Today is Election Day and I hope that those of you who are reading this have voted. Voting and donating blood are two civic duties which I feel very very strongly about and was raised to do so. Unfortauntely, I am on the road on this Election Day and for the first time ever, I will not be voting. You wouldn't believe the incredible guilt I have over this. I have let my Suffragists down! People fought and dedicated their entire lives so we, Americans, could vote. I remember when I registered to vote - the first week I was able to, which is when you are 17 yrs and 6 months. I lead a campaign in my high school to get people registered and successfully registered about 1/2 of my graduating class. Much of the other half had already registered. I did some voter registration work while at U- as well. I don't really care who you vote for, or why you vote, or what issues matter to you - I just want people to do their civic duty and participate in American life. Yes, one could argue that it's also your American right to choose NOT to vote, but what about all those other countries in the world where people don't have the option to vote at all? Where women can't vote. Or blacks can't vote. Or the "elections" are rigged anyways? Our government isn't perfect, but at least we have the option to make some change. And things aren't going to get better if the American people don't do something!
I remember my senior year of high school my Civics teacher, a man in his 50s, told our class that he had voted in every single election since he was 18. I was very impressed. To this day, I have made it my personal challenge to do the same, and sadly, today will be my first failure. I'm highly disappointed in myself and definitely feeling guilty. I knew I would be away from home today and should have gotten an absentee ballot. I looked it up online and was confused by what I found. It seemed like you had to go to the town hall in person to pick up a ballet (which I dont think is true) and the town hall is closed on weekends when I was home the past 3 months. I did go last Friday on my one weekday off, but it was closed then too. The downfall of small town living. Anyways, I tried. I looked up candidate's views and was going to be an informed voter. Honestly, if I wasn't working a fair tonight, I'd drive all the way home from upstate New York just to vote. But the fair is 5-8pm and I wouldn't make it home before the polls closed. I am, though, that passionate on the issue.
I was just at McDonald's for lunch and the woman asked me if I had voted today. I said no, I wasn't from around there. She said she hates when people don't vote and the two of us had a long conversation about how sad it is when people don't vote. I told her I forgot to get an absentee ballot and felt terrible; she said she was once on vacation in Atlantic City, hours away, and drove all the way back home just to vote. Way to make me feel even guiltier! But I am super proud that this woman is talking to all the customers and encouraging them to vote. Hopefully someone will go stand in the polling line!
It drives me nuts when people say they aren't voting because they "don't like the candidates" or they "don't know enough about the candidates." You have MONTHS to looks up information on candidate's views. And now there's websites that sum everything up. You could easily formulate an opinion in 10 minutes. That's like the same amount of time of commericals during one sitcom. Therefore NOT a valid excuse. Ask someone else. Read a paper. Google it. Go by the attack ads on TV. Get some information. And as for not liking candidates - well that doesn't matter. Because whether or not you vote, some of them are going to hold office anyways, so you might as well help a somewhat likable person win instead of the other. Besides our voting system is set up so the average American isn't actually voting a person in. Its not a popular vote. And it's set up this way because the founding fathers didn't think the average person was knowledgeable to make such a decision. While this is demeaning, apparently it's holding true. So in theory, even if you just vote for someone, your vote isn't going to make or break the election. If you and 30 of your friends and all their families don't vote though, things start to change. People passively passing off responsibility onto others kills me. But that's a whole separate blog entry.
If you don't vote, you also can't complain about the way things are....
GO VOTE!!
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