Hunger, thirst, boredom, aching legs and bursting bladders in long voting lines

It’s Sunday and I, and many of my friends, are holding our breaths because of the election.

I’ve been watching TV non-stop for days and I keep thinking one thing, over and over when I see the wonderful, even thrilling spectacle of long, long lines of early voters, waiting hour after hour to be able to vote in this important election:

Why hasn’t someone put out the word that we should all get out there to take care of the voters? We should be keeping people in long lines entertained and cared for, no matter who they’re voting for.

Like, why don’t I see any:

1. guitar playing and human statues like you see all over Europe, stuff to keep kids entertained, throw ping pong balls at a fake chicken and get a fake goldfish, etc. etc.

2. handing out of zillions of folding chairs by party rental businesses to show what good citizens they are, or getting along with fewer, brought from home, to be swapped every 10 minutes so everyone can sit down

3. coffee and donuts, water and fruit, sandwiches and/or hard-boiled eggs for people who are hungry

4. Porto-potties so people can visit and return to line. (Did I hear 10 hour waits?!! OMG.)

5. Shawls, plastic ponchos, umbrellas in case of cold or rain.

How come the connected people in cyberspace or Obama’s great ground planners haven’t asked us to do that? It’s been driving me nuts since I first started watching early voting on the teevee.

We used to do that years ago when our friends stood in lines overnight outside of Carnegie Hall to hear Horowitz or Rubenstein. But we were few and we didn't have enough stuff for everyone, only our friends (and a few people with beseeching eyes). If the word got out and lots of people were in on it, we could make life easier for all the voters in all the lines, or at least, the longest lines.

It's brilliant to see people being driven in to the voting places by volunteers like the good and much maligned ACORN, but what about those hours standing in line?

What if there was something non-partisan to look at? Something patriotic. Like a big screen with HBO’s John Adams playing on it. (Which I’ve been watching this morning to keep me from being paralyzed with apprehension as 'pundints' go back and forth with whether the points are tightening in Pennsylvania, etc).

Nobody seems to understand how hard it is to stand for hours, and to be bored for hours. The news runs pieces that show us long lines of people and they're not laughing, or happily talking to each other, roasting chestnuts over garbage cans with fires in them, telling jokes. They're just drumming their fingers and looking at the sky. I didn't see any sense of comeraderie, thought they're all going to a lot of effort to do the most important thing we can do for our country.

Isolation is the Dreamkiller, as I say over and over (and over and over).

How about something that could be sent to people’s cell phones and played for everyone? Sports or great pop/folk singers. (Are there any Republican folk singers? :-) I guess not.)

Not political stuff, just, say, a quiz show like wheel of fortune, a contest for most comfortable shoes, a bingo game, a class in the meaning of modern art or the history of the rural areas of France in the middle ages.

(Don’t laugh. I’m reading a book by Bloch about that and I can’t put it down!) (Or were you already laughing at my Jewish mama self saying 'Oy' for the voters standing hour after hour in line?)

I guess I"ll just post this and Twitter it, and see if someone with better viral and organizing skills thinks it's important enough to bother with.

Okay, I'm going back to John Adams.