If you don't use it....

Today, I voted.  That's right.  There was no better way for me to celebrate being here for six months than to proudly send in my ballot.  I feel happy, I feel free.  Each year I get more and more excited to vote. As I sit down to write this I feel the sense of familiarity and realize that what I want to say is very much a repeat from last years election post. It all still holds true.

I have heard a few excuses for people choosing not to vote. The three I hear most: I don't know enough to make an informed decision, my vote doesn't really count, and the system is broken and I don't want to put energy into a system that doesn't work.  

Firstly, if you don't feel informed then maybe you should get off your ass and pay attention because it's important.  Because the system only functions when all parts are working together.  The system is broken because Americans have become lazy.  The functioning of democracy relies on the people using their voice which means, at the very least, going to the polls and casting their vote on election day. But also, writing to their leaders to let them know what is important, getting involved with organizations which are aligned with their beliefs, and being aware about what is happening in the world around you.  

People are unhappy with government and specifically our current administration. But can anyone honestly sit by and tell me they believe the American people, as a whole, have stood up and demanded better? Have we exhausted all our resources to see that our situation improves? With between 55-65% of all eligible voters actually voting I think the answer is a resounding 'no'. This is the most fundamental way we can express what we want and only half of us show up to do it.  

I won't sit by and pretend that the 40+%  who didn't vote were Democrats that could have swung the last Presidential election, but I believe a good chunk of them were.  I believe that there were many people who didn't vote they didn't think it would make a difference.  But I believe that it is these people who really must flood the polls and vote.  Not stay home and shrug when the election results roll in thinking, "I knew it".  Yep, I am going to say it....what a bunch of sissy victims.  Pull together and voice your deepest desires!

This theme is running through my life currently and is only brought more strongly to the forefront because of the election.  But I keep running into it wherever I turn.  I don't get what I want when I don't ask for it.  When I continue to not ask on behalf of my hopes and dreams, they get buried deep inside of me, seemingly irretrievable.  

When you don't use your voice, you lose it.

I realize this ranting comes a bit late.  In most states you cannot register to vote on election day.  But if you are registered I urge you....GO VOTE.  Regardless of who it is for, do it!  

I will leave you with this as it sums up, much more eloquently, what I feel

....there was another tradition to politics, a tradition that stretched from the days of the country's founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done.

We have a stake in one another.