Active Citizens!

I forgot to mention the othe day that on our way to the concert, we stopped and voted. It was Miran's first time so we made a big deal out of it and wore our "I voted" stickers all evening. I hovered over him while he voted and told the election officials it was his first time.

There was actually a mayoral race in Charlotte so it was important for us to vote. And the democrat won for the first time since 1987! So we are happy about that because he was the much bigger advocate of public transportation, including finishing the light rail projects and building the trolley along Central Avenue. It will still take 15 years probably to build, but at least they will move forward with plans for it - it will go right by Progress Lane and connect us to downtown.

To be more even active citizens - we called our congressman today and told him to vote for the health reform bill. The bill is definitely flawed, but way better than nothing. Our monthly health insurance premium is going up by 260% from this year to next - which just goes to show insurance companies can't be trusted and regulation is needed. I guess just the fear of reform made them hike up our insurance ridiculously. Plus, if we have any hope of getting Miran's mother over here, we'll need health insurance reform ... her preexisting conditions will make her dificult to insure affordably if nothing changes in the system. So we are really happy the public option is back in - even if we don't use it, it should definitley bring the cost of private insurance down due to the competition. Go health care reform!