Two days ago, I voted. Wednesday, October the 15th, 2008 will be a day that I remember for many years. It's the first time in my life that I got to cast a ballot for a Black person for president. I got to observe as South Africans did so in 1994 for Mandela. But, back in my home country, I've had to wait 12 years -- and four presidential terms -- to have that option.

I biked to the Kings County Board of Elections office in downtown Brooklyn, on the 6th floor of 345 Adams Street. After waiting 5 minutes in the lobby, I was instructed to walk through a door and walk to the end of a large, open air workspace -- it had the size and look of the journalists' floors as represented in All the Kings Men or The Wire .

The Absentee Ballot was a two-step process. The first step is filling out the yellow, legal-sized form that asks for your mailing address, reason for voting absentee, where you will be on Election Day, and why you will not be able to get to your polling place.

The second step was voting.

As the woman in front of me said, "that was easy." It took 4 minutes to read the front and back of the ballot and fill in the requisite circles -- for presidential candidates, circuit courts, congressional representatives and a few other local and state offices. Those four minutes were one-third of the time that it had taken to walk in and get to fill in my ballot.

The Board of Elections workers were adamant about no cell phone use: "not even for text messaging" i was clearly told. It reminded me of being caught passing notes in middle school. A cell phone policy stricter than the movie theater or the train!

It may be more than 12 more years before we, as the people of the United States, have that choice again. If ever, in our life times.

I hope not. But we must not take anything for granted. Nothing is given, and nothing is taken without demanding it.

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