Feature Story

Ballot for the Unborn
The Story of One Mother’s Vote

By Nikkie Prosperini

SPRINGFIELD, IL - - A little over a month ago, a young woman stood behind a small, black voting booth to cast her ballot for the next President of the United States.

To anyone else, this ballot, with its bubbles colored in meticulously with black ink and then hidden within a confidential folder, didn’t seem at all different from the ones cast before it and the tens of thousands to be cast after it.

To 26-year old Elizabeth Kerns, however, this vote meant much more. This is because it was cast not for herself, but for her children.

She and husband Matthew, who works with home mortgages at Wells Fargo, reside in Chatham, Illinois, just a few miles south of Springfield.

The two are awaiting the arrival of their second child, who they affectionately refer to as ‘Peanut,’ in April of 2009. Their first son, Caden Matthew, is just over a year old.

“I want them to be able to look forward to a long, healthy life without worrying if money will be there when they retire,” Kerns said. “I also want them to be able to afford to go to college.”

And college is something that holds a special place in Kerns’s heart.

Both of her parents were college professors, and Kerns herself works part time as a communications professor at Springfield College-Benedictine University in Springfield, Illinois.

“I’ve just grown up around it,” she said. “And I really love working with the students I meet.”

But mother and college professor aren’t the only time cards Kerns punches throughout the week.

She is also the Director of Local Chamber Relations and Event Coordinator for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce as well as the incoming President for the Illinois chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

However, it’s not only Kerns’s love of keeping busy that has her taking on so many posts.

“It all helps because day care is so expensive, especially with the second baby coming,” Kerns said.

And perhaps it was her busy schedule that had Kerns voting earlier for Barack Obama as our next President.

“I’m a registered Democrat, but very independent in my thinking,” she said, going on to describe herself as “fiscally conservative, but socially liberal.”

And it was her “socially liberal” views that had Kerns relating more to Illinois Senator Barack Obama than Arizona Senator John McCain.

“Personally, I feel that he (Obama) represents me better if you look at the large scope of things,” Kerns said.

“I’m not for big government, but, I especially believe in issues like education and our image to foreign countries and companies,” she continued. “I think Obama will represent our country better than McCain.”

While some questions had risen during the campaign about Obama’s qualifications to be President, Kerns does not see his lesser amount of experience as an obstacle to his adequately governing the nation.

“His passion spoke to me first,” Kerns said. “I then looked at where he had done in the past and where he wants to take us. That’s what qualifies him for me.”

Even if the amount of Obama’s experience was an issue for Kerns, she believes that his choice of Joe Biden for his Vice President was a wise decision.

(Although, she was hoping that Hilary Clinton got the part.)

“It was a good choice with Biden because Obama’s weakness is foreign policy,” Kerns said. “Biden is established in Washington, but forward thinking. They compliment each other well.”

It is the Obama/Biden approach to foreign policy that makes Kerns want to vote for that ticket.

“I think their approach to foreign policy will get us on the right track,” she said. “Within the last ten years, Middle Eastern and Muslim hatred toward the United States has grown.”

And even Kerns’s own career has been disrupted by this tension between the Middle East and the United States.

“They pulled an internship to Prague that I was supposed to go on.” Kerns said. “And, I was supposed to intern in Alexandria, Egypt in 2002, but they pulled that because of fears that I could get abducted.”

Along with foreign affairs, Kerns lists the current economic situation as the biggest problem or challenge facing our country today.

“This is a global recession, and we need to bring the country back to equal ground,” Kerns said. “If we can’t play nice with the rest of the world, no one will help us. And this is when the whole world needs to come together.”

And Kerns admits that she isn’t exactly sure what needs to be done to help our country in the midst of the recession or to help the United States rework the image it projects to the rest of the world.

“I do know,” she said. “It will take the whole world working together.”

And while it is uncertain, at this point, if the whole world will be able to work together for change, it is certain that virtually the whole world has changed since Kerns was born in 1982.

There have been changes in everything from life expectancy to the rate of inflation to the price per gallon of gasoline.

But what do all these changes mean in terms of the type of world ‘Peanut’ Kerns will be born into in 2009?

Well, Peanut can expect to live a little longer than his or her parents as the average life expectancy has increased a few percentage points since mom was born.

But, Peanut’s parents will be paying more for food than his or her grandparents did. Eggs in 1982 cost $.84 per dozen where now they cost over $2. And the price of a gallon of milk has increased from $2.24 in 1982 to around $4.28 in 2008.

Peanut will grow up with the Internet, and probably prefer WALL-E over E.T.

He or she will probably be bombarded with more reality T.V. shows than ever, while only encountering Cheers and Taxi in reruns on channels like Nick at Nite or T.V. Land.

Kerns will most likely be the first to admit that the world her children will grow up in will be different from the one she knew in the 1980’s.

The voting of this past presidential election has already told us that.

On November 4th, 2008, the citizens of the United States of America elected the first African American president to office.

And Kerns helped that historic moment come to fruition.

It was done quietly and alone.

It was done by the darkening of an oval on the Illinois ballot next to the name that read: Barack Obama.

Even as prices change and rates for this or that increase or decrease, Kerns believes that Barack Obama will lead our nation to a better place, where we as a nation will be economically stable and in better standing with the rest of the world.

In short, the hope Kerns sees in the presidency of Barack Obama runs deep.

She sees hope for her family’s future: for herself and her husband, for their son, Caden, who toddles around exploring his world with bright, blue eyes, and hope for their Peanut, the one who still awaits his or her entrance into these changing times.