BLOG: Voting is Right

On November 6th we all have an equal chance to change the world. It is such a rare moment when such a chance is given to us.  We will be allowed to exercise or right to vote. A precious and sacred right that billions envy and billions have died for. It doesn’t matter if you’re liberal or conservative. We are all Americans and if we all take part in this moment, the world will reverberate through the next century. Most people who know all about voting patterns and percentages will tell you we will have a light turnout in California and I want to know why?  It is the most vexing question to me. Will the Americans living in California show up and vote?

This is a right we all have and to take it for granted when there are literally billions of people who have no say in their own government or their fate is an abomination. Don't tell me that you’re fine with either outcome. That's nonsense. There has never been a more massive contrast in the way these two Presidential candidates view the world and our place in it. These next four years could change whether or not this is another American century. 

This vote will determine how the most serious issues concerning citizenship are adjudicated in the highest court. Whether or not the tax code and who pays what and who doesn’t is truly dealt with in a bipartisan manner or will continue to divide the nation between have and have-nots. Women could be relegated back to the fifties or they could finally become equal partners in the destiny of our nation. The LGBT community may finally find that equality is not an illusion just ahead of them but an actual reality. Veterans could get more resepct for their service to our country or will they just have to line up at the back of opportunity as they do now. Will we be a country of scholars and innovators or we will give the future to the rest of the world and follow instead of lead. 

Which candidate or candidates am I talking about? I know what the answer is for me but I won’t state it here because I know that for all of us all that which I just wrote can be applied to either candidate depending upon your point of view.  That’s my point. Whoever you support needs your vote! Yes the candidates do and just as importantly the state and city you live in need your single and what you may feel is an insignificant vote. Quite the contrary.  It is the most precious commodity that each American has and to relinquish its power is to renounce your duty to your country and the community where you reside. 

In 2008, I don’t how many times the pundits said that California will go to now President Obama. Senator McCain, even though he is the Senator from an adjacent state will never be able to win the state.  Consequently a lot of liberals didn’t vote and Prop 8 narrowly won a victory. For four painful years the LGBT community has been scratching their collective heads trying to figure out how we could overwhelmingly elect the first President of color but not give equality to the LGBT community?  It’s because certain people voted and others decided it was in the bag and didn’t need to worry about Prop 8 or Obama so they didn’t vote!  Bottom line is that it is painfully obvious that your vote matters.  Maybe not the way you thought it would but it does matter.

And here’s the thing that is so perplexing in all this. It’s so easy. And at one time for millions of Americans for more than a Century and half it wasn’t. Women didn’t have the vote until the 20th century and even though President Lincoln had freed the slaves; millions were denied their sacred right to vote through the imposition of poll taxes and literacy tests as late as the mid-nineteen sixties. There are some that still do not want certain people to vote and they are in this state of California. Don’t let anyone deny you this certain right.

It is a right and I know from working the polls for years everyone at any polling place understands and value your right to a private vote free of intimidation or time constraint. No one will ever know how you voted unless you want to tell people. The privacy of each vote is sacrosanct.  It is the one thing that cannot be bought.   Influence can be bought. Demeaning or unscrupulous blogs can be bought.  One person can seem like millions when they get on TV and share their opinion but their opinion has as much power as you give it. It really means nothing. The only opinion that matters is yours. But as you know that won’t stop people from trying to influence your opinion. 

In other blogs and videos I will post in the next two weeks, I hope that I can help you see why I believe the way I do and convince you that my thinking is correct. There will be many others with much more influence on you that will be offering their opinions as well. Listen to whoever you like or NOT.

Turn off the TV until it’s all over if it makes you sick to hear the ads and the endless talk. Play Foursquare with the Martian Rovers. Catch up on Grey’s Anatomy. Watch a few movies at home or your Ipad. Read that book you been meaning to read. Watch the MLB playoffs and the World Series. Cope however you have to but promise yourself that on or before November 6th, 2012, you will do the one thing that no one else in the country can do for you. The only person who can cast your vote is you. Please do.