Monday, November 03, 2008

Election Day

Socrates, in Plato's Gorgias:

No, Callicles, the very bad men come from the class of those who have power. And yet in that very class there may arise good men, and worthy of all admiration they are, for where there is great power to do wrong, to live and to die justly is a hard thing, and greatly to be praised, and few there are who attain to this. Such good and true men, however, there have been, and will be again, at Athens and in other states, who have fulfilled their trust righteously; and there is one who is quite famous all over Hellas, Aristeides, the son of Lysimachus. But, in general, great men are also bad, my friend.



UPDATE: Well, I voted, and quite the endeavor it was, too. I was on foot, and the polling place was such that I had to cross Parmer Lane near MoPac -- if you know that area of Austin, you know that this was taking my life into my own hands, since Parmer Lane is a very busy and very pedestrian-unfriendly street (few sidewalks, few crosswalks) with an insanely high speed limit, currently undergoing quite a bit of construction in that area. It took me forever to cross. Once in, there was no line and it was all quite easy. But then I had to walk back.