And, I am about to reach yet another milestone in my Becoming French journey. Look what came in today's mail:
It's my official Voter's Card! Not only am I about to (hopefully) get my first job in France, this month I will also have the power to vote for the new Mayor of Paris... and in May (I think) there are also elections for something to do with the European Parliament, in which I can also now cast my vote! I'll have to wait a few years to vote for the next President of France, but in the meantime I can exercise my new citizenship rights in my new country, just like I still do in my old one.
Now, to find out where the candidates stand on those awful love locks my friend and I have been working so hard to get rid of. We will have a petition out online in just days to start collecting signatures to get the city to ban the locks, and we also plan to contact ALL the mayoral candidates and some of the French press (thanks to the help of several French friends who know how to get things done here) to ask the candidates what is their official position on the locks and what do they propose to do about them, and then to get the word out to the media about our initiative (we have already had several sites that report French news in English contact us or write stories about No Love Locks recently, so the word is getting around!) The responses from the candidates, in particular, should be very interesting indeed, and could actually influence my vote and the vote of other Parisians. Naturally, the locks are not the only, or even the most critical, issue to consider in this election. But when you care about something, you have to get involved, and demand that your elected leaders know your point of view.
A petition is one way to get that point of view across. And a vote is another one.
Power to the People!
