Portrait of a future political activist...

So picture this: it's roughly 5:45 AM.  It's November 4th, 2008.  It's way too early in the morning to be up and about.  MLE, however, has set the alarm to wake us up and go vote first thing.  (Something about beating the crowds.)  When it does, she goes upstairs, and Mini Healy is delighted to be woken up with the plan to go out to the polling place and help her vote.

Me?  I'm still in bed, trying to sleep.

Far too little time passes, and MLE and Mini Healy come home.  Mini Healy is extremely excited, and comes bouncing into the room (and onto my bed): "Dad, wake up!  It's time to go vote!"

How could I say no to that?

What amused me the most was how serious he was when he talked to the election officials when we got there.  One of them said, "Didn't you vote already?" and he replied, "No, I was helping my Mom out.  Now I'm helping out my Dad.  I won't vote until later on, when I go to school.  I'm going to be helping run my school's voting booth, just like you are here."

Of course, he voted for the wrong candidate when he went to school -- well, at least I think so, though MLE would disagree -- but still, it's pretty cool that he's big enough to "get it" and to be excited about it.