Conference Finals:
Indiana over Detroit, San Antonio over Denver

NBA Finals:
Indiana over San Antonio in 6

REVENUES AND EXPENSES

Being a bit of a numbers geek, it has been fascinating for me to learn more in school about how governments manage their money. I’m lucky: my parents instilled fiscal discipline in me at a young age, and I got to learn about for-profit finances at one of the premier business schools in the world. Even so, it’s still a challenge to “get” how money flows in and out of various types of institutions.

At work, for example, we consult businesses on how to grow their sales and rein in their costs, while we ourselves struggle with bringing in contractual and grant income to match our personnel and program costs. As an elder at church, we’re wrestling with how to balance our budget, given the combination of dwindling revenues (because of declining membership) and rising costs (because people, utilities, and everything else just costs more). Amy and I are figuring out how our personal finances will work, given our work status and student tuitions and upcoming adoption.

Governments, of course, tax and spend, and I’ve enjoyed learning how that works. It turns out that a lot of what I’ve learned in the past – whether from my dad or my accounting professor or my boss at work – can be applied to public finance. Municipalities float bonds, create budgets, and pick at costs, just like in other sectors. In fact, the whole exciting thing about getting into government administration is putting for-profit principles into play on behalf of cities and city residents. By doing so, I believe, we can make government better and provide a better tax and service mix for urban dwellers.

God made different people to look at the world in different ways. For some, it is a struggle between good and evil. For others, it’s about relationships. Me, it’s the decisions and systems that make up money coming in and money going out, and what kind of landscape that creates for people and families. Having seen it in my personal life, in businesses, and in the non-profit world, I am now learning how it works in the public sector.

SUNT FERICIT

Three weeks ago in our morning service, our congregation sang a song called, “I’m So Glad.” It brought me back to when I first learned that song . . . in Romanian, in 1994.

Romania was the fourth of four Eastern European countries I lived in that summer. For those two weeks, I lived and worked amongst a group of ex-rockers who had converted to Christianity and whose worship services were, as you can imagine, pretty rocking. “Sunt Fericit” was in heavy rotation, a catchy tune that spoke of being glad that Jesus has set us free. I soon learned the words and rocked along with them.

I had assumed it was a Romanian song until I returned to the US and heard it sung in English. But no matter; whenever I hear it sung, like three weeks ago, the Romanian words come to mind first. So there I was three weeks ago, singing along in Romanian, and swaying a little more than is the norm for our staid Presbyterian congregation. I’m so glad.

KERRY KICKED BUSH’S BUTT LAST NIGHT

I watched the debate in its entirety and thought Kerry kicked Bush’s butt. Even allowing Bush the discount of being an inferior speaker, he lost badly. He came off as whiny, arrogant, and defensive. His body language was all wrong, hunched over and uncomfortable. And while usually he doesn’t have to say much in order to be effective – or, more correctly, often he is effective because he doesn’t say much – I found his answers too repetitive and empty of content.

For Kerry on the other hand, the pressure was on him to not fall hopelessly behind, and to provide both content to help America know his positions and imagery to help America see him as presidential material. And on both counts, I thought he was outstanding. He clearly explained his positions on foreign policy issue, demonstrating that he had that them through and that he was offering something different than Bush. He looked confident without being cocky, steadfast without being wooden. And the debate format – short answers and rebuttals – forced him to not be long-winded, but at the same time he was able to get a lot of information out in those short windows of time. Many Americans hate Bush but don’t know or like Kerry enough to vote Democratic; I would guess that many of those undecideds got a good vibe from Kerry last night.

If Kerry ends up taking this thing, you’d have to look back to Coral Gables and September 30th as the turning point. But two more debates, a veep debate, and five weeks of campaigning and ads remain. It’s a race now.