Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Live, From Johnstown PA, It's Saturday Night!

My parents - my mother in particular - had decided not to vote this year. Mom was having a hard time making her mind up and they were going to be visiting us on election day and she thought she'd let the deadline for an absentee ballot pass. She was relieved. I was a little distressed.

Then, this past weekend on SNL, my hometown of Johnstown, PA was featured in a not very flattering light.



This has apparently caused such outrage in my town that folks - like my mom - who were committed to being non-committal - have decided that it's too important to let it slide. Mom found out it wasn't too late to vote absentee after all, and she did. I don't know how she voted and I don't need to. I hope she agreed with me, but if she didn't, she needed to voice that, too.

Isn't it astounding that a late night comedy sketch show that I'm pretty sure my mom has never watched an episode of in its entirety provided the impetus for her (and who knows how many others) to go out and vote?

I'm not sure how I feel about this...

I love Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I think they're brilliant. It astounds me, though, that their influence would be that far-reaching. Like I said, my mom never saw the show. She just experienced the outrage.

Ah well, I suppose for whatever reason the result was good. Mom and Dad voted after they'd consciously decided not to.

Use whatever motivation you need to get out there and vote next week, too!

2 comments:

bassislife said...

That's interesting. I didn't think it necessarily cast the people of Johnstown in a bad light. More so, it hammered away at Murtha for saying these things about his own constituents.

mommakin said...

Well, according to Mom, Murtha is very well-loved in J-town. He has done good things for the town. Now everyone is outraged not only because he spoke without thinking, but because he did so in a manner that made them the butt of a national joke. So all the good things he's done (not that I know what they are - I'm paraphrasing Mom) were done quietly and locally, but his big gaffe was very public. It's a distressing sitch for the folks in J-town, particularly the older ones. Distressing enough, apparently, to force their hand.