[StBernard] Voting

[Westley Annis]

So you can't be bothered to vote?  Be bothered for two minutes to read this.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS ARE BEING HELD in the U.S. on November 7. Midterms,
  which are called that because they are for open seats in the federal
  House of Representatives and Senate but not the President, tend to have
  low voter turnouts. That is a huge mistake. If you're a U.S. citizen
  (and 85 percent of my readers are in the U.S.), I urge you to vote.
  Certainly, the other 15 percent of my readers care that you do.

  Are you fully satisfied with the way our government is running? If not,
  it's up to you to help change it. If you do, the people doing the work
  need your support so they can stay there and do it. Also, most states
  have ballot proposals for voters to decide during the midterms. Do you
  really want such things as marital rights, minimum wage laws,
  immigration reform, and other important issues to be decided by a tiny
  majority -- the few who traditionally turn out for midterms? More than
  half the states elect their governors during midterms, too, and
  naturally there are plenty of other positions up for grabs from state
  legislators on down to your county or town's functionaries.

  Voting is your turn to step up and elect the people who represent you.
  It's your opportunity to vote against the people who haven't
  represented your interests, and to vote for the people who do. I rag on
  politicians a lot (mostly the ones who deserve it), but the fact is
  that's the system we have, and I can't think of a better one. It's not
  perfect, but ignoring it doesn't make it go away, it allows it to get
  worse. Anyone who can vote and doesn't is quite simply letting others
  have more say over your life than you do. If you don't vote, don't even
  THINK about complaining about what happens next.

  I'll be voting November 7. If you're one of the 85 percent, please join
  me. As I found when traveling abroad just before the last presidential
  election, much of the rest of the world really does care what happens
  next.

AFTER I RAN THE ABOVE in the Premium edition on Monday, I got a bunch of
  mail thanking me for it. I'm only running one, a profound reply from
  Lauren in California: "I used to have this philosophy: If you were
  white, male, and a landowner, you didn't have to vote. Those were the
  people who were originally guaranteed a vote under the Constitution.
  Everyone else -- Blacks and Latinos, Pacific Islanders and Asians,
  Native Americans, women, and people who rent -- had to fight (sometimes
  financially, sometimes socially, sometimes with their lives) for the
  right to vote. People who benefit from that fight owe a debt that must
  be repaid on each election day. Then I realized that a whole bunch of
  white, male landowners also fought for the right to vote, way back at
  the beginning before they ever got a chance to call the Constitutional
  Convention. The men who suffered and died at Valley Forge bought the
  right to vote for others as surely as did people like Medgar Evers and
  Lucretia Mott. (OK, the suffragettes didn't die for the right to vote.
  It wasn't a fighting-and-dying war. Doesn't mean it wasn't a war. Most
  Freedom Riders didn't die either, which doesn't change the fact that
  Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were.) So now I think that people should
  imagine walking up to the representative battler-for-votes of their
  choice and having to defend their decision not to exercise their
  franchise. I guess most Blacks would imagine walking up to Martin
  Luther King, Jr. or Ida B. Wells, most women to Susan B. Anthony or
  Jeannette Rankin, but there's no law saying someone can't be touched by
  the bravery and dedication of someone of a different gender and/or race
  than them. I can't imagine how I would explain to Patrick Henry that I
  have decided, 'Hey, YOU wanted death if not liberty, but I just don't
  want to be bothered on election day.' It's a hot button issue for me,
  which is why I'm now a poll inspector, seven elections and counting."

Reprinted from ThisisTrue.com

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THIS is TRUE: 22 October 2006         Copyright http://www.thisistrue.com
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